I'm wondering if this particular story is worth pursuing. I'm not big into the idea of writing fanfiction, and this one is blatant in what it is(if it isn't, well, yay), but on the other hand I have the full story in mind, and I have been feeling like I need to contribute to the FiM fan community, and I think that for being a rough draft it's actually got some great atmosphere. I could chase it to the end of the rabbit hole, butI don't feel a particular push to beyond simple completionism. So, I figured I'd see if anyone was interested in this sample chapter. Like I said, it is a rough draft, covered only in terms of some base spelling and grammar corrections. I wrote it to deal with a writing itch and applied no structure or typical developmental thought to the creation of the piece.EDIT: I wrote this as lazily as I could. In short, it will be flawed. Let me know what I can fix, go full bore, but as stated, the main purpose is to see if there's enough interest in this piece to see it refined and continued. So, without further ado, A sample 'chapter' of A Spark for the Lost, a slightly grimdark psychological adventure of bittersweet raison d'etre. Spoiler: Sample Chapter Something was wrong. I don't know how long I had been there in the dark before that occurred to me. I don't know when it should have occurred to me. Time, location, causes, none of it seemed to matter before now. I just felt a part of what always was and would be, and that was all there was to it. I had no reason to worry, no reason to care. It was like being curled up in a warm bed for sleep as a storm passed by; I was safe, comfortable, and at rest. Nothing more mattered. But something was definitely wrong. Running with the analogy, it was like nearly falling asleep when all of a sudden you remember that you left the stove on, or forgot to run to the store, or something-anything that needs to desperately done. The sudden stop, the fuzzy thought, the nagging in my head was compelling, was waking me up. Something was wrong, and I had to deal with it. But what was it? Where was I? What was I doing? One thought triggered a question, which triggered more questions than before, until my mind was racing. It seemed too much to take in just waking up, the sound and fury of thoughts becoming demanding fuzz. I didn't want to deal with it all at once, not when I was comfortable, not when I was tired, not when I felt like I could simply be and let all go by. I began to chase those thoughts out, focused on an old, slow song, and worked to calm my mind. "Now c'mon sugarcube, it's time ya got up!" The voice echoed in my mind for another eternal second. I contemplated the words, took in the sound, and with it realized I couldn't just go back to bed. I don't know why, but I knew that I couldn't leave whatever it was to go to rot. So, despite feeling like I had sand in my eyes, I opened them. It was another process that seemed to simultaneously take forever and no time at all. When I finally opened them enough to see, I felt like I had wasted my time. The world itself was still dark, with only the only signs of light being patches in the distance that looked a little more greyed out. There was nothing for as far as the eye could see, except for my immediate surroundings. As it turns out, I was sitting on a bench with my legs stretched out in front of me. The ground in front of me was grassy until it dropped a little, and from there was dirt brown-probably a road, but I couldn't be sure. I could also see the branches of a tree spreading out like protective fingers from over my head. From what I could tell, I had been walking somewhere and stopped here for a nap. I couldn't say why though, as I had no idea where I was or where I had been going, and why the world looked so different. I turned my head to spot the owner of the voice and received a shock. The only person there was an orange pony wearing a cowboy hat, with a blonde mane tied out of the way. On top of that, the pony was more like a cartoon than an actual pony, being smaller and more rounded, with three red apples shown on her flank like an unnatural birthmark. She sat near me, looking at me with eyes too wide, too intelligent, and full of concern. "C'mon now, it's time ya got up! We gotta get going" she said with a warm Southern accent, shaking my leg with her hoof, a surprisingly soft gesture, as she looked around. "Somethin's not right here, and it's time we got a move on." I blinked and opened my mouth, not quite sure what to say. I sat upright and tried to make sense of what I was seeing before I intelligently said "Buh?” The pony looked me in the eyes, sighed, and spoke with exasperation, "Really boy, yer wasting time. Shake yer head, stand up and walk around, and let's get going. Ya keep sitting there, yer gonna fall asleep again". I chewed on that a second while my thoughts chugged into motion, the absurdity of it. Then I decided I could do no wrong with stating the obvious. So, I leaned forward and slurred out as much sarcasm as I could. "Really? Ya don't say. The talking orange pony says I might fall asleep in the middle of a dark field and that something's wrong. I wonder what could be wrong with this picture". I leaned back and frowned at the pony, more than a little grumpy. "This is a dream, horsey, everything's wrong". She smacked her face with her hoof and let out a grunt of aggrivation, then pointed her hoof at me as she stood up. "Don't you get all smart-alecky on me, mister,” she said pointedly before walking across to the other side of the bench and gesturing at all of the dark, "you know that somethin' ain't right here. Its trouble, all that is. It ain't normal, the ways things are going. I reckon that's why you could even hear me at all". "How do you reckon?" I replied, scrunching my forehead in thought. "Boy, ya sleep like a log. A tornado could pass over yer head and ya wouldn't stir a bit. Nothin' but a worry in yer mind could make ya open yer eyes", she replied looking strongly back at me. I wanted to argue but I couldn't. Similar things had happened in my life, sleeping through high school party with ease but waking in absolute still and calm when I thought I had forgotten to do the dishes. And the pony was right; even if this was a dream, something was wrong. There was a weight in the air, and that warm bed sensation permeated the world unnaturally, too powerful and evenly spread. And then there was the dark. It's been said all humans are born with a fear of the dark and the unknown it represents, that we learn through experience what's there, or should be there, and the patterns of our mind fill in the blanks. Replace the unknown with an idea, and fear with security. But in the dark surrounding our bench, I felt a contradiction, that there was both more in there than I could fill in with my mind and a greater hole I couldn't fill. It seemed to writhe, filled with what-if's and could-be's as well as have-not's and want-not's. The power of the unknown was overwhelming, and facing that dark, I felt like it was alive, ready to be whatever it needed to be. That's when it hit me. It was all hyper-real, dream or not, and I didn't know where I was, what I was doing, or what I could do. I was lost in a world too big and too small all at once, with no direction and no idea what to do. I was off the edge of the map and in over my head. The urge to close my eyes and drift back to sleep, to ignore and forget all of that hit me like a ton of bricks, and I almost curled up on the bench when the pony came back over and rubbed her head against my leg. "Hey, you doing okay there, sugarcube?" she said, backing up and looking at me. "I-I don't know" I said shakily. "It’s just-It's a bit much to take in". "Stand up." "Whuh? Why?" "Just trust me. Stand up and take a few steps. You'll feel better", she said, moving to the other side of the bench and stepping up before she started pushing against my shoulder with her hoof. "Ya need to move around a little, feel some of the strength in yer limbs and think on what it feels like to move again". The tone of her voice was sure and comforting, and I knew somehow that she was right, that I could trust her judgment. I leaned forward to stand, and suddenly struggled against weariness. Hadn't I just moved a couple of seconds ago? Now it felt like I had been working hard for a whole day and could barely move. I groaned and tried to move forward, but it was too much. "I-I can't, I'm too-I'm too tired", I slurred all of a sudden, finding that sleep was still heavy in my mind. "Yes ya can. Ya just got to keep on going. Yer not going to stay on this bench forever, ya wouldn't ever be able to stand that. Now come on, let's get up and get moving" she said, shooting me an assuring smile and shoving against his shoulder. I could feel a stirring in my mind, a small fire in my belly. Her words rang true, a fact about me that had always been true. I don't know why I thought I could just go back to sleep. I had always been stubborn, always willing to struggle against obstacles, until I had nothing left. It was out of character for me to just quit...so why hadn't I felt that way before? I leaned forward again, committing every thought of will to simply getting me shoulders level with my knees. This time though, as I struggled, I felt power grow in my limbs, and the more I thought, the more I fought, the more I could move. Soon I was slumped forward and standing, albeit after a long time. "That's it, yer doing it! Come on, just walk around the bench with me, you can lean on my back if yeh like" she said, coming over to my side. I did so, and began shuffling my way forward. As the blood started flowing through my body, I felt more and more awake, more and more sure, taking larger and larger steps until I was finally moving on my own without the pony's assistance. Once again, looking back at what I had done, I didn't know why it was so hard, seemingly like I could have done that all the time. I stopped and looked around at the world and found it wasn't as bad as I thought. It was still dark, still wide, still alive with possibility that was unnerving, but I knew I wasn't going to let that stop me. I had to go on, to find out where I was and how to get home. I finally looked at the pony and felt a little abashed. She just gave me a smile, but I couldn't shake the feeling that she had somehow caused the change. "Uhm...Thanks for the help, uh....." "Name's Applejack, and yer welcome." "Uh, right. Applejack. Thanks. Sooo.....do you know where we are?" I asked, surveying the landscape-or lack thereof-again for some clue I knew wasn't there. "Well, I don't rightly know. I do know we can't stay here, somethin's wrong" she replied, her face suddenly turning serious as she started to scan as well. "Do you know what's going on?" "No, but I know someone who will know. She'll know where we are, what's wrong here, what we can do about it, and how we can all go home. It's her we gotta find if we wanna set things right." I stopped and looked at her. "Really, one person can do all that? What's their name?" "Her name is Twilight Sparkle, a real bookworm and master magician. And you can shut those doubts out mister, she always comes through for us" she replied with confidence, and I knew once again that she was right, even though I had no real reason to. Something about the pony evoked trust and I couldn't bring myself to doubt her. "Well, that's fine and dandy, but we don't know where to go. If we had a road to follow-" was all I could say before I noticed that there was more to the area. The bit of dirt I had seen earlier was indeed part of a dirt road, which in fact was part of a four way crossroads in the middle of a grassy field. Each road extended into the distance, twisting and winding with newly revealed hills and gullies into the dark. The bench and the tree were alongside the road going behind us, straightest of all of them and going...backwards? There were too many holes in my head, but I knew that that was the road we had come from, and looking at the pony I knew she was thinking much the same. "Well...that's somethin' else. Still, which way should go?" she asked me, tipping her hat up a little bit. "Well, that's obvious" I said, and pointed towards the road opposite the one with the bench. "We go that way". "Why do yeh reckon?" "Because now that I'm away from it", I replied, glaring at the bench, "I don't like that bench, and I don't like that that road led me there. I feel like it'll only do that again, lead me to a sleep I don't need. I wanna get as far away from it as possible". The orange pony looked at the bench and the road next to it again and then slowly nodded. "I get what yer saying. Okay, then let's get a move on." And so we started to walk down the road, away from all other choices. It went on for some time before I realized I'd forgotten to do something. "Oh, by the way Applejack? My name is Alan Chander, and...thanks again" "Don't you think nothin' of it Alan; I was more than happy to help". And with that, with questions unanswered, holes in my head, and a pony by my side, I walked into the night.
