//------------------------------//
// Yearning History 
// Story: Crystal's Wishes 
// by Crystal Wishes 
//------------------------------//

Crystal knocked on the door to Velvet's condominium and waited, shifting from one hoof to the other. When the door was opened, two grinning, eager faces were shoved in her own.

"Hi, Velvet. Hi, Horsey," she said with a small smile.

Velvet rolled her eyes. "Hi? Hi?!"

"We don't want a 'hi'!" Horsey stomped a hoof. "We want information! Is he your special somepony now?"

Crystal opened her mouth to respond, but Velvet pushed against Horsey's side to be closer. "Are you two going to trot off into the sunset together and live happily ever after?!"

Crystal stayed her tongue as long as she could while they stared at her before she burst into giggles. She waved a hoof and pushed her way past them to get inside. "No, nothing like that at all."

Velvet's ears fell. "But, Crystal!"

On the coffee table sat a dark brown cake with a light caramel sauce drizzled over it, a couple candied dates sitting on top in the very center.

"Is this the date cake?" Crystal trotted over to it. "It looks delicious!"

Horsey followed alongside her. "Forget the cake! What happened? What went wrong?" she practically begged, a faint sound of desperation tracing her voice.

The knife resting by the cake glowed, surrounded by the pink aura of Crystal's magic. It raised up and started to carve out a slice. "Well, we went to an antique store, then watched clouds before a cantankerous pegasus decided to literally rain on our parade." She raised the slice. "We decided we were better as friends, 'cause—" She turned her head to look at the two girls, trying to smile, but it was a weak attempt. "There was no magic. No spark. It wasn't romantic or special at all."

Velvet sighed heavily. "Aww, no way."

"I understand," Horsey said in an almost uncomfortably serious voice. She put a hoof on Crystal's shoulder. "Things between 16-Bit and I are, well." She took a bite of Crystal's cake slice.

"Wait, are you two dating?" Velvet sat on the other side of Crystal, but leaned forward to look at Horsey. "Since when?!" Following suit, she took a bite of the floating cake slice as well.

Crystal glanced between the two of them with a playfully irritated look, then finished off the slice in one large bite before they could take any more of it.

Horsey shook her head. "No, we've just been hanging out more after LARP. But it's not just him and me. It's his friends, too. So we're usually never alone, except one time last week, and it was so awkward."

Crystal, her cheeks puffed like a chipmunk's, struggled to swallow. Once she did, she gasped for air briefly, then wheezed, "Really? Oh, wow." Her head fell forward while Velvet started to cut the cake into individual slices. "They say mares are complicated. Well, stallions are just one big disappointment."

Velvet fumbled with the knife in her hooves and stared at them with a stern gaze. "Come on, you two! Just because you both happened to chase after the wrong stallions doesn't mean they're all bad!" She sighed. "You just have to try again until you find the right one."

Crystal shook her head. "I think I'd just rather write about them." A sheepish grin spread across her lips. "At least until a stallion can give me a guarantee that he won't disappoint. I just want to be swept off my hooves."

The three fell into silence as they ate the cake. There was nothing more to say, and they knew it.

"You know, girls," Sunbeam said softly. The trio looked up, startled by the sudden break in the silence. "Pepper Ridge wasn't what you'd consider a 'perfect stallion' when I met him."

"Really?" Crystal, Horsey, and Pepper Ridge asked in unison, one looking much more confused than the other two.

Velvet sat quietly. Her ears were pinned back and her gaze was focused on the cake slice in front of her.

Sunbeam walked over to sit at the coffee table with the girls. "Let me tell you a story."

"You don't have to," Velvet muttered, but she was dismissed by a gentle hoof on her shoulder.

"Now, now, sugarpop, I know I'm your mother and you don't like to think about this, but I was a teenage filly once, too, you know." Sunbeam winked.

Velvet groaned while Crystal and Horsey leaned in, smiling curiously.

"So, how did you two meet?" Crystal asked.

Sunbeam folded her hooves in her lap. "Well, he was the only stallion in our home economics club. He was kind, sensitive, a great baker. Let's just say, we thought he preferred eclairs to cake."

"Mom!" Velvet threw her hooves to her face as she cried out, her cheeks turning red. "Really?!"

Pepper Ridge stood frozen in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room, almost as red in the face as Velvet was.

Crystal covered her mouth. "Oh, my." She started to blush as well.

Horsey glanced between them all, quietly taking in each reaction with a blank expression. In a hushed voice, she mumbled, "I don't get it."

Crystal started to snicker. Sunbeam stared at Horsey with a look of hesitancy as she pondered her words very carefully. Before she could come to a conclusion, however, Velvet said rather bluntly, "Only stallions have eclairs, jeeze."

Horsey furrowed her brow. She started to look more upset than confused as the three stared at her expectantly. Finally, her eyes grew wide and her cheeks pink. "What? Oh. Whoa!"

"Do we really have to talk about this?" Velvet whined, her face still hidden behind her hooves.

Sunbeam patted her daughter on the shoulder again. "The worst is already over, sweetie. I might as well finish now." She giggled to herself. "He became an honorary mare in our eyes, and we would invite him to our mare's nights out. He was such a good listener and never took advantage of his position."

Crystal leaned in with interest clear in her eyes. "Then? Then what?"

Sunbeam waved a hoof. "It seems silly now, but I was talking to him about my stallion troubles. I was just like you girls, chasing after a crush but not feeling anything. With Pepper Ridge, I was always so calm and secure." She paused for dramatic effect. "So then, suddenly, he kissed me. Out of nowhere!"

Horsey and Crystal gasped while Velvet groaned.

Pepper Ridge slowly walked over to the table. A strange look was on his face: it resembled both realization and disappointment. "Is—Is all of that true?"

Sunbeam blinked up at him. "Hmm? Why, of course."

Pepper Ridge sat beside her and stared at the others, lips pursed. "I thought I was a stud."

Sunbeam broke out into chimes of delicate laughter.

Crystal grinned at him. "Tell us your side of the story, Mr. Ridge!"

"Yeah." He still seemed somewhat distraught by the revelation. "Yeah." He cleared his throat. "Well, like she said, I was in the home economics club. I thought I was smooth and dashing because all the mares would invite me over for their get-togethers. They talked about everything! Everything! I—" He coughed and turned his head to the side.

At that point, Sunbeam had fallen over backward as her laughter shook her whole frame. Horsey started giggling despite her best efforts, and Crystal absorbed every word he spoke.

"I just assumed they all liked me," he said in a quiet voice. "That's why I kissed Sunbeam. I just figured that's what a stallion does when he's got lots of mares after him."

"Oh, sweetheart." Sunbeam remained on the ground, wiping a tear from her eye while reaching out her other hoof to rest on his. "You were very mistaken."

Pepper Ridge muttered, "I see that now."

Sunbeam smiled. She tugged on his hoof to pull herself up and kissed his cheek. "Don't worry. It worked out in the end, didn't it?"

"Hmm." A smile pulled at his lips and he nuzzled her. "Yes, it did."

Crystal watched the happy couple, Horsey was still giggling, and Velvet was stuffing her face with cake trying to ignore all of it.

"That's so wonderful," Crystal said with a sigh. "I hope my special somepony comes along soon. I'm ready to be in love!"

Sunbeam's smile softened some. "It'll happen when it's time, dear. I was a senior when Pepper Ridge kissed me, though I was just about you girls' age, now that I think about it. School in Manehattan isn't as long as it is here, after all."

Crystal's ear flicked. "My parents met while they were in school."

"Oh, really?" Sunbeam tilted her head. "How?"

"They—" She blinked a few times. "Well, I know bits and pieces. My dad fell for my mom when he saw her in the color guard, but I guess he didn't do anything until he asked her to the Fall Formal Gala in their senior year." A frown pulled her small smile down. "And I know my mom liked him, but I don't really know much, now that I think about it. I'll ask them when—"

"Dohnn!" Velvet cried in a cake-muffled voice as she jerked her head up. She paused to swallow. "Don't! You don't want to know! They're your parents." She glanced at her own. "It's weird when it's your parents."

Crystal giggled and nudged Velvet's side with her elbow. "It's not weird at all! It's romantic!"

Horsey tapped her hoof to her chin. "Come to think of it, I know nothing about my parents and how they met. I've never thought to ask."

Crystal turned her gaze on Horsey. "You'll have to tell me what their story is when you find out!" She squealed, clapping her hooves together. "I just love love!" She raised a slice of cake and took a happy bite from it.

"I'm glad you're in better spirits," Sunbeam said as she stood up. "Now, I'll leave before Velvet refuses to speak to me for a week. Again." She giggled softly and walked toward the kitchen. "Come on, dear."

Pepper Ridge followed after her, leaving the three girls alone around the nearly finished cake.

"I know they were ponies before they were my parents, but it's weird to think of them as ponies," Velvet admitted with her nose scrunched up.

"Yeah, but it's also kind of interesting to think about, too," Horsey said. "They had lives before we came along."

Crystal hummed and tried to listen to the two as they talked, but she was much too excited by the prospect of learning her parents' full story. She knew the minor details, but not the big plot points! She just had to find out the whole truth.


♡



When Crystal arrived home, she smiled at the sight of her parents in the living room. Upper Crust, as usual, was lying on the couch with a fashion magazine opened and resting over her forelegs while her magic lazily turned the pages. Jet Set was sitting in the recliner chair, a newspaper levitating in front of him.

"Hi, Mom! Hi, Dad!"

Jet Set looked up to greet her with a smile. Upper Crust's ear flicked in vague acknowledgment.

"Welcome home, dear," her father said as the newspaper lowered. "How were Mrs. Sunbeam and Mr. Ridge? I know their bakery is doing well, from what I've heard."

Crystal trotted over and sat down on the floor, placing her snout on the arm of his chair to gaze up at him. "Oh, they were wonderful as always, Dad. They made a wonderful date cake."

"A date cake?" He paused, then laughed heartily. "I see! A date cake to celebrate your date?" His expression sobered rather suddenly. "Your mother told me your date did not go well."

Crystal smiled as sweetly as she could. "It was fine, Dad. He just wasn't the right one."

Jet Set patted her on the head. "I'm sure you'll do better next time. Keep your chin up."

"Yes, Dad." She paused, then started to wiggle and squirm before she asked, "Can you tell me the story about how you and Mom fell in love?"

"Can he? Darling, of course he can, but will he?" Upper Crust raised her brow.

Jet Set stared down at Crystal's eager grin with a polite frown. "Why do you want to know something like that?"

Crystal batted her eyelashes. "Because Mrs. Sunbeam and Mr. Ridge told me their love story, and I'd like to hear my parents'!"

Her father seemed unaffected by her charms. The newspaper opened up, blocking her view of him. "Perhaps some other time."

She blinked one, two, three times. He flipped to the next page of his newspaper. "Oh." Her ears folded back while her brow furrowed and she stood up. "Um, okay." She started walking toward the stairs, pausing to glance over at them. Neither looked up from their respective reading material. "I'll be in my room until dinner, then."

"All right, darling." Upper Crust ran her hoof over an article to keep her place. "I'll call you when it's ready."

Crystal hesitated at the foot of the stairs. "Okay." She went up to her room, uncertainty and confusion rumbling in her chest. Something was up and she wasn't sure what, but it made her feel suddenly uneasy.