//------------------------------//
// Emerald Rainbow 
// Story: Of Stones and Roots 
// by Ignimbrite 
//------------------------------//

“Kind Face?”

In his shock, Obsidian accidentally dropped Thorite, who thankfully landed safely in a water fountain.  While Thorite stepped out and shook himself off, he and Feldspar both jumped down and ran over to her.

“You're Emerald Rainbow?  Why?  What are you doing here?”

Kind Face slowly took a few steps back, then turned around into a sprint, only to run face first into somepony else.

“Young lady.  I've been looking all over for you.”

Kind Face looked up into the disappointed eyes for a few seconds, then down at the ground.

“Sorry, Aunt Masquerade.”

“Kind Face,” Masquerade sat down in front of her and looked her in the eyes.  “What's gotten into you?”

“I… I… I wanted to see what it was like having others in the family.  Having sisters… and brothers… and cousins and all and… I don't know… I guess I thought I saw theirs…”

Feldspar stepped around in front of Kind Face to look at her.  

“What about the audition?”

“I made it up.  I got one of the colts at school to write it; I told him it was for a prank.  It was just an excuse to come here so I could join this."

She turned back to her Aunt Masquerade before continuing.

"I didn't want to sneak off and everything, cause I knew you'd worry, but I really wanted to come, and then you came along with me anyway, and then you found a real theater and... and..."

She sighed, having lost to strength to even hold her head up enough to look her aunt in the eyes.

"In sorry, Aunt Masquerade.  I'm sorry."

"Kind Face..."  Masquerade closed her eyes and sighed.  "You really need to stop taking everything into your own hooves.  I might not have all the answers you want, but I'm still there for you.  If nothing else, you could have at least let me know of your plan so that I would know you're safe."

As Kind Face continued hanging her head, Obsidian stepped closer. 

“You went through all that just to sneak into our reunion?”  

She nodded, still looking towards the ground.

“Why didn't you just ask us?”

“Why didn't… what?”

She turned to him, unsure if she had just heard what she thought she'd heard.

“Why didn't you ask?  I'm sure Mom and Dad would've said it's okay, and I don't think anypony here would be against you joining, but if they were, we'd all still be with you.”  He looked over to his parents, who had stepped up being him.  “Right?”

“Of course,” Gneiss replied.  “We would have been glad to have you here just as yourself.”

“We've still got some daylight left,” Quartz added.  “How'd you like to be a Stone for a day?”

“Really?”

By this point, most of the family had gotten there to see what had happened.  All of them either smiled or nodded.  

All of them agreed except one, at least.

“Hold it, hold it, we can't just bring her in.  You're all forgetting something.”

Zircon, Quartz, and Corundum all turned around as the stallion approached.  Zircon asked the question they all had.

“Dad?  What are you talking about?”

“Quiet, son.  It's part of the tradition.”  He turned to Kind Face with a stern gaze.  

“Sit up a bit straighter.  I need to do something.”

Cautiously, she did as instructed.  As soon as she was sitting up straight, Hard Place tapped her on each shoulder and on the top of her head with the tip of his horn.

“I hereby dub thee Lady Kind Face, honorary member of the Stone family, and grant you all the rights, privileges, and what-have-you that comes with being a member.  Any family members among us who object to this can go stick their nose in Pyrite's poison joke patch and take a deep breath.”

As a couple of the other family members chuckled over the "ceremony," Hard Place's eyes lost their feigned sternness entirely, and he smiled.

“Welcome to the tribe.”

“Really?”

He nodded.  “Really...  Provided your aunt's okay with it, of course.  And forget that ‘for a day’ part.  Your title lasts until you don't want it anymore or I deem fit to remove it, and in all my years, I've only ever had to do that once before.”

She turned to her aunt and very nearly engaged the sad puppy eyes again before her aunt sighed.

“We'll discuss your running away again later.  Go on.  There's not much daylight left.”

As she was standing up, Obsidian tapped her on the shoulder.

“While we're over here, you could remove the horn if you want.  It's not like you need it anymore anyway.  Besides,” he smiled, “you really do look better as yourself.”