The Twinkling of the Spark
She stood at the window, one hoof on the alcove and the other on her glass of cider. Her eyes stared outside, but weren’t really looking at any specific thing. The city of Toro-onto glowed softly, illuminated by the buildings that both stood high above and far below her apartment. Though it was 10 o’clock at night, the city was still very much alive; ponies still scurried along the streets and their shadows still flickered in their apartments. The trollies rolled by every 10 minutes, still ringing their bells as they went past. Even the police station not too far away seemed to have some life left in it, with the late shift coppers joking around in the parking lot before they went on their nightly shift. In fact, everything in the city still seemed to be alive.
Everything except the mare. She simply stood there, occasionally sipping the crystal glass that was held in her right hoof. Anypony who happened to glance up at her apartment on the tenth floor would be hard-pressed to find any sign of movement besides the occasional cider sipping. Her mind, however, was not nearly as still.
“Three years,” she thought with melancholy. “Three years of hard work, straight down the drain.” The thoughts tried to continue, but the mare would have none of it. The cider came back to her lips forcefully, but nothing entered her mouth. She glanced at the glass and only the reflection of her face greeted her back.
“Empty,” she thought with a huff. She turned from the window and began walking towards the door to the hallway. As she entered the dining room, she heard a knocking at her door.
“Who could that be at this hour?” Putting down the glass, she walked to the door and glanced through the peephole. A red pony with a brown mane and tail stood there, looking at the door and fretting somewhat. A pony that she knew. A pony that she worked with. A pony that she had fired.
“Oh Celestia, is he here to hurt me? Wrangler said he was pretty broken up about the announcement, but…” She slapped herself in the face. “C’mon, Indigo. He’s a sensible stallion; he’s not the type to flip out.” She opened the door (though she left the chain on) and the pony straightened out the second he saw her.
“Hey, Indigo,” the red stallion said with a smile. “I hope I’m not waking you up.” She returned his smile.
“Of course not, Crimson. I just wasn’t expecting anypony to visit me today.”
“Well, I wasn’t planning on coming here, but I was in the neighborhood and I had some free time and call me crazy, but…” He paused for a second, trying to grasp the right words. “…I had a dream that said I should come here.”
“Is that right?” Indigo said, chuckling. Though dreams were not really something to be ridiculed, it was kind of hard to take somepony seriously when the visions they had when they sleeped dictated their life. “He may be loopy, but at least I know he’s not in a drunken rage or anything.” She undid the chain.
“Well come on in then, dream believer.” She opened the door fully and Crimson trotted into the small apartment. Despite the snugness, he had no problem getting to the dining room. Crimson saw the glass on the table and looked back at Indigo.
“Drinking a little apple cider before bed?” Crimson remarked.
“Yeah,” Indigo said, picking up the glass and walking into the kitchen. “You want one? I got plenty left in the cooler.”
“No thanks. I can barely make it across the street safely in this town; last thing I need is some liquid courage giving me delusions of grandeur.”
“Along with stunting your phenomenal vocabulary,” Indigo said smiling. She came back into the dining room, crystal glass replenished with the brown beverage.
“Well, that too,” Crimson agreed. He looked at Indigo dead in the eyes, and she returned the gaze. For a moment, neither spoke or moved. Then, Crimson said, “So it’s really over?” His voice seemed to crack somewhat at saying that sentence. Indigo nodded.
“I’m afraid so,” she said, oozing with empathy. “Poor guy,” she thought. “Everypony else can still contribute to the project, but he… he’s further up the creek than anypony in the history of Equestria.” She continued to look at him with her violet eyes, and he returned the gaze with his magenta eyes. But his eyes seemed to be a bit more wet than hers.
“Alright,” he said. “Alright. I just needed to hear it from your voice. I didn’t want to be fooled into thinking this was a prank or something like that…” His knees seemed to be shaking, and his eyes seemed to grow wetter.
“Crimson, I’m so sorry. I didn’t want this happen. Not at all.”
“Of course not,” he said. “But…whether we wanted it to happen or not…” At this, he fell to the floor with a crash. Indigo put her glass down and quickly rushed over to the poor fellow. By now, his face was red and the tears in his eyes were now on his face.
“It’s okay, Crimson, it’s okay,” she said in a gentle voice, putting her hooves around him and propping him up. His head now rested on her shoulder and she had him in a tight hug. The tears now fell upon her skin and shimmered as they streaked along her body.
“…Not for me…not for me…” the stallion choked out. Indigo fought against every urge in her body that told her to join in with him.
“C’mon. Let’s get you somewhere comfortable.” With that, she helped the stallion to his hooves and moved him to the living room. She put him on the couch and she sat beside him, her hooves in his.
“You need something to drink,” she said with urgency. “I’ll be right back with some water, okay?” He nodded, and with a quick gallop she was back in the kitchen. “Sweet Celestia,” she thought as the cold tap water ran into a brown cup. “He’s in worse shape than I originally thought. Now I’m not worried about what he’ll do to me as much as what he’ll do to himself.”
As the water neared the top, off the faucet went and off she went back to the stallion. He looked back up at her and took the cup offered to her. He sipped the water and gave a weak smile.
“I’m sorry. I really shouldn’t have come.”
“No, no. It’s alright; out of anypony, you should be the one most upset.”
“Yeah…” He took another sip. “Not much use for an animator on an audio drama, huh?”
“Crimson… Don’t be mad at yourself.”
“I’m not, it’s just that…” He looked at her now, his eyes bloodshot from the tears. “I was trying my hardest on that project! I was putting everything a pony could put into that animation! It was going to be masterful and wonderful and…” He paused. “…and just…full! Full of wonder and emotion and color! Full of things that nopony could have seen before outside of the TV show! Full of things that…that audio just can’t capture.” With that, his face went in his hooves, desperate to spare the mare from his wretched, pathetic face. Her hoof went to his back, gently massaging him.
“I know, Crimson. Believe me, I know.” She took both her hooves and put them on his, pulling away the mask he tried to maintain. He eventually returned her gaze and the tears began to stifle. “And believe me, I’m not handling this much better than you.”
“I’ll bet the cider helps,” he said, a brief chuckle escaping his tear-soaked lips. Indigo smiled.
“In a way.” She glanced back at her glass, which still stood where she had left it on the dining room table. In the light, it seemed to shimmer somewhat, but the cider was thick enough that no bright light managed to reflect off the glass’s clear skin. “Or maybe it keeps me from expressing my true feelings.”
“Figures,” Crimson said, sipping some water. “If anypony should be more upset than me, it should be you.”
“Yeah…” was the only words Indigo managed to say. She didn’t want to admit it, but Crimson was right. After all, wasn’t it her that came up with the concept? She, who went from con to con propping up the enormity of their effort? She, who had gained the admiration of the Princesses for attempting this?
“I just don’t get it. Things were going so swell a month ago,” Crimson said with an accompanying head shake. “The ponies at Baltimare were going nuts when we showed them the first 10 minutes. The projector wasn’t even working right, and they still went wild when they saw Chrysalis and Discord plotting!”
“Yeah…” It seemed to be the only word that could be muttered by her now. The truth appeared to be weighing harder and harder on her mouth, as well as her heart.
“And the only pony I can blame for this is that darned leaker! That flea-bitten punk who told all those lies about us to the Corporation! He’s the one that started that whole legal snafu! It…it…”
“Crimson, stop kidding yourself.” Crimson glanced at Indigo, and he found she was the one with tears in her eyes now. “It was all my fault.”
“Come on, Indy, it wasn’t-“
“Oh, cut the crap, Crimson! I was the one who kept pushing this film onward! I’m the one who made it bigger than it was! I’m the one who was too naïve, too self-centered to realize when to stop and smell the roses of reality! I’m…” She couldn’t continue, as the tears seemed to take up too much of her effort. Crimson walked slowly toward her and put her head to his chest, hugging her with all his might.
“Indy… Don’t do this to yourself. It wasn’t just you. We all had a hoof in this. All of us are to blame, yet not one of us is the sole culprit.” He smirked. “Even the Corporation can’t fully be blamed; they just didn’t want their characters to be tainted.” Sniffles escaped from Crimson’s chest, and a slight whisper came out.
“You’re right, Crimson…But in the end, I feel like we betrayed all of our fans. We advertised that movie so much and so loud that everypony started getting legitimately excited. Even the Princesses and Element Bearers were getting excited for it.” She sniffled again. “And now we won’t give them what they wanted…no. Not what they wanted. What they deserved.” Crimson nodded.
“They do deserve better, I’ll give you that.” He lifted up her head so that their eyes now met. “But we need to give them the best we’ve got now. It’s not the best possible thing, but it is all we can give. Heck, if anything, we need to give it our all now more than ever! We’ve put too much work into it now to just give up.” He smiled at her, but she didn’t return the smile back.
“But… you’re not part of it anymore, remember? What can you do now?” He kept the smile on his face. In fact, it seemed bigger now.
“I can be here for you.” Indy looked at him for a moment, not quite sure what to think. But only for a moment. Afterwards, she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him as hard as her body could allow. He returned the hug as much as he could, but even he couldn’t handle this much hugging. But it didn’t matter; for now, two souls were one. And nothing, not even the Elements of Harmony, could have produced a power capable of separating these two.
“I’m glad you had that dream,” Indigo whispered in his ear.
“So am I.”
Outside, the cats meowed and the dogs barked. The streets were filled with fewer ponies now, and the ones left didn’t seem to be in as much a hurry. The ponies in the apartments seemed to be moving less now, having settled down to sleep or talk. The cops were gone now, no doubt off chasing that pesky grey Pegasus who forgot to pay for her muffins or arresting a drunken griffon who picked a fight with a group of Wonderbolt trainees. The only thing that didn’t seem to be different was the trollies, but some might say their bells seemed lighter now. Almost like sleigh bells. But regardless, the trollies continued on, even as the night grew darker by the minute.
*****
Celestia and Luna sat high above the city, perched on a 20 story building in the business district. Nothing was of particular interest to them right now; they just stared out at the metropolis, watching as the northern city began to shut itself down. Toro-onto was going to sleep, and Luna was the mother rocking its cradle.
“I forgot how pretty the night is,” Celestia said. Luna chuckled at this. “What?” Celestia said quizzically.
“I just find it amusing that, for a princess who hath been doing my duty for a thousand years, you would be the one who doesn’t see the night’s beauty.”
“Maybe I just didn’t pay as much attention back then.”
“Perhaps. Or maybe you weren’t looking at the right things.”
“Perhaps.” She nuzzled her sister and the Princess of the Night returned the favor. She then gazed over at the building across from them, a modest 15 story apartment building. It looked just like the others surrounding it: brown bricks and grey balconies. To Celestia, they looked an awful lot like prisons, but then again, she was the one who has been living in a castle for thousands of years. Besides, she was bigger than most ponies, so maybe she just hated how small they were.
It was not the apartment building, however, that concerned her at that moment. It was the two ponies inside it.
“What are they doing now?” Celestia said. Luna’s eyes were closed and her horn was glowing slightly. A smile appeared on her face.
“They’re dreaming.”
“About what?”
“The future.”
“Any particular details?”
“No. There are only flashes. Too brief for even me to decipher.”
“Then how can you know they’re dreaming about the future?”
“Too much hope in these dreams to be of the past,” Luna said with a smile.
“I guess that makes sense…” Celestia said, a hint of doubt in her voice.
“Sister, though I may not be able to see these ponies’ fortunes, I can feel whatever they are dreaming of. And what I feel is hope, and a specific kind of hope at that: The hope of a good future.”
“Will they get it?”
“I wouldn’t know,” the Princess of the Night replied. “Dreams are reflections of what is wanted or expected to occur, not what will occur.”
“Of course. I was just curious.” For a while longer, they sat as still as statues. Staring into the city before them, their own private thoughts tumbled about. Luna was the first to make hers public.
“Sister, you do realize we could have helped them sooner?” Celestia looked back at her.
“In what way?”
“Oh, you know… We could have waived the legal issues, declared the Corporation’s case unsubstantiated…” Celestia shook her head.
“We didn’t know those documents were forged, Luna. For all we knew, it was a legitimate legal claim.”
“I know, I know. But…” She sighed at this. “…I really wanted there to be a movie where I punch Chrysalis in the face.”
“Hah!” Celestia couldn’t help herself. “Such uncivility for a Princess!” she said, mockery resounding in her voice.
“I suppose. But you can’t slap me for the occasional flight of fancy, eh?”
“No, I can’t.” Celestia looked back at the apartment building, which continued to glow with the lights of its habitants. “In all seriousness, we couldn’t waive the Corporation’s claims. After all, they were legitimate under the current statutes we have.”
“Well, just another law that needs to be reformed.”
“Indeed.” Celestia gazed up at the moon, now high above their heads and shimmering with light. “Besides, the legal issues could be resolved easily, now that we know that the initial documents were forgeries.” Luna nodded.
“True, but they spent too much time on that. At this rate, they probably just want to get it over with. They’ve spent 3 years already, and I doubt they want to stay on it for 3 more.”
“Yes, yes,” Celestia recanted. “By the way, how did you plant that dream inside Crimson’s head?”
“Absolutely nothing,” Luna said with a smirk. “He himself brought that dream to his mind.” She turned to her sister and looked her dead in the eyes. “It was a rare case where the dream a pony needed was given by themselves and did not require my assistance.” Celestia got up on her hooves.
“Well, I guess all we can do is hope that they are as happy in the future as they are now. That, and hope that some fan gives a middle hoof to the Corporation and animates the audio play.”
“Yes, that'd be rather grand. Now…” Luna said as she too got to her hooves. “I believe you promised me a match of chess back at the castle.” With that, the two spread their wings and took off into the air. Within seconds, they were halfway across town.
“By the way, Sister…Did you ever find out who caused that whole legal issue in the first place? You know, the one who forged those fake documents?” Luna asked as they flew by the skyscrapers.
“Oh, I certainly did,” the Princess of the Day said. A malevolent grin came across her face. “Just this morning, in fact.”
“And?”
“And what?”
“What did you do with them? I would hope a suitable punishment was wrought.”
“That depends. Do you think ‘lifetime in a banana factory’ is a suitable punishment?” Luna stared at Celestia for a moment, face frozen in shock and horror. Then she laughed.
“Remind me not to get on your bad side.”
“That means a lot, coming from the personification of darkness.” Now they were just outside the city, heading south towards Canterlot. They did not speak the rest of the trip back; they were too lost in thought.
The city, meanwhile, continued to glow as those bright lights within it blazed on. And they would keep on blazing for the rest of the night.
Author's Note
Boy, I did not expect this story to be the first one up on FimFiction. The one I hoped would go up first was the one where a musical duo end of in Equestria and have to fight a pony-eating monster. But life is wierd, and I completed this one first.
Anyway, this story was based off the news that just came out about how "Journey of the Spark" will no longer be an animated film due to legal snafus caused by dickish hackers. That was where the main idea of the story came from, but I decided to turn it into a tragic romance instead of a grueling morality tale on the horrors of copyright law. Because not even I'm that depressing. In fact, I get the feeling that this is not really accurate to the real life drama surrounding "Journey of the Spark", but it really wasn't trying to be. I just used the idea of a failed fan film as the basis for my Equestrian romantic tragedy.
I did this all in one day, mostly because I really wanted to get this off my chest. I won't lie, I was really psyched for "Journey of the Spark"; I saw it at the last two BronyCons and I was really anxious to see it come to life. This recent news is about as big a blow as a fan can take, so I figured I'd put my feelings into a story and hope that helped ease my pain. I will vehemently support the audio play now, and I'll probably stay up numerous nights listening to it.
Thanks to anyone who read this story, and I hope my next stories are even better!
P.S. I used Toronto as the city's setting simply because I went there last summer and it was still pretty fresh in my mind. I also listened to just one song as I wrote this: Billy Joel's "Tomorrow is Today". An excellent song, if I might say so.
