Raison D'être

by mechafone

53 - I Got Sohl

Spark Storm groaned at the pain somewhere on his head. As he came to, it felt like a constant pounding by something hard and sharp. Finally he opened his eyes and came face to face with an eagle large enough to easily carry away a stray filly. Spark almost raised his wings to threaten the creature when he recognized the bright and rather girly colors on it. Sohl had come to visit. This was either very cool or very bad.

Spark started to get up when Sohl reached with a wing and smacked his head. He paused, a questioning look in his eyes. With the same wing, she gestured to his back. Oh right, Applebloom, he thought. As Spark started to remember the warm reunion of last night, he glanced around the room. It was empty except for himself, Applebloom, and Cheerilee who slept on the floor beside her brother. Spark smiled happily at the thought of being surrounded by his family.

After a moment's deliberation, he reached up and slowly slid Applebloom into an arm, then leaned over the couch and gently brushed a hoof through Cheerilee's mane to wake her. After a few grumbles, she glanced up at him sleepily. "Mmwha is it?" she asked. She was always so adorable when she was getting up. He reached down and settled Applebloom next to her. Without question, she reached out and snuggled the filly to her with a little smile. "Oh. Mmkay, I've got her."

Spark leaned down and kissed Cheerilee's forehead softly, eliciting a smile and a happy sigh from her as she tumbled back into sleep, little Applebloom tucked into her forelegs. Spark turned his head to Sohl and nodded, indicating he was ready to go. She flapped her wings and landed softly between his wings as he made his way outside.

Spark froze out on the front porch, a blush creeping along his face as he felt Sohl beginning to preen his feathers. It was not unpleasant, but this was something that he only allowed Sapphire to do for him. "Hey! You cut that out!" he hissed, his free wing smacking the big bird. She looked up and glared at him before painfully gripping his back with her talons.

Spark let out a hushed yelp of pain. He turned his head to glare back at her. The eagle had a look of indignity in her body language, and for a moment he had to wonder if she could speak in this form. After a moment of silent glaring from both parties, Spark continued to make his way down the stairs, then headed towards the Everfree Forest on the far side of the farm.

Several times along the way he had to smack Sohl to get her to stop turning him on by preening his wings. Each and every time he did though, Sohl would look more and more hurt. Finally, they had reached the woods. He slipped behind some trees and immediately felt Sohl leave her perch.

Byt the time he had looked around to see where she had gone, she landed in front of him, having switched to her tall, bipedal Harpy form. She reached forward and soundly slapped him on the face before he could say anything. "How dare you! I give you my respect, my trust and my affection and all you do is deny it?! Give me one good reason not to rip your throat out right now!" she growled, and gripped him up in one of her huge, deadly talons.

"Whoa, whoa! Y-your affection?! Y-you know I'm dating Sapphire Snow, right? That's why I pushed you away!" he tensed as he tried to explain himself. Despite facing monsters in battle, practically bathing in their blood as well as being responsible for their deaths, facing a female scorned was terrifying.

Sohl stared at Spark as if he'd said something incredibly stupid. Suddenly she dropped him to the forest floor and began laughing so hard that she fell to her back and flailed her legs in the air. "What?! That's why you kept stopping me?! You idiot!" Spark sat up, an indignant look in his eyes. Sohl sat up as well, her legs spread out with her large talons on either side of Spark. She reached forward and flicked his muzzle.

"Didn't I tell you earlier that you're too young for me? Not just that, Spark, but...you're kinda like food to me. I'm not gonna rip apart a slab of beef and spare the other piece because I care about it."

Along with the embarrassment of mistunderstanding the situation, Spark felt some further indignity at being called 'food'. "Well, thanks, -that- makes me feel -loads- better about this whole situation."

Sohl smirked as she pulled her legs underneath her. A sudden, rare look of vulnerability crossed over her face. "So...I -do- have your respect and trust? Because you've earned mine, and that's the Harpy's way of showing it." Spark watched her with wide eyes. She just wanted to show her respect for him by being affectionate?

Sohl glared back at him, a look of insult on her face, as if it were bad form to stare at a Harpy in a moment of weakness. She started to growl at him when he turned right around on his haunches and spread his wings wide, the bent feathers arcing to the sky. "All right. If that's what it means to you, then...well, just be gentle, all right? Preening another's feathers is kind of a private thing among ponies, but if it means showing you my trust and respect as well, then go for it."

"Yeah, it's kind of a private thing between Harpies, as well," she said as she crept up behind him and sat down with her long legs on either side of him. The pegasus closed his eyes and gasped as the Harpy's bipedal lips were much softer than the hard beak she'd started with. Oh, Celestia what was he thinking. His wings straightned all on their own, but if this meant anything to Sohl, she said nothing.

Spark did his best to keep quiet over the next twenty minutes. It was a very, very long twenty minutes. Finally, Sohl had finished preening his feathers. It took him a moment to loosen the joints, but when he did, his feathers felt better than they had in a long time. "Hey, this feels great!" He said, turned to thank Sohl. However, the one thing he'd been dreading now sat facing him: Her back. She wanted him to show her the same trust and respect she had shown him.

"C'mon. I don't have all day, you know." She spread her arms wide, displaying her bright, girly colors. He would never understand how pink and yellow were supposed to represent the vulgar, brutish harpy in any way. Plus, her feathers were massive! Nearly twice the size of any pegasus. He sighed and crept close, placing a hoof on her naked, furless back, and pulled her right feathered arm towards him. He closed his eyes, brought a feather to his lips, and began.

---

Spark Storm stood at the edge of the forest, looking out onto the flat, wide fields of Applejack's farm. After a moment, Sohl emerged from the bushes surrounding the area and plopped down next to him, a four inch long, one inch around metal cylinder pipe stuck inbetween her fingers. Holding it up to her lips, she whispered, "Tenues ignis."

Upon reciting the strange words, she blew a small, thin flame from her lips. She brought the front end of the pipe to the flame until it caught fire, then brought the other end to her lips and puffed quietly. Spark stared at her, a question on his face. After a moment, Sohl offered the pipe to him. He thought for a moment, then grasped it carefully and puffed slowly. "Inhale it, hold it." Sohl told him, curious as to see his reaction. As the smoke filled his lungs, it began to burn. He held back an urge to cough, then passed it back to Sohl and promptly emptied his lungs with a single hacking cough.

"Hmph. Not bad for a first timer." Sohl said as she fit the pipe back into her mouth and sucked in a deep breath, reddening the embers of the sprinkled bits of plant tucked into the far end of the pipe.

Remembering the words that Sohl had spoken prior to lighting her pipe, Spark decided to go ahead and ask her, "Sohl, what's up with those words you said, right before lighting your pipe? Is that magic?"

"Mhm," she murmured as she inhaled once more, then blew out the smoke. Having had enough, she turned the pipe upside down and knocked out the burning contents. "It's sort of a long, long story. Basically, a long time ago there were creatures that looked like me. No wings, no talons. They developed spoken word magic, and wrote down the spells in an old tome. No one knows where it went, but some of it was recorded in other books and passed down to other, more magical, creatures."

Spark thought to himself a moment. That couldn't be right, not if Lyra had used spoken-word spell-casting on him just the other day. "Are you sure the book was lost? A friend of mine showed me she was capable of spoken-word spell-casting yesterday." Sohl scoffed and shoved him over roughly into the grass.

"That's ridiculous, Spark. A pony? In this day and age? She'd need to be extremely adept in musical ability to understand the intricacies of the language. I doubt you have any musical geniuses living in your quaint little village, provided she even has the book."

The two of them had been so engrossed in this conversation that neither of them noticed as a mint green unicorn, a white pegasus with a red mane and an orange earth pony with blonde hair approached. Spark and Sohl's conversation came to a crashing halt as all five now stood staring at each other.

Anorax jumped when Lyra started poking him in the side. "Gah! What are you doing?!" Lyra stared at Sohl and started poking Anorax again.

"Anorax. Anorax. Anora-"

"What?!"

"...Anorax. Is that...is that...a human?"

Neither of them had a chance to even think about it as an enraged Sohl jumped into the air and flew at Anorax. "Changeling!" she screamed, in her rage not even bothering to use her Harpy scream. If Spark hadn't seen it coming, Anorax might've been a few inches shorter. Two strong currently of electricity came and blew Sohl far past Anorax, her talons just missing his head.

In the two seconds it took for this to happen, Lyra screamed and hide behind Anorax and Applejack, hooves over her head. "That's not a human! Make it go away!"

Applejack got herself in a position to defend Anorax, though she had no idea what the flying creature meant when it screamed 'changeling'. Spark watched as Sohl circled back around high in the air. She knew Spark wouldn't attack her without good reason, so she sailed back down in front of him and knelt to look him level in the eye. "You better explain yourself, and fast. You know what the Changelings did to me, and he's one of them! I can smell it!"

Spark nodded slowly, and approached her, putting a hoof on her shoulder. "I understand what this means to you, Sohl, but you have to take my word that he's not a Changeling. He's a Halfling, he's part Pony, and I've known him all my life. He's not like the Changelings, Sohl. He's not a killer." Sohl listened to Spark, a thoughtful look on her face all the while. Finally, she turned back to look at Anorax. He looked apprehensive, both at that tall creature that nearly took his head off, and at what she would do next.

Instead, it was Applejack who broke the silence as she trotted towards Spark, stopping halfway there and taking a defensive stance. "Spark Storm, ifn' you wasn't so close to me and mah family...now you tell me what's goin' on right now!"

Spark and Sohl both stood. With Sohl standing on her spread out talons, Spark's fuzzy head just barely reached Sohl's waist. The two of them began to walk over towards the trio, actually moving past Applejack. Sohl stepped closer to Anorax, who shrank back in fear. Spark came up beside him and rested a hoof on his back. "Take it easy, Anorax. You have my word," he paused, glancing at Sohl. She returned the look as she leaned in and sniffed at at the petrified pegasus. Applejack frowned and moved cautiously until she was standing beside Lyra, who had overcome her fear and was staring at Sohl with fascination.

"Hmph. He smells like pony, and Changeling. Definitely something new to me. All right, Spark. I won't kill your friend," she said, reaching down to pat Spark on the head condescendingly. Applejack had had about enough. She stomped the ground once, creating a small tremor that the other four easily felt and drew attention to her.

"All right, now! First off, missy...Uh, Ah think yer a missy, no offence, what are ya and why are ya on mah farm, and how do you know Spark Storm, and you," she said, aiming a hoof at Anorax, "just why is she callin' you a changeamajigger?"

Anorax, Sohl and Spark Storm all exchanged look. Seemed there was only one thing for it: they had to let Applejack in on their secrets. Spark sighed and stepped over to Applejack and brought a hoof to her shoulder. "Applejack, I'd be more than happy to explain everything. Why don't we all get into the woods? I'd rather be able to keep this between the four of us."

Applejack frowned, then looked back towards the farmhouse. He did have a point, she didn't want whatever was going on to spread around. "All right, Ah guess. C'mon now, y'all got some explainin' to do," she called as she headed towards the woods.

Sohl shrugged and stood again, only to be accosted by Lyra, a big, expectant grin on her face. "You've gotta tell me, 'cause I've studied ancient humans, and you look like ancient humans, except you've got talons for *squee* hands! Please please tell me about yourself!"

Sohl looked from her to Spark as she continued bombarding her with questions. She was starting to get a little creeped out. She reached up with a leg and grasped Lyra before gingerly pressing her to the ground. The ecstatic unicorn refused to shut up. Sohl looked to Spark for help, a desperate look in her eyes. "Spark, can I kill her?"

Spark shook his head as Lyra took no notice of Sohl's completely serious request. "No. Come on, bring her with. Gently." he said as he walked past, following Anorax and Applejack into the woods.

"Oh Celestia! This is amazing, please you've gotta tell me what humans do in their spare time, what they do for a living and their hands I'm so jealous-" The unicorn rambled on and on as she lay pressed to the ground under the Harpy's foot. Sohl sighed and started walking, her large talons grasping Lyra and stepping on her as she made her way to the woods. Lyra's rambling was punctuated with an 'ow!' as Sohl took each step.

---

"Tenues ignis" = thin flame. More latin-y goodness!

Also, I realize that the grooming scene between Spark and Sohl was a bit racy (y'know, for a scene between friends) but I never intended it to be anything more than an awkward moment for Spark, and nothing else happened. Y'know, in case you were wondering.

Also, I'll leave the substance in Sohl's pipe up to your imagination. Also, whoops. Total lapse of memory. I forgot how tall Sohl is. She's at least seven feet tall, so if you read this already and it's different, that's why.

Comments

[Jacensolo43]

So that's what's with the talk magic thing. so... i guess only unicorns can use it. ('Bout two thirds of my OC's are Earth Ponies and Pegasi. There are a couple Alicorns and a third of them are Unicorns. but those that aren't alicorns or unicorns have one of these expressions: ) too bad for my OC's. And yes Sohl, Lyra is amazing at music... but has a strange fascination with the long beleived wiped out race of 'humans'. (bout two or three of my OC's: What's a human? Many other of my OC's: you know bout humans!?)

[Melody Brush]

Funny, I was thinking about adding a character who smoked in FOF. I like what you did in this part of Spark's life.