It was noon by the time Rarity, Spark Storm, and his team arrived at the edge of the Everfree forest. Spark sighed as he took in the village he hadn't seen for over two years. The last time he'd been here, he had prevented an Ursa beast from getting to the town. It seemed Lovely Lightning and Sweet Midnight were thinking the same thing, as they looked at each other nervously, then glanced at Turbid Serocity, who was glaring at them. She certainly hadn't forgotten the day they ditched their duties to follow Sapphire Snow out here.

"Well...What to do..." Rarity mused as she looked up at Spark Storm, then back to Ponyville. Suddenly inspired, she turned and looked Spark up and down slowly. Spark watched her from the corner of his eyes, feeling worried and a little bit violated. Noticing his stare, she blushed and looked away. "Oh forgive me, Spark. I was just thinking how much material I would need to make you some cover so you could move about town freely."

Spark turned to face her completely, a relieved look crossing his face. "Oh! Heh. That's actually a pretty good idea, Rarity."

"I'd need a few materials from my home, but of course it's almost two miles to town. I might need you to stay here and wait for me, and for that I apologize."

Spark shrugged, then looked at his comrades. "I'll wait here, but you guys don't have to. You've never been here, so no one should suspect you of being us good ol' monster hunters, right?" He winked at Lightning and Midnight. They both gave him the most awkward smiles he'd ever seen.

Sweet Midnight cleared her through and pawed at the dirt as Turbid glared at the two pegasi so desperately hoping she wouldn't say anything to Spark about what they'd done with Sapphire and Lemon Pop a year and a half ago.

Rarity, ever observant and clever, deduced that while Spark spoke of them never being in Ponyville, their body language told a different story. She decided to be quiet, though. She glanced at Spark to see if he was getting the same vibes, but if he was, he wasn't mentioning it. "Well. I shall be off. Don't worry, Spark Storm, I shall return here as quickly as I can with something to disguise you with, and we can go into town then."

Before Spark could say anything, she nuzzled his cheek lightly and took off for Ponyville at a brisk run. Spark blushed when he realized what she'd done. He sighed and laid down on the grass. Why did she have to be so forward? He glanced back at the other three, each wearing a look of amusement at his discomfort. "Oy. Guys, just go. Go have fun and look around Ponyville. Uh...Let's meet at the library in about two hours. You can't miss it, it's the only building in town that's made out of a tree."

Turbid sighed quietly and nudged the two along after Rarity, who was now little more than a white figure running through the grassy fields to the town. "Come on, you two. Why don't we go explore the town together." It was more of a statement than a question. She looked back at Spark as they left, wondering if maybe he'd caught on to her students' nervous posturing. Thankfully, he remained blissfully ignorant.

Spark leaned over onto his side. The warm sun bore down on his dark coat, warming him up in the cool autumn air. Soon, he was fast asleep.

Spark sleepily opened his eyes to a pair of big blue ones staring at him. He sat up in alarm when a big pink blur latched itself around his neck and squealed "Sparkyyy! You're home!"

Spark laughed and wrapped his forelegs around Pinkie Pie, squeezing her until she squeaked. The two separated, beaming at each other happily. "Pinkie Pie, how long were you watching me sleep? Did Rarity tell you I was here?"

Pinkie started bouncing in place. "Only for forty minutes. And nope! I sensed you were here." When the big pegasus gave her a look that said 'what?' she giggled and said, "It was my Pinkie sense, silly! My teeth chattered, my nose got itchy, and then I had a false-alarm sneeze! That means that an old friend just arrived at the edge of the Everfree forest!"

"Ah...what?" Spark laughed again and shrugged, then gave her a good-natured evil eye. "So you just sat there watching me sleep for almost an hour?"

Pinkie giggled and nodded. "Uh huh. You're cute when you sleep!"

Spark hoof'd the ground with embarrassment. Pinkie Pie grinned from ear to ear, then glanced back at Ponyville. "Are you gonna come home today?"

"Well...probably." Pinkie turned back to him and cocked an ear in a gesture for him to continue. "I'm kind of on a personal mission to help a friend get to White Tail Woods. I ran into Rarity a ways back in the forest, she wants me and my team to stay with her tonight. She's off at her home gathering some materials to disguise me so I can walk around town freely."

"Oh! Oh! Spark!" Pinkie leaned in close to Spark's ear and whispered conspiratorially, "...we have to throw you a party."

Spark leaned back away from her to give her a gentle glare. "Pinkie Pie, I can't have a party. We don't actually want the town to know that I'm here. Not for any length of time." Pinkie frowned and gave him the biggest puppy dog eyes he'd ever seen.

"But..."

"Pinkie, no."

"Please! Oh, please please!"

"Pinkie!"

"Just the six of us! C'mon, pleeaase? Rarity's new place is big enough!" Spark paused. Rarity had her own place? As if reading his thoughts, Pinkie nodded, seeing her chance to make this party happen. "Yeah! She's been saving up some money and with help from her folks she bought a store! It's not set up yet, but she's gonna fix it up and start selling stuff by next year! There's plenty room!"

Spark seemed to consider this, but something seemed off. "Hold on. When you say 'six of us', who are you counting?"

Pinkie's face blanched. She knew she'd made a mistake the second she'd said 'six'. "Oh, um...y-you know...all six of us?" she finished lamely.

Spark frowned as he watched her face and her body language. She was hiding something from him.

"Pinkie...what is it? What are you hiding?"

Pinkie pursed her lips and closed her eyes with a look of indignity. She wouldn't tell.

"Is it about Applejack? No? Hm...Fluttershy? Rainbow Dash? Something about Rarity?"

Pinkie Pie remained silent, her head held high. She would not cave in.

"...Ditzy?"

Pinkie Pie's lips turned in tighter into her mouth. Her muscles tightened, her body turning rigid. Spark felt something trying to turn in his stomach.

"Pinkie Pie, what happened to Ditzy?" Pinkie gasped to take a breath she'd been holding. She looked up at him apologetically, but she still said nothing. Feeling something terrible had happened to Ditzy in his absence, Spark took off for Ponyville as fast as his legs and wings could carry him.

Ditzy sighed as she picked up around her room. So messy, always so messy. She picked up all the toys littered over the floor, she wiped down all the places that were covered with spit, and cleaned up the playrug that constantly smelled like pee. Yech. Time to get rid of this old thing. She threw it in the garbage, washed her hooves diligently, then walked up to the makeshift crib in the center of the room to look down at the beautiful light-purple unicorn filly, asleep.

Ditzy's ears twitched when she thought she heard a 'thump' from outside her window. She gasped and stared with her hooves over her mouth as her best friend opened the window and stepped into her room. Her heart was running a mile a minute. Would he comfort her? Or would he shun her like the others for having a baby at thirteen? Feeling trapped, Ditzy turned away from him and put her hooves on her baby's crib and tried to keep her tears from tumbling down.

"Spark, I...I'm glad you're here, but...I don't want you to see me like this, please...go away, leave us alone...please..."

Ditzy started to sob, her body shaking with grief. It was silent in the room. She wasn't sure if he'd left, but...this way it was easier. She'd been surprised to see Spark Storm after two years, but to let him see her like this, after all the grief, all the rejection from her peers, having him reject her too would be too much. Better just to cut the lines instead of -

Her thoughts were cut off as she felt a weight shift the crib slightly. She gasped and turned to her left as she saw Spark towering over her on his hind hooves, peering down into the crib. He turned to look at her, and although he could see the terrified, cornered look in her eyes, he smiled a warm, comforting smile for her. "Ditzy...she's beautiful."

Ditzy felt the walls she'd put up against everypony but her mother crumbling down from those three words. She let out a lonely, weak sob as she fell against her best friend, maybe her only friend left in the world. She collapsed to the floor as he came down with her, cradling her in his forelegs, smoothing out her mane and whispering comforting words to her.

Soon enough, Ditzy had cried herself to sleep in Spark's arms. He frowned as he looked down at her, then back up at her crib. So much had changed since he'd been gone. Had all their friends really abandoned Ditzy in her time of need? Had the town really changed so much...? Well, now that he thought about it, things hadn't really changed. The townsponies were the same fearful, bigoted ponies he remembered, as they yelled for him to be thrust from Ponyville. He supposed having a filly at such a young age was just a step down from being a monster.

Carefully, so carefully, he hauled Ditzy up and set her on her bed as he heard the filly waking up. After a second, the screaming started. Spark frowned as Ditzy woke up. He watched as Ditzy performed a routine that she'd been doing for the last month: she got up, walked over to the crib, pulled the tiny filly to her belly, and fed her.

Spark's eyes opened wide as he realized that Ditzy was too groggy to recall that he was there and he turned around quickly. He stood there awkwardly for fifteen minutes when he heard a gasp. "Oh Celestia! Spark Storm, I'm sorry, I..." Ditzy cut off before breaking out into a weak giggle.

"Is it safe to turn around now?" Spark chuckled half out of embarrassment.

"No. Just a little longer." Ditzy crawled onto her bed carefully and turned away from Spark Storm, blushing bright red. Spark laid down on the floor at the far end of Ditzy's bed.

After a moment of silence, Spark decided to break the silence. "Ditzy, how did you get here? Tell me what happened."

Ditzy sighed softly as her filly stopped feeding and fell back asleep. She cradled the tiny filly in her forelegs as she re-situated herself at the end of the bed so she could see Spark while she spoke.

"It started last year, Spark. I met this...really cute unicorn named Foggy Nights." she sighed breezily as she looked skyward, her mind somewhere else for a moment. "He was so beautiful, Sparky. He looked a bit like my little Dinky." She looked at Spark Storm, a sad, distant look in her eyes. "I was lonely, Spark. I was...I'm still too young to be thinking those things. I should've known better than to trust him, though. As soon as he heard I was pregnant, the first thing he did was run off to Canterlot, and left us here to fend for ourselves."

Spark sat up so that his head was level with hers. He looked angry. "And what about our friends? They've been here for you, right?"

Ditzy stared sadly at him. She knew he was hoping that his suspicions were wrong, but..."No, Spark." She shook her head slowly and closed her eyes tightly to prevent fresh tears from falling down her face. "There's no one. Just me and my mom, and even she..." She shook with emotion, and a sob escaped her lips. "Even she...sometimes...looks at me like...like I'm evil..."

Spark frowned and sat up to wrap her up in his forelegs again, shushing her quietly. After a moment, little Dinky began to cry, which set off Ditzy. "Oh, not now, please..." She sighed tiredly as she reached down to handle her daughter, but Spark took her gently and brought her over to the changing table. He grabbed a nearby clean diaper, set it under the dirty one. He carefully cleaned the filly, powdered her, then threw the diaper in the trash. He bundled Dinky up in her new diaper, then cradled and played with her for a moment, earning him both a stare from Ditzy and happy giggles from the filly.

"H...how did you do that? You knew just what she wanted. Spark..." She leaned up, her eyes widening. "...Are you a daddy?"

Spark smirked and rolled his eyes. "No, Ditzy. I learned all that stuff from my mom. She ran an orphanage, remember? Do you have any idea who many babies I had to help her take care of once I was five? Dozens. She was so busy, yet...she always had time for me." Ditzy watched her best friend expertly handling a new filly within the first hour of meeting her, while she had had a whole month and still struggled. If only she knew for sure that Sapphire Snow wasn't in the picture...

Ditzy sighed as she shook the idea out of her head. She walked over to him and gingerly took Dinky into her forelegs and cradled her. "Spark...what's going to happen now? Are you home for good?"

The big pegasus shook his head. "I'm just passing through tonight, Ditzy. I was going to stay with Rarity tonight, but..." He blushed at the possible implications of that statement and shook his forelegs from side to side. "N-not like that. But...I don't think I want to be around anypony that had a hoof in making you miserable, Ditzy. Can I...stay here tonight?"

Ditzy smiled and leaned with her back against Spark Storm, cradling Dinky in her forelegs. The little filly now had Spark in her peripheral vision, and was reaching for him. "Spark, as far as I'm concerned, you can stay here as long as you want."

Stay tuned for a new storyline inside the current storyline! Enraged and insulted that all his friends have shunned Ditzy in her hour of need, he's decided a change is in order for Ponyville.