Is the Growling Monster Gone?
This is the final boarding call for flight 231 to Vanhoover, final boarding call for flight 231…
A young zebricorn stallion with a brown striped coat and curly black mane stood with his muzzle pressed to the glass windows of the waiting area, his deep brown eyes soaking in the hustle and bustle on the tarmac below.
Most of said activity was centered on a gleaming silver Lockherd Constellation of the Equestrian Airways fleet making the six o’clock evening run from Manehattan to Vanhoover.
Ground crew galloped to and from the luggage wagons, loading the last of the bags into the plane’s underbelly while the captain did his final trot-around inspection of the aircraft in the last of the sun’s fiery golden rays.
“Hey, Sparks!” The stallion dragged his gaze away from the window with a sigh and turned to face the voice.
It was his boss, Clean Sweep, a perpetually overbearing unicorn with a mustard coat and grey mane. His cutie mark was a mop surrounded by five small white stars.
“I’m not paying you to be a plane-watcher! Here, take this.” Clean Sweep handed the zebrony an old hoof held vacuum cleaner.
“Get gates A9 and 10 cleaned up before the next flight arrives, and no more stopping to daydream!”
With that said, he raced off to go berate another subordinate over at A7 who was dozing at her check-in counter.
Clearing any remaining fantasies from his head, the zebrony lifted the ID card dangling from his neck in a hoof and read its contents with a forlorn expression.
Equestrian Airways staff-pony
Manehattan International
Name: Creative Sparks
Assistant janitor.
“And that’s all I’ll ever be.” he murmured with a resigned sigh and turned to the task at hoof.
-
With the vacuum in tow, Creative trotted across the hallway to gate A9, dodging preoccupied business ponies on their cellphones and tired parents herding boisterous foals ahead of them.
The gate was empty, but the passengers of the previous five thirty flight to Baltimare must have skipped lunch because scatted across the carpet where the remains of countless muffins and who knew how many bags of chips.
Looking back towards the hallway, Creative consulted the arrivals board that hung from the ceiling to see when the next flights arrived or departed from the gates he had to clean.
It turned out that A10 would be quiet until the EquisUnited flight from Zebranica arrived around eleven. However, A9 would be clear only until the Equestrian Airways flight to Ponyville departed at seven, which only gave him half an hour to clean up before ponies started arriving.
With his work cut out for him, Creative unwound the power cord with his magic and plugged it into the wall behind the check-in counter before firing up the vacuum.
He wasn't unhappy with job, sure the pay could be better, but it was hard enough to find a job in Manehattan already.
There were already plenty of bellhops, carrot-dog stands, flower stands, and cab-pullers to go around and tourist seasons aside, they hardly made any more than he did.
Any better paying jobs required experience that he just didn't have and despite the ‘creative’ in his name, he just wasn't cut out to be something like a fashion designer.
No, the problem was the city itself.
While Creative had been born in Baltimare, he had lived almost his entire life among the tall skyscrapers and busy streets of Manehattan.
Too many ponies and too few good paying jobs confined him and so many others to a low income life that kept them permanently tethered to apartments like his on the city’s western edge.
However, by working at the airport, Creative found he could get a taste of all the far-away places that he’d never visit just by walking to work.
Every morning, in order to reach his workstation he had to pass through the departure hall, its walls plastered with dozens of posters, each advertising a newer and more fantastic destination than the last.
"Come see beautiful Maretonia!"
"Visit the mighty Griffon Kingdoms! Fly Talonair!"
"Zebranica, Your adventure awaits!"
"Manehattan to Staliongrad and Saddle Arabia, Daily flights by EquisUnited!"
Even the more local destinations still mesmerized Creative when he passed.
"Expand your frontiers in Appleloosa with Air Palomino!"
"Join us with Crown Airways and behold Celestia’s seat of power, Manehattan to Canterlot 6 times a day!"
"Want to make some friends?" "Then come visit Ponyville with Equestria Airways!"
All so close and yet so far away…
“Oh well”, Creative mused as the vacuum sucked up a particularly large muffin crumb. “I can always dream”.
As he neared the final row of seats with the vacuum, Creative was distracted by a low growling noise that brought a smile to his face.
Keeping an eye out for Clean Sweep, Creative dropped the vacuum and cantered over to the broad glass windows overlooking the runway with an air of foal-like fascination.
The growling sound had increased in pitch to a thrumming roar as the Lockherd Constellation thundered down the runway, then as if by magic, defied the law of gravity by lifting in the darkening sky.
Creative stood watching until the plane became a distant pinprick of blinking lights high above Manehattan, wishing all the while that he was on it.
-
As twilight fell, the city lit up in a spectacular array of light from the bright amber glow of streetlamps to the warm yellow rectangles of light that spilled from the windows of apartments and office buildings.
At the airport, large floodlights above the terminal kicked in to light up the tarmac for the ground crew as the round the clock world of air travel continued into the night.
Creative checked his watch as he returned to where he left the vacuum, it was 7:02.
“Just in time”, he said to himself, and turned the vacuum of with a flick off his hoof.
Without the hum of the vacuum, the ever present ambiance of the airport filled his ears, the constant babble of voices, the squeak of suitcase wheels, the staccato sound of hundreds of hooves on the linoleum floor, somepony crying…
"Crying?"
The soft cries sounded very close by but none of the ponies or griffon family he could see nearby where in any sort of distress.
Creative traced the sound and found it was coming from the last row of seats near the window, and behind the last seat in the row was the source of the sobs.
A little cream coated filly with a two tone dark pink mane was huddled between the wall and the seat. She was dressed warmly in a lavender hoodie and carried a small light pink knapsack on her back and was softly crying into her hooves.
Creative felt his heart melt at the sight and reached down to pat her head with a hoof.
“Shh…it’s ok, it’s ok”, he said in a soothing voice. “What’s your name little one?
The filly looked up a first with apprehension and fear but relaxed slightly upon seeing his kind face.
“R-sniff-Roseluck” she whispered. “Who are you?”
“My name’s Creative Sparks”, the zebrony replied with a grin. “I work here”
“Is the growling monster gone?” she whimpered.
Creative scratched his head and gave her a goofy puzzled look, “No monsters around here Miss Roseluck, now how about you come out from behind there.” “Its ok”, he smiled “I don’t bite.”
Her fear eased by Creative’s encouraging words, Roseluck slowly stood and picked up a small teddy bear she had been grasping in her hooves with her mouth before timidly trotting out from behind the seat.
Creative gestured to the empty gate. “See, No monsters”.
Roseluck wasn't listening though as she had gone ridged with fright
“th-there it is!” she squeaked
Creative followed her terrified gaze to the vacuum cleaner and snorted
“Hah!” “That old thing a monster?”(Sure it can be a monster to lug around, he thought)”That's just my vacuum cleaner!”
Roseluck’s ears shot up as she retorted with indignation in her young voice. “It is to a monster!” “It almost ate up Mr. Teddy!”
Understanding dawned on Creative as he went on to explain how it was him who was using the vacuum to clean up the gate.
After a heartfelt apology to Mr. Teddy, Roseluck was sated.
-
With her tears dried and fears conquered, Creative quickly turned serious.
“You’re awfully young to be all by yourself.” he said as Roseluck clambered onto the seat next to him. Are you lost, where’s your mum and dad?
“I don’t have any,” she replied looking downcast
“The orphanage is sending me to live with my cousins Lilly and Daisy in Ponyville”.
feeling bad for asking, Creative gave Roseluck a comforting pat on the withers. “I’m sorry”, he said
“Its ok Roseluck murmured, I was too little to remember them.”
Roseluck quickly brightened though as she told Creative about her cousins who she heard lived in a flower shop which to her was like a dream come true.
Though the orphanage had little knowledge on her parents, the head matron had told Roseluck that her mother had loved flowers. As it was, said love seemed to have passed from mother to daughter as Roseluck loved flowers as she put it, “more than anything else in the whole wide world” , (Mr. Teddy aside of course).
The next twenty minutes where spent in this fashion as Roseluck told Creative all about a rooftop garden at the orphanage and how she had her own little patch of roses in the corner and tended to them each day.
Then she showed him all the different species of her favorite flower, the rose (of course), in a pocket guide to Equestrian flora that she pulled from her bag.
All the while, the seats around them steadily filled with ponies bound for Ponyville.
-
“At this time we would like to announce that boarding for all passengers with foals, fillies and or colts has begun for flight 247 to Ponyville”.
“All passengers with foals, fillies and or colts please begin boarding at this time”.
Roseluck was in the middle of describing the rare Saddle Arabian Desert Rose to Creative when the announcement came over the speakers.
“That’s you”, he said.
Creative held her rucksack open while Roseluck slipped the pocket guide back inside along with Mr. Teddy for safekeeping.
Leading the way to the ticket counter, Creative and Roseluck joined the line of other parents and their foals waiting to board the plane.
At first he was too busy watching the antics of a rowdy pair of colts ahead of him to notice, but he soon became aware of a warm body resting between his forelegs.
Shy of the ponies around them, Roseluck had shrunk back to the protection of Creative’s larger frame and here he was, standing over her like a protective father.
At first he was unsure of what to do, should he move? He was little more than a stranger to Roseluck, having known her all of 25 minutes or so and yet here she was, huddled between his forelegs for protection.
Then it hit him.
Roseluck never had true parental guardians to share her dreams with, or to hide behind when she was scared, sure she had the matron at the orphanage, but from what she had told him, there were so many foals there that individual care and support just wasn't possible. Now it dawned on him that just by sitting with Roseluck and letting her talk for the past half hour or so may have been exactly what her young mind craved the most...
Somepony who would listen.
When they reached the check-in counter, Roseluck pulled her ticket from a side pocket of her rucksack and presented it to the mare at the scanner, before trotting towards the concourse.
But instead of heading down to the plane she turned and sat next to the entrance of the concourse and looked back at Creative with big hopeful eyes.
“Oh no...”
-
Roseluck cocked her head and frowned at Creative. “Aren't you coming”?
Roseluck thought he was going with her, but he was just a janitor, his buck stopped here.
Creative quickly realized that if what had happened in line was any indication, it shouldn't have been a surprise, he should have seen it coming.
Quickly trotting over to her, Creative sat down on the floor so he could look Roseluck in the eye.
“You’re a marvelous, brave little filly”, he began.
“You know more about flowers than any other pony I've met before, and you had the courage to befriend and trust me, a complete stranger”.
“Now you must be brave again and go on to meet your cousins”, I know you can do it.
“But why?!” Roseluck cried with the hint of a sob in her voice and tears forming in the corners of her eyes. “I thought you said you worked here!”
“I do”, Creative said close to tears himself, but I’m just a janitor, I help keep the airport clean, I've never even been on a plane before.
Teary leaf green irises locked with sorrowful chocolate brown ones as Roseluck replied in a choked whisper.
“Neither have I, but please-sniff, don’t go”. It’s just, I feel-sob-like I’m always losing the ponies who I care about…”
It was too much for Creative, pulling Roseluck into a tight embrace, I don’t want to leave you either, but you have family waiting for you who doubtlessly love you very much, and as for me, I’ll be right here in Manehattan where you can come and visit whenever you like and-
“Cough Cough”
Creative broke the embrace to find they two of them had created quite a scene in front of the concourse.
While their foals looked on, many of parents in line were looking at Creative with tears in their eyes and smiles on their faces.
The source of the interruption however was from the mare working the check-in counter. She had a dusky tan coat and leaf green mane striped with gold.
Creative realized she was the co-worker who had been down at A7 earlier and found he couldn't remember her name.
“There may be a way” the mare said as she wiped tears from her own eyes which were the same warm gold as the stripes in her mane.
Creative and Roseluck watched as the mare returned to the counter and began typing away at her keyboard,
“Lemongrass, thought Creative as he saw her cutie mark, a sprig of her namesake plant crossed over half a lemon, that’s her name.
Lemongrass tuned back to the janitor with a smile, “Creative Sparks isn't it?”
Creative only nodded in agreement as he found himself staring at Lemongrass’s mane and tail, , marveling at the way they shone even in the dull florescent lighting of the terminal.
Lemongrass giggled at the attention she was receiving, causing Creative to blush and look away as she turned the screen towards him with a big smile.
“According to this, you have a whole week of vacation time available and it says here that you've been an employee of Equestria Airways for 2 years now with no missed days.” “That makes you eligible for a two way trip to any Equestrian Airways destination and a company t-shirt!”
For a moment, Creative was speechless, he had no idea…
A tugging on his fetlock made him look down to find a beaming Roseluck now with tears of joy in her eyes.
“Does this mean?” She started
Creative responded by embracing her again with a smile to match her own.
“Yes, I can come with you…”
“Wait, wait, WAIT!” “NOT.SO.FAST!”
Creative’s heart sank and Lemongrass scowled as a familiar mustard yellow pony pushed through the crowd to reach them.
Clean Sweep…
Clean Sweep marched up to Creative and thrust an accusing hoof hoof in his chest.
“And just what do you think you’re doing!?
“Well you see sir”… Creative then proceeded to explain in a nutshell everything that had happened since being given the vacuum and how he intended to use his rewards and vacation time to escort Roseluck to Ponyville.
Clean Sweep listened to the story with feigned interest before giving a smug smile that for some reason made Creative want to punch him.
“There is a stipulation to your case listed in the Equestria Airlines rules handbook on page 6 subsection B,” Clean sweep said with a snobbish air. “It states that if there is work assigned to an employee, it must be completed before said employee can use his or her allotted vacation time.”
“You didn't finish the job I assigned you!” The accusing hoof once more at Creative’s chest, “I told you to clean gates A9 and A10, you only did A9.”
“That flight from Zebranica will still be here in a few hours and you’re not going anywhere until that gate is clean!”
Clean Sweep had Creative trapped, there was no way he would be able to clean gate A10 before Roseluck’s flight departed, and they were already running late as it was thanks to the scene He and Roseluck had made.
But before his heart could sink again, Lemongrass stepped out from behind the counter, marched up to Clean Sweep, and looked him straight in the eye.
“I’ll do it”
Creative started to protest but was cut off by a smile from Lemongrass.
“Go, Roseluck needs you and you need the vacation..”
I've seen how hard you work and you need the time off”. She added with a slight blush
“But what about you?” Creative managed to ask while digesting her statement,
“Wait, she’s been watching me?” He thought.
Lemongrass shrugged. “Oh, a little hard work never hurt anypony, and it’ll be a change from sitting on my plot all day dozing in front of a screen.” Tuning back to Clean Sweep she returned his smug smile from earlier, “is that good enough for you, boss?”
Now it was Clean Sweeps turn to feel cornered as not only had a reasonable solution been proposed but with nothing in the handbook stating that another employee couldn't offer to take the job, he was also out of rules.
“Sigh, fine…”
With those grudging words of consent, a few of the nearby passengers who had been listening to the exchange burst into cheers as Lemongrass printed of a ticket for Creative and scanned it through.
“I owe you one”, Creative said as he took his boarding pass from Lemongrass.
With a look of mock severity but a smile in her eyes, she scanned the tickets of the next passengers in line as she replied.
“Yes you do, but we’ll settle it when you get back, it’ll give me time to decide what I should make you do.”
“For what you just did, anything!” Creative inwardly grimaced at a flaw in his words and quickly tried to backpedal.
“Except cleaning the toilets!”
Lemongrass gave him an evil grin as Creative led Roseluck into the concourse. “We shall see…”
As Creative and Roseluck trotted down the concourse towards the plane, Roseluck looked up at Creative and snickered. “Ooooh, that mare likes you!” she teased.
Creative blushed deeply and thanked Celestia for the dim lighting in the concourse as he looked out the concourse windows at the plane, a sleek De Saddleand Comet, hoping to hide any embarrassment his face might betray.
“Oh yeah, how can you tell!?”
“It’s obvious!” Roseluck chirped as they approached the bend in the concourse before the plane.
Creative paused before rounding the bend and looked back to where he could still see Lemongrass scanning tickets at the counter.
As if she sensed his gaze, she turned slightly, looked down the concourse and gave a cute smile before turning back to the desk.
As she turned back however, Lemongrass put an extra bit of swing in her haunches, causing her sail to swish revealingly to one side…
Turning back down the concourse, Creative once more thanked Celestia for the dim lighting to hide his face from Roseluck and the other passengers as it was now probably the color of a beetroot from Lemongrass's display.
-
When they reached the end of the concourse, a stewardess in the sky blue uniform of Equestrian Airways greeted them before asking Roseluck if she wanted to see the cockpit.
Turning to Creative she gave him a massive pair of puppy dog eyes, “pleeeeeeeeeaaaaase”!
Laughing at her antics, Creative nodded to the stewardess. “Though not without me you’re not, I’m dying to see what it looks like just as much as you are!”
Creative found himself trying to absorb as much detail as possible as they stepped through the narrow doorway into the cockpit. Dials, gauges, levers, lights, and switches covering nearly every surface of the small work space in a myriad display of organized confusion.
Like all foals when confronted with more pretty pushy thingies than they know what to do with, Roseluck made a b-line for the biggest, brightest button she could find with the sole intent of pushing it before Creative could stop her. Fortunately, a strong but gentle hoof bared her way.
“Now, now little missy”, the captain admonished with mock sternness. “You wouldn't want to eject my copilot from the plane now would you?”
Creative almost believed that Roseluck had been inches away from sending one of their pilots blasting through the roof himself if it wasn't for the wink and amused snort from the copilot.
Roseluck expression became mortified as she quickly turned to the copilot and apologized. ”I’m sorry, I didn't want you to get kicked off the plane!” At this the copilot burst out laughing.
“Well that’s mighty kind of you little miss” said the captain. “Here”, the captain dug into his shirt pocket for a second before presenting Roseluck with an Equestria Airways pin, a ying yang sun and moon circle between a pair of shiny gold wings. “For being a kind little filly and not sending my copilot sky high.”
Roseluck gave the captain a quizzical look as he clipped the pin to her hoodie. “But aren't we all going to be flying high in the sky?”
The copilot burst into another fit of laughter and hoof-bumped a still confused Roseluck as she and Creative left for their seats. “She’s got you there Captain!”
As the last of the passengers filed aboard the aircraft and the majority where seated, a stewardess moved to the front of the plane and coughed into the intercom to gain everypony's attention.
“Mares and Gentlecolts, on the behalf of Equestria Airways, I would like to welcome you aboard flight 247 From Manehattan to Ponyville.” “Please pay attention to the short safety demonstration and consult the safety pamphlet in the seat pocket in front of you for further information...”
Ding! Dong!
This is your captain speaking. “As of now, the seat belt sign has been turned on and we will begin roll-back momentarily.” “Total flight time is two hours fifteen minutes and our estimated time of arrival is around nine fifty five pm equestrian standard time.” “Our weather reports indicate clear skies for most of the way with scattered cloud cover over the Foal Mountains so sit back and enjoy the flight.”
The cabin lights dimmed and a jolt ran through the aircraft as it pushed away from the gate.
Roseluck had her muzzle pressed to window in a fashion not unlike a certain zebrony some hours earlier as she oohed and awed at the shiny planes at their gates and the bright lights of the taxiway.
Creative on the other hoof, gazed absently around the cabin as his thoughts finally caught up with the recent events.
Two and half hours ago, he’d been wishing he could fly off to faraway places and now here he was.
Granted Ponyville wasn't the Griffon Kingdoms but just going anywhere outside Manehattan was still a dream come true.
His train of thought was interrupted as Roseluck squeaked in awe. “Oh, oh! Look at that one!”
Creative looked out the window and gasped,
Like a great, metal leviathan gleaming under the floodlights, a massive four engine plane sat parked in front of the hangers, dwarfing the other airliners around it.
“That’s a Tuponiev 144! Creative exclaimed. They’re the largest aircraft ever built and are only used to make the long haul runs to Staliongrad!”
“I've never even seen one outside of pictures until now!”
“It’s a Tupon-, Tupony-, Tupo-what?” Roseluck struggled to pronounce the foreign name with its funny accent at the end to varying degrees of success.
Creative smiled and pronounced it for her,
“Tu-pon-ni-ev, got it?”
Rolling the new word around her mouth like a hard candy, Roseluck nodded happily before turning back to staring out the window.
Now Creative's gaze settled on the whole reason he was here in the first place.
The little cream colored filly he found hiding behind the seats in tears who had come to trust him wholeheartedly in the space of half an hour or less.
Creative marveled at the sheer innocence that only the very young seemed to possess, and thought about how she had come to look at him like family in an incredibly short amount of time.
As he continued to watch Roseluck, it dawned on Creative that the innocence she possessed couldn't just be limited to foals, because he found that he truly cared for her and wanted nothing more than to see her safely to her cousins even though two and half hours ago, he didn't even know her name.
“Maybe everypony needs a bit of innocence to achieve something far greater”. He mused
Something like love...
And speaking of love, Creative remembered Roseluck’s words in the concourse and blushed at the mental image of Lemongrass’s little tail stunt.
Creative smiled and mentally chastised himself. “Whoa there cowpony, one step at a time!”
While Creative was thinking, the plane taxied out to the runway and stopped as the captain's voice came over the intercom again.
“Mares and Gentlecolts, we have been cleared for takeoff, please ensure you seat belts are fastened, your tray tables are in the upright position and enjoy the flight.”
Roseluck squeaked and hoped in her seat with with excitement as she turned to face Creative.
“Here we go!”
A deep rumbling shook them to the core as the plane’s engines cycled up to full power.
The sudden acceleration forced them back in their seats as the aircraft quickly gained speed.
Then, as if by magic, they defied gravity and lifted off the runway and into the night.
