The Spark that Starts the Flame; chapter 1
By Curriculax
“I’m sorry, Miss Grey…” said the doctor solemnly as he approached Ash-Grey, who was sitting quietly in the hospital’s waiting room, “We tried all we could… But we couldn’t save your husband…”
Ash-Grey looked up at him with a tear-stained face and raw red eyes, she couldn’t speak; she knew this moment would come ever since he was first admitted. He was going to die. She began to cry again, how could she possibly look after their children? He gave them everything, but now he’s gone; what could she do?
The doctor cast her a sympathetic look, “Miss Grey is there anything you wish to discuss? If you want the hospital’s grief counsellor, Miss Cloud Nine, is available at 7 PM tonight…”
Grey simply nodded, and looked down as she shed more tears. “It’s ok, doc…” her voice was quiet and soft, and almost empty, “…C-can… Can I see him…?”
The doctor didn’t say anything; he simply sighed sadly and led the widowed Ash-Grey to her late husbands’ room. There he lay upon his hospital bed, still as stone yet peaceful. Nurses worked slowly and carefully to remove the various tubes connected to her husband’s body. As Ash-Grey’s eyes fell upon her lover’s body, they began to well up again and she couldn’t control herself. She fell to her knees and began to cry. She didn’t care that everyone was watching, nor did she care that she was in the way. It wasn’t like they could do anything to help now that he’s dead. There was nothing anyone could do for either him or her now.
Ash-Grey was tired but no matter how exhausted she was, she just couldn’t get to sleep. She couldn’t cry anymore, she cried so much at the hospital that the tear-stained patches under her eyes were starting to dry. She just lay there in her bed, staring at the empty spot where her husband used to be. Ash could almost see her husband again;, his large chest moving slowly up and down, his soft murmurs, his strong arms holding her closely as they slept. But he was gone now, and so were those memories of him holding her. She wanted to cry but she just couldn’t, all that came out of her mouth were dry-retching coughs.
A soft quiet creak came from the door of her room but she didn’t move. Ash-Grey knew who it’d be anyway, her twin daughters; Summer Blaze and Fire Fly. They were too young to understand death, as their mother she had to protect their innocence until they could understand the world for what it really is.
“Mummy…?” squeaked Fire Fly, her small wings flickered as she slowly stepped into her mother’s room with her unicorn sister, Summer Blaze, close behind. “What’s going on, mummy…? Where’s daddy…?”
Ash let out a heavy sigh before speaking quietly, “Daddy had to go away for a while…” It was already hard enough to deal with his death, but how could she tell her own daughters the truth? They were only fillies…
“When is he coming back home?” Summer asked as the two innocent fillies moved closer to their mother’s bed and clambered onto it to meet her gaze. They looked at each other before looking back to Ash, “Mummy, why are you crying..? Are you sad…?”
“…No, no girls…” she wiped her eyes with a hoof and put on a fake smile, “I’m crying because how lucky I am to have the two of you… You both have your daddy’s eyes…”
“We do?” the twins blinked their large ruby eyes in curiosity and said in unison, “But daddy needs his eyes to see!”
Ash laughed a little, “Yeah… He does… Your daddy was a really great stallion… The most handsome and charming stallion you would’ve ever met…” she let out a soft sigh. She had to be strong in front of the twins, not just because they were her daughters but now she was the only thing left to keep the family alive, she couldn’t give up or everything would just fall apart.
“Where did daddy go?” Fire Fly asked as she lay down in front of Ash, her tiny wings spread out slightly as Summer squeezed herself under one and cuddled up next to her sister.
“Daddy had to go away on a very important trip…”
“When will he come home, mummy?”
“I don’t know, girls… I don’t know…” Ash shuffled closer to the young fillies, put her arm around them and brought them into a close hug. They were all she had left of him.
They had his eyes…
The sun shone high in the sky, not that Ash particularly cared; she just lay there in her bed staring at the wall. It was already past noon, and she hadn’t eaten anything since she came home from the hospital the day before. The twins had been taken out for the day by Ash-Grey’s friend, Ambrosia. She usually babysat the girls and while Ash knew that she had to be there for them, she just couldn’t handle it right now.
She sighed and sat up slowly, and looked around the room; everything reminded her of him. It was almost painful to the point of crying, but she couldn’t do that anymore. Her tears were gone; all that was left was this empty feeling of nothingness, the black void of depression. Ash took a long, deep breath before heading for the door, even though it was only four metres away from the foot of her bed it felt like a kilometre to her. Every step she took, she had a memory of every moment that they both spent in this room together; they day they moved in together, their wedding night, the moment they discovered she was pregnant, the day she came from the hospital with their beautiful baby daughters…
She couldn’t do it. She just stopped and let herself fall to the ground in a heap, surrounded by her most beloved memories with the most romantic stallion to have lived. Ash shut her eyes tight against the wave of her beautiful and colourful past; it was teasing her. The flood of memories was too overpowering, she was panting now. Trying to catch her breath. She was drowning in the swirling sea of her past, in just one night it was as if she forgot how to swim.
No matter how tightly she closed her eyes, those pictures were there playing through her mind like a movie reel, the pictures coming to life like some sort of sick cinema that was her life…
She opened her eyes…
She was there again; the day they moved in…
It was seven years ago on a sunny spring day, the sun was high and bright but beneath the trees it was pleasant and cool. There stood two ponies; the slick and stylish Ash-Grey and her tall and rugged boyfriend, underneath the trees staring out at a simple yet elegant wooden house.
“Well, Miss Ash-Grey…” spoke the stallion in a cool and steady voice, “Welcome to your new home…” He looked down at her with a warm smile; a gentle breeze blew over the two and caused his short maroon mane to flow with it.
Ash smiled back up to him, and spoke as she stared into his piercing ruby eyes, “You mean our new home, Mister Camp Fire…” She leant her head on his shoulder gently and sighed happily. “I can’t believe we’re finally moving in together after five years…”
“Mmm… I know…” Camp Fire nodded and put an arm around her, holding her close, “I love you…
“I love you too…” she whispered back to him as she nuzzled in closer to his heavy chest.
It was their home… Their house… They’d live there together forever and beyond…
“Come on…” Camp Fire said quietly, “Let’s go get our bags from the taxi and start settling in…”
“Of course, my love…” she smiled gently before looking over to the cart with all their lively belongings on it, “Also, I think the driver might be getting a little impatient…” She motioned toward the angry stallion standing in front of the taxi, a vain showing on his forehead from anger.
“Hurry the buck up, already!” he yelled out to them in frustration, “I don’t have all day!!”
“Ok, ok! Geez… We’re coming!” Camp Fire made an exaggerated angry face and mouthed exactly what the taxi driver had said, which caused a fit of restrained laughter from Ash. He was just so perfect; she couldn’t imagine her life without him…
…And now it was much more than imagination.
She opened her eyes slowly and lay on the ground in silence, the hollow emptiness of the house reflecting how she felt. A loud banging of the front door was heard, followed by the cries of two excited and happy little fillies and obviously adult mare laughing with them.
“Ok, girls…” spoke the mare’s voice full of calmness and authority, “Calm down now… Your mother is trying to sleep.”
“Ok, aunty Ambrosia...” the two fillies nodded in acknowledgement, before a wide white grin became plastered across their faces, “Can we go play out in the yard?!”
Ambrosia smirked a little, “Go ahead, girls… Just be sure to keep it down ok? I’ll be upstairs with your mother if you need me for anything, come and get me. Now go and have fun.”
With that the twins galloped past Ambrosia and out the front door, she let out a small laugh before sighing a little, “They’re just like their father…” The mare looked up the stair case and step by step walked up them. She remained silent until she reached Ash’s bedroom door and pushed it open slightly, “Ash? Ash? You awake?”
As she took a step inside the room; there she saw Ash lying on the ground, breathing shallowly and dry-retching. “Ash…? Ash?!” Ambrosia ran to her friends’ side and sat her up gently, “Ash? What happened? Are you ok?”
“Mmmm…” mumbled the widow quietly, “I’m… Ok…”
“No, you’re not. I know you’re not. Think, what would Camp Fire do if he saw you like this?”
“Nothing… He’s dead…”
“No! Well… Yeah… But, if he were alive; he’d want you to be happy! To look after the girls for him…”
“But he’s not alive, Amby…”
Ambrosia sighed. It was painful to see her best friend like this; the two had known each other since they were fillies. They were practically sisters, wherever Ash-Grey was, Ambrosia was guaranteed to be near-by. They’d been through thin and thick together, but this was the worst Amby had seen Ash.
Ambrosia sat down next to her lifelong friend and placed a hoof on her shoulder before bringing Ash into a tight hug, “You’re a mess… What are you doing here? I told you to stay in bed…” She released her hug and sat back to look Ash in the eyes.
“I… I… I just can’t stay here, Amby…” she said in a raspy voice, “It reminds me too much of him… I have to get away from it…”
“Chin up, Ash…” she placed a hoof under the widow’s chin and tilted her head upwards, “Just because he’s gone, doesn’t mean you’ve lost everything… You have the girls and me… Porter’s there as well, if you’re really desperate.”
“Port Wine? Your boyfriend? Doesn’t he practically live in the bar?”
“Yeah, but when he’s not you can guess where he is, who he’s with and what they’re doing, if you know what I mean? Hehe…”
“Everypony does, Amby, I swear the entire town can hear you at night. All that moaning and screaming…”
“Hey now, everyone else is just jealous ‘cause I’m getting some!” The two friends laughed for a little before sighing, “You’re a very lucky mare, Ash… You had everything we wanted when were fillies; a house, a husband and… Kids… You’re lucky; I can’t have any kids of my own…”
Ash looked up at Ambrosia, it was true that she had everything they ever wanted but now she didn’t have the one thing that helped her get it all… “I’m sorry about that…”
“Why are you sorry? I’m the one who’s infertile, it’s not like you were the one made that happen.”
“There are still other options…”
“Look, Ash, don’t make this about me; you’re the one whose husband just died…” she said in an almost serious tone, “Hmm… I have an idea…”
“Oh, yeah?” Ash tilted her head a little in curiousity, “This is a rare incident…”
“…I’m going to let that slide for now because you’re grieving…” she breathed in, “Ok, so… How about this? You need a break from everything… So why not go on a holiday after the funeral? Porter and I can take care of the girls…”
“I don’t know, Amby… I mean, we always said we’d travel together; me and him…”
“And if you don’t do it without, you’ll probably never will go out there and see the world. Come on, Ash… You deserve it, and you deserve a break…”
“…I’ll think about it…”
“You better or else I’m coming in here, kidnap you and take you to my place for a week. When you see all the stuff he can do, I don’t think you’d be complaining about Porter anymore!”
“I doubt Port Wine could even hold a candle to what my Camp Fire could do…”
“Oh, we’ll see about that… Hehe…”
The two sighed and looked at each other. Ash spoke first, “I don’t know what it is about you, Ambrosia, but you’ve made me laugh for the first time since Camp Fire was admitted to the hospital…”
“Hey, what are friends for? Seriously though, think about a holiday. You really need a break from everything…” Ambrosia offered her a warm smile before leaning in to hug her, her eyes drifted upward to the clock on the wall behind Ash, “Oh shoot, Porter starts his shift in an hour! I gotta go!”
“And what? Give him a preview of tonight?”
“Yeah, what do you take me for?
“A sex addict.”
“Hey, I’ve got to do something in my spare time!”
“Most ponies have a hobby, like gardening or playing with toy trains… Not mounting the closest stallion…”
“I told you, I don’t do that…” Ambrosia glared at Ash before breaking into a smile, “At least not anymore! Anyway, I better get going now; keep your chin up, Ash.”
“I will…”
“Oh, and think about that holiday, ok? You need it.”
“Of course…”
“Good, I’ll check back on you before Porter’s shift ends. I’m going to go say bye to the girls… See you later, Ash. Feel better soon.”
With that Ambrosia left the widowed Ash-Grey to the bedroom full of haunting memories, but with a glimmer of hope in the darkness.
