//------------------------------//
// Ch.1 - This Story 
// Story: Sparky 
// by Listie The Scribe Maid 
//------------------------------//


SPARKY
By That Gamer!
Chapter 1: This Story


Walking down a lonely street was a nice looking female. She was 23, was rockin' leg warmers, holding/reading about two book and previously had hair that went down to her ankles. It was really hard to keep when it was like that, so now it was shoulder-length, kept in line with a yellow headband with a purple star on it, really clashing with the leg warmers.

"Damn, this book is good," the girl (Tara Sparks) whispered to herself, so engrossed with the book that she didn't even notice she was causing major traffic jams. "Kind of takes my mind of the fact that I'm supposed to be going back to school... Wait... Da-"

All of a sudden, a voice from behind Tara shouted, "OUT OF THE WAY!" and Tara didn't even have time to think before something ran right into her, the two of them falling to the ground.

"I told you to get out of the way," the girl who ran into Tara mumbled.

"I'm so sorry," Tara said. "I-I would have gotten out the way, but you didn't give me any time to react!"

"I gave you a warning!" the girl pointed out, getting up and helping Tara do the same.

"Still not an excuse," Tara muttered, rubbing the top of her head.

"Look, I was running and I was just getting into it and I-I couldn't stop!" the girl explained. She then crossed her arms and looked off to the right, looked proud, adding, "Yeah, I'm a runner."

"That's nice... And I'm fine, by the way," Tara replied to the question that was never asked. She then bent down to pick up the books she dropped, but the girl stopped her.

"I'm feeling strangely benevolent today, so I guess I'll pick this up," the girl stated, starting to pick up the stuff she made Tara spill. "Wow, you got a lot of books."

"Of course!" Tara smiled at that remark. "I like to read a lot!"

"Huh... So you're an egghead I take it?" the girl chuckled while shaking her head.

"I'm not an egghead," Tara said. "Sure I might read a lot, but I'm not an egghead as you put it."

Rene nodded and chuckled about a few things only she got. Anyways, after picking everything up, she handed it to Tara whilst saying, "Here ya go. I recommend you get a bag... What's your name?"

"My name's Tara, Tara Sparks," Twilight replied, taking the stuff.

"No, no, no, your name's Sparky," the girl told Tara.

Tara blinked. "W-wha? No, my name's Tara."

"Nah, your name's Sparky," the girl repeated herself in a chill manner. "I like it. Sounds like a Facebook name"

"And that would be the only reason why I don't like it, but..." Tara began, but found something else that needed her attention. "Oh, you missed something over there... What's your name?"

"Rene. Rene Dashiell," Rene answered, saying it in the most cool way possible, turning around and bending over to pick the object up, which was a pencil.

When Rene did that, Tara blushed deeply. As it could be imagined, the clothes Rene was wearing were... Well, that weren't tight per say, but there was this awkward red spot and Tara knew exactly what it was. And it was gross.

"Here's your pencil," Rene said, getting up and giving Tara's pencil. "Hey, why are you blushing?..." A grin crossed Rene's face as she put it together. "You were looking at my butt, weren't you? Are you gay or something?... 'cause I'm not, no."

"Err, no, no!" Tara answered nervously. "I was, um, blushing at your... Loyalty! Yes, that..."

"How can I be loyal to someone I've only just met?" Rene retorted, raising an eyebrow and slightly tilting her head.

"...Yeah, I-I guess it's more kindness..."

"Of course. You're welcome."

"Thanks..." Tara mumbled in reply. She then said in a lot louder voice, "Say, do you want to walk with me?"

"No thanks; I gotta finish my run," Rene replied with a shrug.

"Oh..." Tara looked a little put down, but got over it.

"Hey, don't be so down. I hate negativity. Anyways, I gotta 'cause I'm worried that-"

"HEEEEEEEY! HEY, RENE!" shouted a voice from behind.

"Ah no..." Rene muttered under her breath.

And up bounced came a girl, who looked very hyper and seemed to have a thing for pink. Her clothes were pink, her shorts were pink, her shoes were pink, even her hair was pink. But dyed hair wasn't really that weird, seeing as how Tara's was purple with a few rose tripes and Rene seemed really indecisive. Anyways, the pink girl looked at Rene, then Tara, took a deep breath and let a jumble of words fall out of her mouth.

"OK, OK, I know you're- Could you just- I never even really- I'm not gay- Could you please- COULD YOU PLEASE SLOW DOWN!" Rene shouted, throwing her hand on the pink girl's mouth. "I mean... Just slow down!"

"Um... Who is this?" Tara whispered to Rene.

"Diane," Rene whispered back. "She's this hyper girl I've known ever since high school. She's really annoying."

"I'm not annoying!" Diane said through Rene's hand. "And you can call me Pinkie!"

"I can't imagine why," Tara commented, trying to still sound nice.

"Well, this is Tara," Rene introduced the Pinkie to Tara. "You can call her Sparky."

"Call me Tara," Tara stated, but Pinkie was quick to ignore it.

"Ooo! Hey, Sparky!" Pinkie greeted Tara with the happiest grin the latter had ever seen. "Where are you going with all those books, the library, did you steal them or take them all out at the same time, can you even do that, I have no idea, I should check sometimes, but not now, I'm going somewhere as well, what's with your hair, when did you dye that, I like your leg warmers, didn't they go out of style in the 80's-"

"Look, I'm new in this town," Tara interrupted. "I'm only here because I got this letter from this group called Bron-Y-Aur Stomp who said I have to go back to high school and it has to be in this town."

"I thought you looked American," Rene remarked, a hint of tease layed under her words gently.

"You must be from there!" Pinkie added.

"That's what I meant," Rene told Pinkie.

"I know, but I didn't know is she got it," Pinkie explained.

"I-I get it," Tara told the two. "I get that I'm new to Canada."

"Of course!" Pinkie exclaimed.

"Anyways, I guess I should be heading off," Tara said, going off with the other two following.

"We have to go there, too," Rene said when Tara gave the two an odd look.

"Yeah, we both got letters!" Pinkie smiled, pulling a letter out of nowhere.

"Interesting..." Tara muttered. "That seems to be oddly convenient."

"Well, not considering who's walking beside me," Rene joked.

"Aw, come on, you like me!" Pinkie, putting her arm around Rene, said with a grin.

"Not the way I think you're implying it," Rene said, shaking Pinkie off. "You are implying it the way I think you are, right?"

"Um... Er... I think not!"

"Good. I'm not gay. I think she might be, but I'm not."

"Well, considering what was happening at your one end..." Tara whispered to herself.

"Sparky say what not?" Rene snapped.

"Nothing! Nothing..." Tara answered faster then Rene normally.

"Jeez, I thought I was fast with things!" Rene laughed. "I like you, Sparky."

"My name's not Sparky," Tara repeated herself.

"Yeah, but Sparky's 20% cooler," Rene reassured Tara.

"Does that make the rest of me cool!" Tara was hopefully

"With all the books you have..." Rene, shaking her head, began.

"Oh... So neither of you are curious about these letters?" Tara asked.

"Not in the slightest," was Rene's reply.

"I just hope all my friends are there! Like Black Snooty; he's cool," was Pinkie's.

Tara was going to say something about how she thought this wasn't government approved and has no right to put them back in high school, but she threw that idea out considering Pinkie's ignorance and Rene's general being-cool-to-the-point-of-not-caring. 

"S#!t, I almost forgot, I told Sylvia I'd meet with her to discuss the track team," Rene said aloud.

"The track team?"

"I told you I was a runner!" Rene reminded the purple-haired female. "Anyways, yeah, I gotta run. Why don't you go talk to Olivia? She's... Um, 'well-read' like you and right over there!"

Indeed, sitting on a bench by the door was a girl dressed in nearly all brown reading a few sheets of paper.

"Are you sure?" Tara asked.

"I've never been so sure about anything in my life," Rene reassured Tara. "Look, I'll see you at lunch, OK?" But before shoving her off. She then turned to Pinkie and said, "Same with you."

"OK!" Pinkie chirped happily before running off in a different direction then Rene.

With Tara and Olivia, the former was going up a little nervously, not sure exactly what to say. But she took a deep breath and said, "So I hear your name is Olivia."

Olivia looked up, a boredly suspicious look on her face. "That vould be correct," she confirmed, a thick Russian accent blanketing her voice.

"So, uh..." It took Tara a second to come up with something else to say. "I've heard that you're well-read, like I am."

"Vell, speaking in terms of music..." Olivia began, flipping to a different page.

"Oh, so you're a music historian?" Tara suggested hopefully, sitting down next to Olivia.

"Player," Olivia corrected. "I'm a cellist. Alvays have been, alvays vill be."

"Interesting... Not really what I was expecting, but still interesting..."

"You don't seem interested," Olivia said. "So vhy are you sitting next to me?"

"Um, well Rene said you were well-read like me," Tara replied.

Olivia nodded and flipped to another page.

There was an awkward silence, which was only broken by these two girls coming up, one of them acting exactly like a dog and the other with these crazy contacts. Neither Tara nor Olivia payed them any mind, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

"...Can I look?" Tara asked. "A-at the music sheets, I mean?"

"I see no reason vhy not," Olivia answered, handing the sheets to Tara.

Tara put her books and stuff down beside her, taking the sheets and leafing through it, commenting at one point, "This looks really complicated. And this is for a cellist? It looks like it's for a full orchestra."

"It's a cello version of 'Angel Of Death'," Olivia said before taking the sheets back.

"What?"

"Anyvays, there's about ten minutes until school begins," Olivia muttered, looking at her watch, "so I better get going. See you, Tara."

"Uh... Bye?"

"Of course." Olivia nodded again, going off. She then stopped for a moment and added, "Buy the vay, if you see my sister, Violet, I'm older." Then she officially left.

"That was- HOLY $#!T, IT IS TEN MINUTES!!!" Tara yelled, picking up her stuff and dashing inside, past to girl who was acting like a dog, who, by the way, was on a leash and tied to a pole next to the school.

So Tara went through the halls, speed walking because running wasn't allowed, looking for her locker. Then she bumped into somebody who was heading the other way.

"Oh, I-I'm sorry," the girl Tara bumped into whispered.

"It's OK, I was just looking for my locker and I wasn't paying attention," Tara explained.

"O-oh, me too," the girl (who had light pink hair and a thing for yellow-based clothing) continued to whisper. "Um... Where's your locker?"

"838," Tara read off the sheet that, obviously, had her locker number on it. "It's on the second floor. Why?"

"Oh! M-mine's 840," the girl told Tara, picking up her voice's volume a little. "I-I gues, um, I should follow you then, 'c-cause you seem nice enough and your locker's next to mine."

"Eh, why not?" Tara shrugged and continued. "Why were you down here anyways?"

"I-I don't know..." the girl mumbled.

"I guess that's a fine response," Tara said. "What's your name, by the way?"

"Um... Feeruergue..." the girl mumbled, getting quieter.

"...Pardon?"

"Uh... Felifgnwrgn..."

"A little louder?"

"Er... Felicia Shay..."

"Felicia, huh? Well, I'm Tara, Tara Sparks," Tara told Felicia.

"Oh... So I-I can call you Sparky, right?"

"God damn it, NO!!!" Tara snapped.

Felicia took a step back, startled obviously didn't read the previous few paragraphs.

"Sorry, sorry," Tara sighed. "It's just... Things happened earlier and... Sorry."

"I-I-It's alright," Felicia mumbled, taking a step forward so she could continue so she could continue to walk with Tara.

"OK... Y'know, you're the second person I've met today by bumping into them," Tara pointed out. She then shortly afterward added, "You didn't make me drop my stuff, however, so that's a plus."

"W-w-well, that's g-good," Felicia said. She seemed to be naturally quiet.

"Why are you do quiet?" Tara asked.

"Well, I kind of don't like people," Felicia replied, trying to hide behind her hair as the two climbed a stair (rhymes, all the time). "I-I personally like the company of animals better... And trees, too, b-but that's a different story... Um, n-no offense to you..."

"It's OK," Tara reassured Felicia. "I've been offended by worse things today."

"Like?"

"Sparky," Tara deadpanned, the two getting off the stairs and heading left.

"Oh..."

"Anyways, moving on," Tara stated, "I don't mean to sound rude, but have you made any friends?"

"Well, there's you, I presume," Felicia began.

"No need to have presumptions," Tara said.

"And then there's this other woman, Chrystine Alice," Felicia continued. "She's twenty years older then me. I'm 24, by the way."

"One year older then me," Tara stated the obvious.

"Yeah, that was pretty obvious," Felicia said.

"I know... I don't know why I said it, actually," Tara said, stopping to put her down her stuff and take a quick drink from a near by water fountain.

"Yeah, me and Chrystine have been dating for some time..." Felicia mused.

Spittake. "Dating?!"

"Um... Yes, we have been," Felicia confirmed. "Is there a problem?"

"For somebody so shy, you sure are open about it!" Tara said.

"Well, Chrystine says I'm pretty open when you get past my shyness," Felicia explained.

"I think it's more the fact that she's older then you," Tara, picking up her stuff, told Felicia. "And the last person I bumped into was so defensive about her sexuality!"

"Rene?" Felicia asked.

"That's her," Tara answered. "Why do you ask?"

"Whenever I saw her at school, that was all she was talking about," Felicia replied.

"Odd," Tara commented. At that point, they reached their lockers. "So I can also presume we have the same classes, since our lockers are so close together."

"Well, I guess..." Felicia mumbled.

"So you need a bag, as well?" Tara asked.

"Oh, no, I just forgot mine at home," Felicia corrected Tara.

"Oh..."

"You seem disappointed," Felicia said.

"I-" Tara began, but then, all of a sudden, her mind flashed elsewhere...

FLASH!

"Twilight, is this gonna take much longer?" a voice that sounded like Rene asked. "I got places to be, ponies to... Actually, I just got to gotta be places. No ponies to see or do. Really."

"Relax, Rainbow, I just need to do a few more tests," Tara reassured Rainbow, writing a few things down on a sheet of parchment. "See, the princess needs me to do a couple of these on you girls. I don't know why, but I guess it's important, seeing as how it took her a long time to get my trust back."

"Three weeks, if I recall correctly" Rainbow reminded Tara.

"Yeah, don't remind me..." Tara muttered. "Now, this might sting a little. I'm using my old Researcher Twilight equipment. But don't worry, it's been toned down a notch."

"First of all, Twilight," Rainbow began, "you kinda need to trust the princess. I don't need to know a lot about politics, but-" She was cut off by unbearable pain.

FLASH!

Tara gasped when she snapped back to reality.

"Sparky, are you OK?" Felicia asked, sounding concerned.

"First of all, I'm not Sparky," Tara replied in a dazed way. "Second, that's been happening for three weeks now. But it's nothing to worry about. My mind just goes elsewhere for, like, ten seconds before coming right back. Happens at least once or twice a day. Depends."

"Oh... So you don't have a driver's license?" Felicia asked.

"Of course I do," Tara answered while opening her locker. "Why wouldn't I? I am a fully grown woman."

"I know, but if that happens constantly..." Felicia started, but trailed off.

"Once or twice a day," Tara repeated herself. "And I've always managed to get out of getting into a bad crash. Take last week for example-"

"Can I not hear that story?" Felicia asked.

"It's your loss," Tara said, slamming her locker stuff, having put in the stuff she wouldn't be using for first or second period.

"...What were you going to say earlier?" Felicia enquired.

Tara thought for a moment before replying, "Oh, yeah. I was gonna say that I'd spent all month last month getting my stuff ready for school, but I forgot the bag. Then again, I did file for bankrupcy several times..."

"Um... Don't feel too bad," Felicia said reassuringly.

"I'm trying not to..." Tara mumbled with a shrug. "Now, come on, let's go."

"We still have 7 minutes," Felicia pointed out.

"I know, but I really want to be there beforehand," Tara explained before running off.

Having nothing else better to do, Felicia followed her, not knowing of the... Stuff ahead.