Spike on a couch, kicking his legs off of the edge. He was alone in the living room, waiting for his parents. They had told him to stay in the living room as they got some things. Spike had no idea what those 'things' were so he was rather curious about what they were planning.
Crystal floated into the room, carrying a projector into the room. Ashrod followed her, pushing a movie projector sheet. It was on a long metal pole with wheels at the bottom. Now Spike was very curious to see what was going on. Crystal placed the projector on the wooden table in front of Spike.
"We're going to be showing you your family tree!" Crystal said excitedly. Ashrod sat down next to Spike, putting his hands in his lap. Crystal closed all of the curtains and turned off the lights in the living room. Once she was finished, she sat down on the other side of Spike. She leaned forward and clicked on the projector. A picture of two dragons popped up on the screen. One was yellow with pink scales and the other was teal with green scales. Both of them looked rather annoyed that their picture was being taken
"That's your grandmother Zircon and your grandfather Brimstone. They've been married for eight hundred years and still going strong." Ashrod explained. Spike gaped in awe. It amazed him that dragons could stay together for that long and not get sick of each other. Crystal pressed the button on the projector, changing to the next picture. In the picture, Ashrod was grinning happily. His arm was wrapped around a fat green dragon with purple scales. He had a sleazy grin on his face. Spike recognized the second dragon instantly.
"Is that Sludge?" Spike asked, His parents gave him a look of surprise.
"That's your uncle Sludge. You know him?" Ashrod asked. Spike nodded his head.
"A few months ago he pretended to be my dad to get free stuff from me." Spike explained. Ashrod let out a groan and rubbed his temples.
"Sludge has always been a con artist. He lies to people all the time to get stuff out of them. He's just..." Ashrod trailed off and let out a groan. "Just go to the next picture." He said. Crystal changed the picture, not wanting Ashrod to be annoyed.
A picture of a grey siren with light green scales showed up on the screen. He was laying on a rock, posing dramatically. His tail was draped over the side of the rock and the back of his hoof pressed up against his forehead.
"This is my father, Nocturne. He's directs plays Hailberg." Crystal said with a smile. That caught Spike's interest.
"That sound's so cool, I've never been able to direct a play," Spike said in awe. Crystal and Ashrod looked at each other.
"How about we go visit your grandfather and he can help you direct a play?" Crystal suggested. Spike's face lit up.
"I would love to do that!" Spike exclaimed. He got to go to Hailsburg and meet more of his family. His face quickly dropped. That meant he would have to be away from Twilight for an extended amount of time. She wouldn't have help around the castle.
"Wait, I can't go. I have to go back to Twilight." He said in a mildly disappointed tone.
"Who's Twilight?" Crystal asked.
"She's my older sister. I got adopted by ponies when I was a baby." He explained. Crystal frowned and Ashrod crossed his arms in annoyance. Their reactions confused Spike.
"You were raised by ponies? Oh dear..." Crystal said in a worried tone. Ashrod shook his head with his arms still crossed against his chest.
"Ponies are no good, no good at all," Ashrod said as he continued to shake his head. Spike frowned. How could they think ponies were bad?
"What do you mean, ponies saved my life. If it weren't for Princess Celestia, I would have never hatched." Spike stated. "Almost all of my friends are ponies too." He said. The sound of that made Ashrod angry and Crystal distressed.
"Spike sweetheart, ponies aren't good. Do you know how dangerous they are?" Crystal asked. Spike shook his head. He knew that ponies could be evil if they chose to but not all of them were bad.
"Ponies can be ruthless. They banish dragons from their towns and attack sirens." Crystal explained. Spike shook his head.
"But everything is different now. I'm the ambassador for ponies and dragons! Everything is getting better!" Spike exclaimed. Ashrod and Crystal gave Spike a surprised look.
"Are you sure that everything has changed? Last time I went to a pony village, I got attacked. it was terrible and it took me weeks to recover." Crystal said with a frown. Spike nodded his head, completely determined that he could change his parent's mind about ponies.
"I'm positive. Yaks, Changelings, Seaponies, and Griffons are making peace too. There's even a school in Ponyville that allows any creature to be a student. So far it's doing pretty well." Spike explained. He could see that his parent's still looked uneasy. "How about I take you to Ponyville so you can meet my friends and family? They're all super nice." He said.
Crystal let out a sigh and rubbed the bridge of her nose with her hoof. Ashrod looked at his wife, waiting for her answer. He was sure that she was going to reject Spike's offer.
"Fine, we'll go meet your friends." Crystal said reluctantly. Spike broke out into a grin and Ashrod gave a look of shock.
"We can't just go out? When was the last time we've even spoken to anybody?" Ashrod asked. Crystal looked at her husband and then Spike.
"We've lived here for thirteen years without interacting with anyone, we need to go out. Spike might be right, everything could be changing and we're missing it," Crystal said. Ashrod's expression softened a bit but he stood his ground. "Can you at least give it a chance?" She asked. Ashrod uncrossed his arms and let out a sigh.
"Fine," Ashrod said in a defeated tone. He turned to look at Spike. "But if anything bad happens, you're staying here with us. That means no more seeing your pony friends." He said in a stern tone. Spike gulped. Everything had to be perfect.