Something Sparkling

by Captain_Cosmos

Chapter 12

Sparkler paced back and forth, back and forth again, around her studio. It was the next morning and the previous night had thrown Sparkler into a deep, heart-pounding panic.

Flappy watched his friend pace and really just didn’t get it. Questions were needed. “Squawk! So...what happened? Squawk!” He asked.

“I had a nightmare, woke up, Autumn hoofed me Mr. Singsong and mah security blanky, and then she wrapped her forelegs around mah midsection! On top of mah wings!” She exclaimed in front of the parrot’s face. “Flappy, she knows!” She shouted.

“Squawk! Are you sure she knows? I mean, she might’ve been too tired to notice. Squawk!” Flappy suggested.

“Too tired? Flappy, I screamed. Any drowsiness she had was long gone by the time she put her forelegs around me!” Sparkler said. “I can’t believe I let her do that! I mean, it’s great she didn’t judge me and all that but she knows!” Sparkler lit her horn, poofed a brown paper bag into the room, and inhaled and exhaled into it.

Flappy sighed. He couldn’t stand seeing his friend like this. “Squawk! Sparkler. Calm down. Squawk!” He said.

“Calm down? Flappy, she knows!” Sparkler exclaimed for the third time.

“Squawk! Just like you wanted her to know eventually. Squawk!” Flappy said. “Squawk! Sparkler, we knew this day was coming. Squawk!”

“Yeah. But this is not how I wanted her to find out!” Sparkler replied.

“Squawk! Maybe not. But whether or not she actually noticed. We can reasonably assume it’s at least on her mind. Squawk!” Flappy stated. “Squawk! Sparkler, you have to talk to her. It’s the only way you can safeguard your friendship with her. Squawk!” He said.

Sparkler sighed. Flappy had a point. “You really think I should just talk to her?” She asked.

“Squawk! Yeah. Squawk!” Flappy responded.

Sparkler nodded. “I just hope this doesn’t backfire on me.”

---

Today was another work day for Autumn, in the same studio as yesterday with the same band from yesterday. While Autumn was intended to have a more involved presence this time, given that the band was now writing a new song starting with the instruments, rather than focusing on recording a lead vocal, throughout the day she struggled to lock her attention.

Am I sure those are wings? I mean, it could have been some kind of padding she wears; like, I have never heard anypony even suggest the existence of other alicorns other than those royal five. I’ve always been told that only royal ponies can be alicorns.

Sure, Flurry Heart was born an alicorn, but Cadence, a princess, is her mother.

“Autumn?” One of the band members says.

Autumn snapped out of her thoughts and realized she was missing work. She hastily says “Oh. Present.” as she looked carefully into the eyes of the pony sitting in front of her, making sure he knew she was there.

“Good.” the other pony said. “So, what I have here is that the electric guitar does a slide, and the acoustic just keeps playing the D chord until I go to the main riff again.”

“Cool.” Autumn said. “Let’s do it.”

She played the acoustic part for a while, but then, after the next gap… this other stuff just wouldn’t get out of her mind.

We have to weigh the odds here. Sparkler can’t have royal parents; I’ve never heard of the royals having any children other than Flurry Heart. Celestia doesn’t have a child. Neither does Luna. Twilight, well, there is Spike, but he was given to her. And is a different species.

What I think now is that there’s some sort of comfort padding under her onesie; I mean, the texture is oddly similar to a wing, but I can bet that being touched by pegasus wings is comfortable. Maybe somepony tried to emulate it.

That being said, is the incredibly precise location also a coincidence?

“Autumn?” one of the band ponies said again.

Autumn jerked her head around the room. “Who, what? Uh… oh. Present.” She said, trying to look them all in the eye and tightly hold her guitar to prove she was paying attention.

This time, though, they weren’t buying it so easily.

“We’ve noticed you keep getting distracted, like, you’ve been staring off into space as if you’re in deep thought. Something going on?”

Autumn never expected to be directly asked this question. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to tell them about her suspicions from last night, especially not in the middle of work… oh, there’s her decision.

“Uh… no time for that right now.” Autumn said, holding down a guitar chord. “We ain’t got all day; let’s keep working on this song!”

This only caused the band members to wonder even more now. Autumn had talked about personal things to them during studio hours many times before. She wasn’t one to be concerned about how much time they had to work. Not to mention she spoke in a voice tone that really made it seem like she was hiding something.

But nonetheless, one of them agreed with her. They whispered into another band member’s ear, “She must not want to talk about it. Let’s just keep going.”

The other nodded. Trying to fish this info out of Autumn would eat up a lot of time, plus, they felt they would be disrespectful if they pestered her about it. So they continued the song.

---

Later on in the day, Sparkler was situated in the kitchen, cooking a hot dish of pasta dinner for her and Autumn. While the stove was running, she fluttered her wings to keep herself cool. “Wings. Not just good for flying.” She chuckled to herself.

Then all of a sudden, she heard a familiar noise from the house’s northwest corner. The signal that Autumn had returned home. “Howdy there Autumn!” She called out.

“Howdy, Sparkler, my best friend and roommate!” Autumn wasn’t out of the period of always wanting to emphasize that just yet.

Sparkler chuckled. “How many more times are y’all gonna call me that? Hehe.” She asked.

“I don’t know. Hehe.” Autumn replied. “Only time will tell.”

Sparkler then shifted the topic. “So. How was work?” Sparkler asked.

“Uh… I got distracted a lot, but it was fun.” Autumn replied.

“Glad to hear it...the fun part, not the distracted part.” Sparkler clarified.

“Hehe. Yeah.” Autumn replied. “Alright, I’m going into the bathroom for a bit, just to let you know.”

“Alright. Dinner will be ready soon.” Sparkler replied.

“Great! It smells good.” Autumn walked past the entryway to the kitchen, looking over to her right at Sparkler cooking. Or, that’s what she intended to see.

She continued her speed towards the bathroom door as normal, but upon looking into the kitchen, she had a moment of “Wait, wait, what?”

A little further down the hall, Autumn’s body stopped moving and her mind strayed away from anything and everything else as she began to wonder what that sight may have beheld. D-Did I just see wings on her?

I mean, they definitely looked like wings. And what happened last night… I seemed to have felt them.

Sparkler turned back to cooking, when suddenly, she remembered something very, very important. In the matter of less than one second, she folded her wings, lit her horn, and poofed her poncho on. Sweet Celestia! I really hope she didn’t see them!

Autumn, for her part, decided to give it a second look, peeking her head out from the wall corner, and… Sparkler’s poncho had returned.

Okay, this is really strange, Autumn said as she finally walked through the bathroom door, but with even more mind baggage than before…

...

In due time, Autumn came out of the bathroom. Sparkler smiled as she walked into the kitchen alongside her roommate. “Just in time. Dinner’s ready!” She announced. “Pasta for two!”

“Yay! Sounds great!” Autumn beamed, seating herself in her chair.

They both dug in, but this was not to be a normal dinnertime. Autumn was eating the plate of pasta courtesy of Sparkler at regular speed, but conversation between the mares became sparse as Autumn’s inner thoughts grew deeper.

Okay, it’s getting really hard to believe she isn’t an alicorn.

Sparkler’s mind was working at the same level. I never thought I’d say this, but I hope Autumn is oblivious enough to have not noticed mah wings. How in the hay was I so careless? Even more careless this time because mah wings were out in full unrestricted view!

Autumn began to weigh the odds again. Like, I did clearly see wings. But again, Sparkler has no ties to royalty. Maybe I was hallucinating?

I feel like it’s likely I was hallucinating… and it could have been triggered by last night! Yeah, those things could be padding, but I thought they could be wings, so now my brain is playing tricks on me.

Unless, maybe she does have ties to royalty and it’s not known? Like, could her mother be a former princess who abdicated and then was forgotten about? I mean, a princess’s immortality would allow for Sparkler to be born thousands of years after her mother left the throne…

Goodness, there’s so many possibilities…

Meanwhile, Sparkler was thinking, Should I try to talk to her now? How can you bring up that you’re really an Alicorn? I didn’t even know I was an Alicorn until the CMC came around!

They did attempt to engage in conversation, with Autumn asking “Hey, where’s Flappy at?” But struggling to pay attention to the answer.

“He’s out with his bird friends.” Sparkler replied. “Apparently they enjoy seeing his little air show.” She commented.

“Seeing his little… what?” Autumn asked. Yep, the inner thoughts weren’t slowing down.

“He has a little air show he likes to do where he performs a variety of tricks in the air. Including a move he likes to call the Air Blaster Maneuver.” Sparkler said.

Autumn thankfully picked it up this time. “Oh, cool! I’d like to see that someday.”

“I’ll be sure to tell him that.” Sparkler replied with a giggle.

Autumn giggled too. “Nice.”

Maybe I could make a big entrance with an air show? Sparkler wondered. That could be a way for me to reveal my wings to Autumn.

Autumn, for her part, went back to thinking, But what if I was maybe hallucinating?

Sure, I don’t think I’ve ever had hallucinations before, but who’s to say they can’t come up on me whenever?

Plus, again, my mind could have been influenced by last night.

I still think that’s more plausible than Sparkler having a royal mother who became forgotten about. When do royal ponies ever get forgotten about?

The only way for Autumn to manually put all this back-and-forth to rest would be to straight-up ask Sparkler if she has wings. But that idea sends Autumn into a jolt.

If she does have wings, the fact that she wears that poncho and onesie all the time would signal to me that she doesn’t want anypony to know. While it is odd, I want to respect her privacy.

Except, if it’s true she has wings, then that means I’ve already seen them…

Gah!

Sparkler’s mind finally managed to get off her secret and its state of jeopardy, finding a more peaceful topic to discuss.

“So...Autumn, do you have any tours coming up?” She asked.

“None scheduled at the moment, but the band I’ve been going to these past two days are working on an album, and after every album release, they tour, so I have been looking forward to that.” Autumn replied.

“Hm. Nice. I might come out to one of those shows.” Sparkler commented with a smile.

“It would be awesome to have you there, Sparkler.” Autumn said in a sweet, heartfelt voice, tipping her Stetson to Sparkler.

“It’ll be interesting to hear that band with you backing them up. I bet it’s even more awesome because you’re backing them up.” Sparkler complemented.

“Aww, thanks.” Autumn said, blushing a little.

“Seriously, I’ve heard you play before. You Autumn, have a talent for music, I’m surprised your Cutie Mark doesn’t reflect that to be honest.”

“Oh… that. Uh, yeah, that’s something that I and other ponies have wondered about for my whole life.” Autumn said, looking down at her flank. “Like, if cutie marks are a display of your biggest special talent, then logically, my cutie mark should be music-related.

“But all my life, and… I guess I’ve just let the mystery continue. I haven’t bothered to check with Twilight about it or anything.”

“Hm. Have ya wanted to find the answer to that?” Sparkler asked.

“I have, but it’s never really been high enough on the priority list, I guess. I always cared more about something else at the moment.”

“Can’t argue with that. Cutie Marks are just a visual thing when it comes down to it.” Sparkler replied.

“Yeah, they kind of are.” Autumn said. “And I guess why not many ponies ask me about it is because during a concert, they probably don’t really see my cutie mark. They’re looking towards my face and my instrument.”

“Exactly.” Sparkler replied.

Autumn nodded.

…

Well, maybe I could ask Flappy if Sparkler has wi-- oh, no, that would still be an invasion.

Ugh, I really just want out of this whole thing…

Autumn was not doing well today, and on the other side… here was when Sparkler’s mind brought up her classic fear.

Oh no. What if Autumn kicks me out for hiding something?! Oh no, I don’t want that to happen! What we have is good!

Yeah, these two mares’ minds were not in the best of places right now. Making dinner time all the more slow and conversations all the more sparse and awkward.

---

Bedtime wasn’t much of a different story, minus Autumn, as they climbed into bed together, internally telling herself, Don’t touch Sparkler’s sides. Don’t touch Sparkler’s sides. I need to make sure we cuddle in a way where I won’t touch Sparkler’s sides.

As Sparkler wrapped her forelegs around Autumn, spooning her, her mind would not stop. I know I’ll have to talk to her soon, but still…

She was scared, scared that Autumn would turn her back on her just like everypony in school. She didn’t know if she could handle it again, not after she finally got a taste of what friendship with another pony was like.

Autumn took a breath after Sparkler wrapped her in a spoon position with her as the little spoon, making it unlikely she’d touch Sparkler’s sides, but that’s when her mind just went to another non-peaceful situation.

Do I ask her? I mean, if she is an alicorn and prefers to hide it, I am confused, but it’s her decision. I wouldn’t even be having this dilemma if not for those two goshdarn events today that are making me suspicious. And with the suspicion already there… I just don’t know how else I can escape it besides asking her.

But if I do ask her… wouldn’t she be upset that I violated her privacy? Even if it was unintentional?

Ugh… now I just want to go to sleep. I want to stop thinking about this.

Clearly, there was a problem here. And neither of the parties involved could think of a way to solve it. They also were unaware of each others’ sides of the situation, having not said anything about it. Will these mares be able to find a fix?

To be continued...

Author's Note:

Real life delayed this chapter, Anywho.

THX FOR READING!

Comments

[Bronycommander]

Better later than never

[Captain_Cosmos]

10970284
exactly

[Bronycommander]

10970286
Mhn