A sapphire blue sedan pulled up into the driveway as the two kids and their temporary guardian waited at the front door. They both stood petrified with guilt as their parents, who were clearly not happy with them, climbed out of the car and marched up to them.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Spike shouted in anger. "We get a call in the middle of the night from your teacher telling us that you're at her house instead of asleep in your beds?! Do you have ANY IDEA how wrong that is?!?"
"I hope you two enjoyed your little late night excursion," Rarity chided, "Because once we get home, neither of you will be setting foot out of your room for weeks! Thank you for calling us, Goldenrod."
"No problem, Rarity," Ms. Goldenrod said. "I'm sorry it had to be so late."
Suddenly, everyone was startled by a loud belching sound that seemed to come from nowhere. The burp was followed by the sound of voices arguing, which they could tell were coming from behind the bushes. The voices sounded vaguely familiar.
"Who's there?" shouted Goldenrod. Out of the bushes came the troublesome dragon twins, Onyx and Obsidian, frustrated that the jig was up for them.
"What? You guys, too?!" Spike exclaimed.
"I had no idea. I swear," the teacher defended.
"So you guys were the ones following us?" asked Ruby.
"Yeah, that's right," Onyx conceded. "We heard you guys talking about the treasure, so we decided to follow you."
"We figured you'd lead us right to it so we could take it all for ourselves," Obi finished.
"Alright! Everypony in the car, now!" Rarity commanded. The whole family did as she said. They packed up the kids' bikes in the back and soon, they were all on their way back home.
-----
When the family arrived home, Rarity ordered everyone into the living room to give the kids a chance to explain themselves. When they explained that they had been out searching for their parents' hidden treasure, the two grown-ups were more than a little confused.
"Why would you think we had any treasure?" Spike asked. Ruby took a deep breath and hung her head in shame before answering.
"Because... I found a box full of your old newspapers in the attic," she confessed. "They said you used to be pirates, so I just thought you must've buried your treasure a long time ago and forgot about it."
The two parents looked at each other with concern and then returned to scolding their children. "And what were you doing in the attic?" Spike inquired.
"I was just looking for some stuff to sell to help pay the bills," the young dragon admitted. "I heard you talking about how we were bleeding you dry and I just wanted to help."
Both parents felt a pang of sympathy for their daughter. "Look. I'm sorry you heard us say that, but that's no excuse to go wandering around where you're not supposed to, especially this late at night. Understand?" Spike stated, regretting his choice of words earlier that night. Ruby and Topaz both nodded and apologized for what they had done. The twins, however, were still focused on one small issue.
"How come you guys never told us before about you being pirates?" Obi asked bluntly.
Spike sighed in regret. "I knew we should've thrown out those old newspapers years ago."
"Now, now, darling. We both knew we'd have to tell them someday," Rarity reasoned, patting his shoulder.
"Yeah. I just didn't think it would be this soon. Guess I'd better go wake up Jade and Citrine, huh?"
Rarity nodded and the big purple dragon walked upstairs and knocked on the doors of the two teenage girls, waking them from their slumber. He explained that they needed to have an emergency family meeting. Reluctantly, the girls followed their dad downstairs and joined the others.
"Do we have to do this now?" Jade groaned with a yawn. "It's like 2:30 in the morning."
"I was having the most soothing beach dream," Citrine complained.
"Sorry girls, but this is important," Rarity stated sympathetically. She looked to her husband for support. He nodded and gripped her hand, signaling her to begin. "Kids... there's something your father and I have to tell you."
The kids all listened attentively as their mother gave a heavy sigh before starting her story at the beginning.
"It all started many years ago back in Ponyville," the white unicorn began. "I was just a simple young pony with a simple dream of becoming a world-famous fashionista. It wasn't a glamorous life, but it was wonderful nonetheless. And then.... the Great Flood happened and everything changed. I lost everything in that horrible disaster. My home, my dreams.... my family."
Rarity choked up a bit as she recalled the painful memory. Her husband put his arm around her for emotional support and she went on.
"I didn't know where I was going to go next, but I vowed that I would never give up on my dream and that I would honor my family by making a new life for myself. The kind of fabulous life that I always wished I could give them. I took on a few odd jobs so I could earn enough money to buy myself a new house. Along the way, I met several other ponies whose lives had also been uprooted by the flood. We all became good friends and together, we made a plan. We... um... acquired a ship to sail around the world with and began taking on more.... exciting jobs to earn money."
"Are you talking about that yacht you stole from Filthy Rich?" Topaz interrupted.
"Wait! You did WHAT?!" Citrine exclaimed in shock.
"Wow, Mom. I never would've taken you for a boat thief," said Jade, surprised, but also mildly impressed.
Rarity continued. "You must understand. This was a very long time ago. After the flood, times were hard and ponies did many desperate things just to get by. Some of them very regrettable." Sensing the shame in his wife's voice, Spike decided to take over.
"Meanwhile, I was just your average schmuck who hated my job and my life, but one day, my boss gave me a special assignment to deliver a briefcase to some unknown location. Turned out to be a really bad job, but that's another story. I was on my way to deliver the case when the ship was attacked by your mom and her crew. Before I knew it, I found myself cowering on the floor with a briefcase cuffed to my wrist and a psycho pegasus pointing a gun at me."
His kids each gave expressions of amazement and horror.
"And that's when I saw her. Your mom stepped onboard the ship and saved my life. She was the most beautiful mare I'd ever seen. And I could tell just by looking at her that she had a heart of gold."
"Aww! That's so sweet," Ruby cooed.
"Yep. It was love at first sight for both of us."
"Well, I wouldn't say love at first sight," Rarity chimed in, "Though, you were quite easy on the eyes yourself. Despite the fact that you were quivering like a chihuahua caught in a blizzard and sweating up a fountain."
"Hey, give me a break. I was a little new to having a gun aimed at my groin."
He returned his focus to telling the story. "Anyway, they wanted me to give them whatever was in the case, but I didn't have the combination or keys for the cuffs, so they brought me aboard their ship, got the case off of my wrist and that's pretty much how I became a part of the Rogue Diamond crew."
"Whoa," Topaz exclaimed. "That's amazing."
"Yeah, it is. We did a lot of things we weren't exactly proud of, though. Honestly, if I could do it all over, I can think of a few things I'd do differently, but in the long run, the good far outweighed the bad." Spike smiled at Rarity and she smiled back. "You know what? As horrible as my old boss was, and as much as I hate to say it, I really owe him a whole lot. If he hadn't sent me on that delivery, I never would've met your mom. She and her friends may have abducted me and taken me prisoner, but she took me away from a life of misery and showed me a life of adventure and excitement. It was even thanks to them I got to be reunited with your aunt Twilight. Your mom was my angel."
"Oh, Spike! You are the sweetest thing ever!" Rarity said with tears of joy in her eyes. The two of them exchanged a kiss, much to the disgust of their children.
"Oh come on. Take it upstairs, will ya," Onyx whined. The parents chuckled in amusement.
"Seriously, though, how come you guys never told us any of this before?" Topaz asked, changing the subject.
"Because we didn't want you thinking of us as criminals," their mother admitted.
"What about Ms. Goldenrod?" Ruby asked. "How did she lose her memory?"
Spike recalled his past experience with the reformed mocha brown-colored mare. "Well, Ms. Goldenrod and I used to work under the same boss. I was just a cubicle jockey, but she was his own personal secretary. It was a big office building, so I never actually met her until the same day I got the order to deliver the briefcase. Let's just say... she was kind of a psycho."
"Spike!" Rarity gave him a disapproving look.
"Well she was," he defended. "She attacked our boat with an army of snipers."
"Ahem!" she coughed, taking over the story before it got too violent. "True, but after she lost her memory in battle, rather than leave her to fend for herself, we decided to help her make a new and better life for herself. Just because someone does terrible things to you, doesn't mean you can just abandon them in their time of need."
"Yeah, you're right. Besides, as far as anypony knew, including Fancypants, she was dead, so no one came looking for her."
"Well I think it's great that you helped her out like that," Citrine said proudly.
"Thank you, dear," said Rarity with a smile.
"Question," Jade announced, raising her hand. "If your old life was so exciting, why did you give it up?"
"Well, two things happened that made us decide that," said Spike. "First, there was the fact that a lot of ponies were out to get us. We had a pretty big bounty on our heads and every once in a while, we had to fight off some crazy pony who wanted to collect it."
"One time, we got a job request from a pony who wanted us to steal a one-of-a-kind treasure for him." Rarity recalled. "He offered us a handsome payment, so we did what he asked. But once I had it in my possession, it turned out to be a trap. He captured everyone except for me, including your father. He said it was for 'insurance' to make sure I didn't try and take the treasure for myself. He said that if I delivered it to him, he'd let them all go, but if I didn't..." She paused, a look of sorrow in her eyes.
Even without finishing her sentence, her kids knew what she meant and they all gasped in horror.
"I went to give him the treasure in person, but as soon as I did, he captured me, too, planning to turn us all over to the royal guards and collect the reward money."
"The whole time, he used us to get the treasure AND the reward for bringing us in," Spike recalled begrudgingly.
"Fortunately, I came prepared for just such a situation," Rarity said proudly. "I was able to free my crew and we managed to defeat those double-crossing charlatans. Even so, we barely escaped with our lives."
"After that, we both realized we loved each other too much to keep putting ourselves in danger like that," Spike said.
"So that's why you retired and sold the ship?" Topaz asked.
"That... and one other thing."
"What else happened?" asked Citrine.
The two parents exchanged a loving glance before Rarity answered. "You happened, sweetie."
Citrine's eyes widened. "Me? You mean, you gave up pirating because..."
"...Because I got pregnant with our first child."
"That's when we knew it was time to settle down and move on to the next stage of our lives," Spike finished. "And we wouldn't want it any other way."
The kids all looked to each other and then smiled back at their parents.
"Mom, Dad, thanks for telling us all this," Topaz spoke up.
"Yeah," Jade agreed. "I had no idea you guys were so badass back in the day."
"And we totally understand," Citrine added. "You made some mistakes when you were younger and you didn't wanna tell us about it until you thought we were ready. But you shouldn't worry so much about it."
"Yeah. I mean, look at us. We screw up all the time and you never hold it against us for long," said Jade.
"The point is we love you no matter what you did in the past," said Citrine.
"Yeah," Ruby agreed. "It's like Ms. Goldenrod said. Whoever you were before, it's not who you are now."
A big smile lit up the parents' faces. "Thanks, sweetie," Spike said, giving his youngest a big hug, which the others, minus the twins, quickly joined in on. "Guess we have the greatest treasure of all right here." The family held onto each other for about five seconds. The twins only joined in reluctantly when their mom waved them over.
"Alright," Rarity spoke up. "Everyone off to bed. You've got school in the morning."
With that, the kids all headed upstairs and into their rooms.
When Topaz and Ruby were in their room, their parents popped in on them.
"Oh, and by the way you two," Rarity addressed them, "You're still grounded for sneaking out. Four weeks, no TV, no books and no dolls."
Both kids groaned. "Oh, come on, Mom," Topaz whined. "That was in the past. It's not who we are now." He gave a nervous grin, hoping his little rationalization would sell.
"Yeah, we'll be better in the future," Ruby added.
"That's what the punishment is for," Spike said jokingly. The kids groaned again in defeat. "And Ruby. You let us worry about the money situation, okay? And don't go up in the attic again."
"Okay, Daddy."
"Good night, my darlings," Rarity said softly before planting a kiss on each of their foreheads. "We're so happy you're safe."
Spike smiled at the two youngsters before he and Rarity closed the door to let them get ready for bed. Ruby and Topaz got into bed as quickly as they could. They had learned a lot about their parents that night. If they were really as tough as all that, they decided it was probably best to do what they said and not make them upset. They may not have found a horde of gold, but they had gained a whole new level of respect their mom and dad.