Two hours have past, and everypony in Constantine’s house was enjoying their breakfast after meeting Oliver.
Each of them had yummy pancakes with cream, strawberries and slices of lemon on them while Oliver had pancakes that was in a shape of Bendy’s head with cream and slices of lemon making the tiny horns, eyes and the big smile.
Shining was feeding Flurry Heart some warm milk that Cadence has made for her while drinking his coffee.
Constantine was pouring some coffee into Luna’s cup as he was finish pouring everypony some coffee as well as himself.
“Thanks,” Luna said after Constantine was finish pouring the coffee, went to sit in his chair and began to drink his coffee.
Twilight was sitting next to Cadence and Celestia while drinking her coffee but also looking at Oliver eating his pancakes. He haven’t said a word or two before saying he doesn’t want to talk about what’s wrong with him, this made Twilight feel worried and concern about him.
She then looked at Cadence before saying, “Cadence, will it be okay if I try to talk to him and see what’s wrong with him?”
Cadence nodded and said, “Yes you may, Twilight. I’m sure he’ll talk to you since you’re his aunt.”
Twilight smiled as she then got up, walked towards Oliver and sat besides him before lifting her right wing over him which made Oliver look at her after taking a bite of his breakfast.
“Hey Oliver,” she said softly to him, “I know you said you didn’t wanna talk about what’s wrong with you. But if you tell us what’s wrong, we can try to help you.”
Then Pinkie ran up to him trying not to scare him again before saying, “Yeah. You can just tell us what’s wrong, and nopony else. And we won’t tell anypony, we promise.” That was then she did her Pinkie Promise actions which made Oliver confuse since he didn’t know what that was all about.
He then looked at Cadence and Constantine to see what they have to say. They both nodded to say that he should tell them so they can get it over with.
“You might as well tell them, mate,” said Constantine. “It’ll be a lot easier than keeping it inside of you and not telling them.”
Oliver turned back to Twilight and everypony else in the house who are looking at him waiting for him to explain what’s wrong but also smiling at him.
He then let out a sigh before saying,
“It all started, seven months ago when I was eight years old....”
FLASHBACK
Seven months ago....
Oliver was eight years old and was enjoying his new life in his new family at the Crystal empire.
Shining and Cadence took Oliver to the park while Flurry Heart was at day care and Constantine was busy with something in his house. The married couple were sitting on a bench near the park while watching Oliver trying to catch a pink butterfly that keeps flying off every time Oliver jumps a little and tries to catch it.
Shining then looked at Cadence before saying, “I’m gonna find an ice cream shop and buy an ice cream for the kid. You want one, honey?”
Cadence nodded, “Yes please, Shiny. A chocolate ice cream would be nice.”
Shining let out a chuckle before saying, “Okay then, I’ll be right back.” With that said, he got off the bench and walked off to find an ice cream shop while Cadence stays and watch Oliver till Shining comes back.
Oliver was still trying to catch that butterfly that keeps flying off, it kept flying off that it flew away from the park causing Oliver to leave the park so he can catch the butterfly and having Cadence getting off the bench and follows him making sure he doesn’t hurt himself or something.
Oliver was distracted to the butterfly that he was so busy trying to catch it, he didn’t see where he was going or see if anypony was in front of him.
Just then, as the butterfly flew higher and went away, Oliver bumped into two pair of hooves in front of him making him fall back and landed on the ground on his flank.
Oliver rubbed his head as he then look up to see who he accidentally bumped into. He then let out a gasp of shock and fear as he saw who was front of him and just turned round to see, but it wasn’t just one pony, it was two, and they were the two orphanage ponies that Oliver hoped he never see again.
The pony on the left was a mare that was white, had dark pink mane and tail with a tiny blue bow at the end of the tail, and a brown wool jumper which is also covering up her cutie mark.
And the pony on the right was a gentlecolt that was brown, had light blue mane and tail, and a black business suit, which is covering up his cutie mark as well, with a black tie.
They saw all had angry looks on their faces as they saw who bumped into the mare.
“Oh no,” was all Oliver could said quietly, he knew this can’t be good.
“So this is where you’ve ran to, you little brat,” the mare said cruelty. “We’ve been looking all over Equestria for you after finding out you’ve ran off!”
“You don’t know how much trouble you are now!” Shouted the gentlecolt. “When we get back, you’ll be doing twice as more work than ever, and you’ll be getting ten big smacks on the flank for running away from the orphanage and us!”
Oliver tried to run away from the orphanage ponies, but his tail was then grabbed by the mare as she tried to pull him back while Oliver tries to run really fast for his tail to be loosen from the mare’s hoof.
“Somepony help me!” Oliver shouted as he wasn’t able to break free or even escape from them.
Cadence, who was still trying to catch up with Oliver, was looking all over for him since that colt was faster than her. She then stop as she then hear a colt’s voice from the distance.
“Somepony help me! Please!”
She then moved her head to right so her left ear could get a closer hearing of who could have said that.
“Mommy! MOMMY!”
She then let out a gasp as she recognise that voice and who was crying out for help.
“Oliver! Hang on! Mommy’s coming!” She shouted out to him as she then started to run to save her son.
Oliver was trying to break free from the mare’s strong grab on the tail, but it was no good, the mare was too strong for him to escape.
“Mommy! Help me!”
“Your mother is dead!” The mare said cruelty. “And don’t think you do have a new mother around! Cos nopony would wanna adopt a crybaby like you! Now come on!”
Just after four pulls on Oliver’s tail, the gentlecolt and mare heard a voice from six miles away from them.
“Hold it right there!”
The mare stopped pulling Oliver’s tail as she froze for four seconds before looking in front of her to see Princess Cadence was standing one mile away from her and was not very happy.
“What is going on here?” She asked in a serious and angry tone.
The mare and gentlecolt were in panic mode, she didn’t know what she was gonna do if she finds out what they’ve been doing to him. So they decided to lie to her and then she’ll leave them be.
“Oh uh uh, Princess Cadence. So nice to see you here.” The mare laughed nervously while sweating. “I’m Mrs Warlock and this is my husband, Mr Warlock.”
Mr Warlock smiled nervously at Cadence while waving at her.
“We were just taking this little one to the park to cheer him up. He’s the only child that still lives in our orphanage and nopony has adopted him yet. Such a poor kid.”
When Cadence heard the word “orphanage”, it made her wonder if these could be the owners that treated Oliver like trash before she adopted him.
“So if you’re taking him to the park to cheer him up, why are you pulling his tail and not pulling yours so he doesn’t get lost?”
“Oh uhhhh....” She was trying to think of something to make sure she leaves. “He just... loves having his tail pulled, and uh... he doesn’t like pulling my tail for some silly reason he said.” She laughed nervously again.
Cadence however wasn’t paying it, she gave her an unamused look on her face as she then saw Oliver pulling his tail out of the mare’s hoof, after two pulls he manage to break free and quickly ran to Cadence and hugged her left hoof tightly.
“It’s them, mommy!” Oliver cried as tears started to run down his face, “They’re the owners of the orphanage I was talking about! The ones who hurt me, call me names and use me as a slave!”
“What? Come on now kid,” the gentlecolt said in a lying way, “We don’t do things like that to poor children like you. And why did you call Cadence, mommy? She’s not your mother, silly.”
“Well that’s because,” Cadence walked up to the owners angrily before coming nose to nose to Mrs Warlock making her feel afraid, “I AM, his mommy!”
Mr and Mrs Warlock were now in shock mode after hearing what Cadence just said, they couldn’t believe she would adopt him.
“And this colt has a name now, and that name, is Oliver Sparkle! And after telling me what you two have done to him before I adopted him. I can’t tell you how furious I am now that I’ve finally met you, and I will not allow that abusive stuff around Equestria, even at the Crystal empire!”
Mr Warlock then looked at Oliver very angrily as he couldn’t believe he told somepony about what happened at the orphanage.
“You told her about it?! I CAN NOT BELIEVE THIS!! YOU'RE SO DEAD NOW!!”
His horn started to glow as his dark green grasp wrapped around Oliver’s wings as he then began to pull them, like he was gonna rip them off, making Oliver groan in pain and having tears running down his eyes. Just then, a tiny golden grasp ball zoomed to Mr Warlock’s horn causing it to have a crack in it. Mr and Mrs Warlock turned to see it was John Constantine that did the ball shot, and he wasn’t very happy at all.
The two went into deep shock after seeing him, they’ve never seen him before or even know what he is.
“W-what are you?” Asked Mrs Warlock in shock.
“I’m a human, and my name’s John Constantine! And it looks I came just in time to stop you from hurting this poor kid and trying to take him back to your orphanage which I’m afraid to say that it’s now shut!”
“W-what?!” Shouted Mr Warlock, “How?! Our orphanage can’t shut alrea...” before he could finish, Cadence butted in.
“I’ve sent a letter to Aunt Celestia while you two were looking at Constantine two seconds ago. She’ll be shutting your orphanage down for good now.”
They then heard hoofsteps coming towards them, it was Shining Armor who was looking his wife and son after finding an ice cream shop.
“Hey honey, I was all over for you and Oliver. I was gonna tell you that I’ve found an ice cream shop but it’s close now so I wasn’t able to g...”
Before he could finish, he then saw Mr and Mrs Warlock still in shock.
“Who are they?” He asked while pointing his left hoof at them.
“Shining honey,” said Cadence, “Remember Oliver’s sad story about his life in that horrible orphanage?”
Shining just nodded for a yes.
“Well,” She then pointed to Mr and Mrs Warlock, “These two are the owners of that orphanage, the ones that abusive Oliver and made him do all their work. They even tried to kidnap him after bumping into them.”
That was then Mrs Warlock grow anger and told another fat lie.
“You’re the one who tried to kidnap him! This no good excuse of a child belongs to us and deserves punishment for running away from the orphanage!”
“He doesn’t belong to you anymore!” Shouted Cadence with anger as Oliver quickly ran underneath Cadence to hide behind her front legs. “He now belongs to us!”
“Oh yeah? And who’s gonna stop us from taking him?” Mr Warlock asked like he wasn’t scared of the princess of love.
“Why don’t you ask them?” Constantine said as he pointed up in the sky.
Mr and Mrs Warlock looked up and what they saw made them have shock looks on their faces. Flying down were four Crystal royal guards, two were wearing armour and the other two won’t, and they landed in front of the three ponies looking furious at Mr and Mrs Warlock.
“While you two were lying about Cadence kidnapping Oliver, I magically sent a note to the Crystal guards about you two to let them know the princess wants them to take you away,” Constantine said as he placed his hands in his trouser pockets.
The guards turned around to look at Shining and Cadence.
“Guards,” said Shining in a serious tone, “Take these two to Canterlot, and make sure you tell Princess Celestia they’re the orphanage owners that have been abusing Oliver before we adopted him.”
“Yes Captain,” said one of the guards.
The guards went over to Mr and Mrs Warlock as two of them grabbed hold of Mr Warlock while the other two grabbed hold of Mrs Warlock. They tried to break free but the guards were too strong for them to escape as they then flew away to Canterlot still grabbing a hold of them.
Mrs Warlock, who had finally given up trying to break free, looked down at Oliver in anger and shouted at the top of her lungs,
“I HOPE YOU'RE ABOUT WHAT YOU DID, YOU LITTLE BRAT!! I ALSO HOPE YOU BURN IN TARTARUS FOR THIS BECAUSE NOPONY WOULD EVER LOVE OR CARE FOR YOU!!”
Shining, Cadence and Constantine were glad that Mr and Mrs Warlock are now gone, so was Oliver, but the words that Mrs Warlock said went right into him. Oliver then started to cry after the mean and threaten words that Mrs Warlock said to him.
Cadence saw this before Shining and Constantine did, she then picked him, placed his head on her chest and gave him a warm hug while gently rubbing his back.
“Shhh... it’s okay, Oliver. It’s okay,” she said softly in his ear. “They’re gone now. I’m here.”
Oliver then buried his face into Cadence’s chest as his tears soaked into Cadence’s soft fur. Shining gently placed his right hoof onto Oliver’s mane and began to rub his mane gently in comfort of his own.