The Adventures of the Elementals

by AutoKnight01

An Evening of Firsts (Part 2)

I only own my OC's and the plot. Enjoy!

It was a night Gem would never forget for as long as she remained alive: Her very first birthday party. Only thirty minutes passes since it started and there were already a considerable amount of guests there, with her friends and siblings, of course, being among them. They were also joined by the Cutie Mark Crusaders, a few of their friends from school, Cheerilee, Bonbon and Lyra, the mayor, Derpy and some other brown pony with her going on and on about daleks, whatever those were, and a few various others. The house was packed and everypony seemed to be having a good time.

Food was being served, there was a stack of gifts for the birthday girl over on a table in the corner, and everyone had a smile on. Everyone that is, except ironically for the guest of honor herself. Sure, whenever somepony else looked at her she smiled back, but when not making eye contact with anyone, her frown resurfaced. Gem truly was grateful for the party and everything. She just wasn't really adapted to it yet. After those years spent in Alamante not even caring about her birthday, it was still confusing to her as to why Equestrians take them so seriously.

She was certainly dressed for the occasion. Once Rarity showed up, the silvery white unicorn strongly insisted that Gem open up the gift from her. She did just that and gaped at the stunning dress that was fashioned just for her. It was a perfect fit too. Gem had no idea how Rarity knew how big to make it but she cared not. Rarity used her magic to put it on her body for the occasion and warned her to not stain it. She promised to do so.

So after that transpired Gem went off the get a look around and a lay of the land. Everypony she passed by bid her a happy birthday and she bowed a bit to say think you to each one. Sooner than she expected though, she got bored and wanted to talk with someone. That's when she found her problems.

She didn't really know anypony there other than her friends and siblings. The rest of them were only there because it was a party and they know Pinkie throws good parties no matter what the occasion for them is. They really didn't care about who the guest of honor was. Although the mayor seemed a bit enthusiastic to be near her. That was mostly just due to the publicity she and the other elements were bringing to Ponyville.

Around the building, the other elements were scattered doing their own thing. Agua was scoping out the talent to try and find a mare worthy of taking back to the pond. Rarity was talking to some important clients of hers who tracked her to the party to speak business. Pinkie Pie was bouncing around too hyped up to stop moving no matter where she went. Every few minutes or so, she would stop when she got in view of Gem.

"Having fun?!" She would ask rather loudly.

"Yes, Pinkie. I'm enjoying it. Thank you." Gem answered for the ninth time.

"Oki Doki Loki!" With that she bounced off to find someone else to talk to.

When she was gone, Gem stopped faking her smile. It pained her to lie but she had to, so Pinkie wouldn't be upset. The truth is she wasn't really finding any joy in this party. All it was to her were a bunch of people standing around and talking about things that didn't concern her. She tried talking to them to try and befriend them but she was out of her age group here. It felt to her like she was a kid in a building full of grownups. Which if one were to put it in a numbers case, she kind of was.

With every bounce Pinkie saw everypony having a good time. Then sound of a hoof knocking on wood was heard from a distance away. The confectioner recognized it as the door knocking and stopped bouncing and walked over to the door to open it. On the other side stood a familiar pink alicorn.

"Oh yay, Princess Cadence! You made it!" Pinkie smiled at stood aside to allow the alicorn to some in.

"Hi, Pinkie Pie." Cadence greeted back as she walked in with Gem's gift in her magical grip. "Where should I put this?"

"Over there with the others." The pink earth mare pointed to the back.

Cadence spotted the table with the rest of the gifts and proceeded to set hers down at the base of the pile. It was small, about a few inches in length going both ways. After she powered down her horn, Cadence turned and saw Gem standing in front of her with Twilight and Pyro next to her.

"Oh hi, Gem. Happy birthday." She said with an enthusiastic smile.

"Thank you." Gem sweetly replied. "You didn't have to come but it makes me happy that you did."

"Oh of course I would come. It seems that everyone is here tonight." Cadence looked around and observed the room.

After that was said, the birthday girl turned her head away and frowned so no one else would see it.

"Well...almost everyone." she muttered to herself.

That was another problem she had with the party. She felt that there was one more face that should be there. The face of a familiar white unicorn she considered a brother. She told him and herself that it was fine he wasn't coming and was on a date but there was another part in her that just couldn't deal with it and thought the complete opposite. Call it jealousy, anger, or something else, but Gem's real birthday wish at the moment was Cryo being there to celebrate with her. She felt like he didn't care and that he chose a date with a hot girl over his own sister.

As much as she wanted to let her feelings known, she didn't want to feel as if she was just annoying the others with her feelings. So she did a good job at keeping them bottled up. A few seconds passed by until somepony else spoke.

"Hey wait a second. Where's Shinin' Armor?" Applejack asked noticing Cadence came through the door alone.

That was when everypony else in their group realized the alicorn of love was on her own. They thought for a second she would have dragged him in by the ear or something but no. All she came with was a gift. To surprise them once again, Cadence looked away as if she didn't really know how to answer.

"Shining Armor and I...decided not to attend this party together. He had to work late." She thought of the first thing that came to her mind.

She strongly hoped they wouldn't see through it. She got no such luck. It wasn't from Typhoon the telepath to her surprise. It was the stallion of water that spoke up.

"Wait a second."

Agua stepped in front of Cadence and started to look closely at her face.

"Let's see...eyes are red, bags under them, nostrils moist. You've been crying, haven't you?"

A small gasp escaped Cadence's mouth but nopony else heard it.

"What? No. No of course not. What makes you assume such a thing?"

Agua wasn't convinced. Her tone said it all. All he had to do was draw it out.

"Cadeeeeence." The blue stallion drew out her name telling her he wasn't fooled by the lie.

Just like that, Cadence's smile faded and the tears Agua were sure that existed started to resurface.

"Alright fine. I was. I've been crying ever since the trip here started. Happy now?"

It wasn't a matter of being happy, but Agua was pleased hearing he was right. However, he came back to reality fast and put on his emotionless face as he backed up away from the pink alicorn allowing Twilight to approach and hug her.

"Don't be sad, Cadence. Whatever it is, I'm sure we can help you out." She assured her old foalsitter.

"What's wrong anyway?" Pyro asked his old friend.

The tear output on her eyes increased a notch as the question from the red stallion hit her. She didn't want to explain but she knew she was going to sooner or later. Better to get it out now rather than much later. She only hoped that Twilight wouldn't be too affected by what she was about to hear. After all it did involve her beloved BBBFF.

She told them what really happened.

*2 hours ago*

Trouble in paradise wouldn't be the right words to describe it. More like just plain anger coming from both sides of the relationship. On one side there was Shining Armor and his still surprising hatred for the Alamantians, and then there was Cadence who thought he was being a straight up jerk.

Ever since the battle of Canterlot, Shining Armor had been doing a good job keeping his mouth shut and his thoughts bottled up. Recently however it became harder to do that. To be precise, it started exactly when both he and Cadence received mail from Pinkie Pie inviting them to Gem's birthday party three days before the party was going to take place. The gift was bought, wrapped, and everything. The captain of the guard kept his mouth shut until finally, right before Cadence was about to start getting ready, he opened up.

"We're not going."

Cadence was obviously surprised to hear him say that.

"What? Why not?" she asked.

"Because we're not." He sternly replied. "I don't want myself or you going anywhere near those element movers."

The alicorn groaned. Of all the times he had to start an argument, it had to be now when she was just about to get prepped for a fun party.

"Shining Armor, I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I don't know what your problem is with them, but get over it. They saved all of our lives and we should be thankful."

"They're dangerous! What part of that don't you get?!"

"You don't know them!" Cadence was officially fed up. "True they can do things we could only dream of but they mean us no harm! I trust them!"

"Yeah. I should've known you'd side with them. Especially HIM."

The emphasis on that last word made Cadence scared for her husband.

"Oh no. Don't you dare. Please don't tell me..."

"I saw you with him that night." He snapped. "Then you both flew off to who knows where to do Celestia knows what."

"We were having dinner! That's it! He's on old friend of mine and we were just catching up!"

"And then what?!" The yelling had officially began. "You had dinner with him and then what happened?! Don't you dare lie to me!"

That was the breaking point. Cadence's eyes began to go wet and she turned away from her husband.

"If you are really going to stand there and make those kind of accusations towards me, then I guess your love for me isn't as strong as I once thought."

With that, she walked off to the bedroom with him close in tow slowly starting to regret the words he used.

"It's not that I don't love you. I just don't trust him. I don't know a thing about him then all of a sudden, he shows up and you start getting close to him. Forgive me if I start thinking he has an ulterior motive."

"I can't." she answered quickly. "I trust him with my life. He's one of my best friends."

His anger was at a boiling point. His trust for his wife was shaken and he could only point the blame at one out of the six individuals he had come to despise. The red stallion of fire.

"Fine. Then go to that party. But don't expect me to welcome you back with open arms."

Shaking her head, Cadence went into her closet and came out a few minutes later with a luggage case fully packed. Shining Armor kept adjusting his line of sight between it and his wife stunned by the actions she was taking.

"If this is how you truly feel about my choice of friends, then don't expect to welcome me back at all."

"Cadence, please don't do this. Don't side with them over me." He was pleading but the anger was still clearly heard. "How could you do this?"

"No, Shining Armor. How could YOU?" she snapped back. "I've known you for a very long time. But you are not being the stallion I love right now. And until I see him again, being as loving as accepting as I know him to be, don't expect to see me anytime soon."

If one looked close enough, they would probably see steam rising up from Shining Armor's head. He held back his own tears and turned his back to her.

"You wanna run to him? Fine then. Go be with your precious fire hazard. Don't expect me to chase after you."

Not another word was spoken after that. Cadence lifted up her suitcase, made it vanish, and walked out of there with her eyes closed. As soon as it was shut, she heard Shining Armor yelling on the other side and it sounded like something was breaking. She walked away from the door in tears and they didn't stop falling until she reached Ponyville.

Those being told the story stared upon Cadence with feelings of sorrow, anger, and many more all mixing. Sniffling, Cadence made the luggage case appear next to her to validate her story's truth. She walked out on Shining Armor.

"That son of a bitch." Terra growled.

"I don't mean to intrude but, Twilight would it be okay if I stayed with you and Pyro for a while?"

There was no thinking on the matter because in Twilight's mind, none was needed.

"Of course you can, Cadence. Take as much time as you need." Twilight hugged the alicorn tight and she reciprocated.

Pyro too approached and rested a comforting hoof on her shoulder to show his support.

"We'd be happy to have you." He added. "But what if he comes looking for you?"

"If he wants to talk to me, I'll gladly offer him the opportunity." Cadence answered. "But he's crazy if he just thinks I'm going to agree with him on what he thinks of all of you."

"I just don't get it." Twilight began to rub her chin in deep thought. "Shining Armor is one of the best stallions I've ever known. I don't know why but something is telling me there's something more to this whole thing?"

"Can't you just admit he's an ass and move on?" Terra asked.

"No!" Twilight shouted almost defensively. "My big brother has never been...an ass...in his whole life!" She hesitated not used to using such language. "There's gotta be something more to it. Something he's not telling us."

"Right....well when you figure that out, let me know. I'll be over there getting drunk."

A bit rude of her, but she cared not. Terra turned away from her friends and headed over to a cider table to get her drink on. Soon enough, Gem found herself standing alone again and afraid to talk to anypony else to try and make friends. A minute later, her cyan coated partner found her and wrapped a wing around her side.

"Hey there." Rainbow Dash smiled. "You havin' fun?"

"Uh...yeah. Yeah of course."

That was the first time that night somepony noticed Gem's discontent.

"Gem, what's wrong?" the pegasus asked. "Come on. You can tell me."

The young unicorn took a sigh of relief. She did want to vent a bit, she just wasn't sure she should. Now that she was being asked to, it was hard to say no.

"Well I guess things just aren't-"

"Hi, Rainbow Dash. Long time."

Gem was cut off by a voice she had never heard before but Rainbow Dash had a few times. The daredevil flyer smiled upon seeing a yellow pegasus with a fire orange mane standing in front of her. It didn't take a genius to figure out who it was. But since Gem WAS a genius and was living with the Wonderbolts' number one fan, she deduced the yellow mare's identity in less than a second.

"Name's Spitfire." She greeted herself to Gem. "I heard this was a party for one of the Alamantians. Heard about them. Especially since one of them is owed a favor from the Wonderbolts."

She looked at Gem with a smirk as she said that last sentence.

"So you're the kid that saved us in Canterlot." Spitfire pointed out. "I just wanted to come by and say thanks for that."

Gem blushed in response to Spitfire's gratitude.

"It was nothing, really."

"Oh don't be so modest, Gem! You were awesome!" Rainbow slapped her on the back.

"Gem, huh?" Spitfire now had the name in her head. "That's a nice name. Simple, easy to remember, and says a lot."

Gem blushed and turned her head away with a small smile.

"The other Wonderbolts send you all of their thanks, Gem. Hope to see ya at another show sometime in the future."

With that, Spitfire turned away and headed off to one of the refreshment tables to indulge in some treats. Rainbow Dash had her eye on her the entire time not even blinking. The captain of the Wonderbolts was at the party, and Rainbow was in tight with the pony that saved her in Canterlot. If she ever was to have a chance to talk her way into a shot at the Wonderbolts, this was it and the time to take it was now.

She had her eyes set on her goal and nothing else. She failed to notice that her partner was looking at her and had forgotten that they were talking before Spitfire came in.

"Well Rainbow, as I was saying-" the purple unicorn was interrupted when Rainbow Dash held a hoof up in front of her face.

"Not now, Gem. Destiny awaits."

She walked away. Gem at first couldn't believe it but Rainbow Dash walked away from her after she said she would listen to her rant. At first she readied her hoof to fire a small bolt of plasma into her flank to shock her into coming back, but she yielded with a sigh not willing to hurt her and went back to finding something else to do.

She didn't have to walk far to find somepony else. Typhoon and Fluttershy were at a nearby table examining some food plates. Not only did Pinkie Pie bake sweets for this party, but Gem's brothers and sisters came together to cook a few Alamantian recipes they knew their younger sister would love to eat. She did appreciate it.

"Hey you two. How's the food? I haven't tried much of it yet." She asked the two pegasi.

Both of them smiled at her as she came over.

"The cupcakes are good but I think I heard Pinkie Pie mention something about the Cutie Mark Crusaders helping out with muffins." Fluttershy winced as she said that.

Gem and Typhoon did too. Almost a month now they had been living in Ponyville. That was more than enough time they needed to become familiar with the Cutie Mark Crusaders and their reputation all over town. They kinda felt sorry for Terra and Agua because they had to live with two of them. Granted with Agua he only sees Sweetie Belle after school and on weekends but for him it still counts.

"Yeah thanks for the heads up." Gem replied softly.

Typhoon didn't have to be telepathic to know that there was something troubling her little sister. Aside from Pyro, Gem was the one who Typhoon considered herself to be closest to and vice versa. They knew each other very well and very often talked to each other about things they aren't comfortable talking to the others about.

"Ees zere something troubling you, Gem?" Typhoon broke the ice. "I can see ze sadness een your eyes."

The unicorn sighed. She liked talking to Typhoon but most of the time she tried to avoid it. This was one of those times she didn't put that much effort into that.

"I guess you could say that." Gem began. "It's...I don't know. I guess I just-"

"Well this looks interesting."

Once again, Gem was cut off. This time by Fluttershy. She looked over to her in frustration but then both she and Typhoon became frightened when they saw what the buttery pegasus was looking at. Tiny pinkish red squares with toothpicks coming out the top. Fluttershy grabbed one and neared it to her mouth.

"Fluttershy, wait!" Typhoon tried to make a grab for it.

She was too late. The little square touched Fluttershy's tongue and went all the way into her mouth. She began to chew on it and Gem and Typhoon only winced with ever chomp her teeth took. Finally, she turned around and faced the two Alamantians trying their best to hide their concerned faces. Fluttershy became confused on the spot and waited until she swallowed her little treat before asking them the question.

"What's wrong?"

Being a telepath was very handy for Typhoon and those who knew she was a telepath. That meant the psychic could have a conversation with someone else inside their mind so no one else could hear them.

Gem and Typhoon immediately engaged in one of these mind chats the second Fluttershy asked them that question.

"Zere's no way I'm telling her what she just ate. Zis is your party. You do eet!"

"She's YOUR partner! You live with her! YOU tell her!"

"You do know what she does for a living right? Eet will kill her!"

"You were the one who noticed! Ty, I'm not telling her! I just wanted to talk with you and now THIS happens!"

"Gem, I'm really sorry about zat....I guess you're right. I'll tell her."

The telepathic conversation ended and Typhoon approached her pastel colored partner with very concerned eyes and a comforting smile. Almost as if someone had died or something.

"Fluttershy....zat treat you just ate...how was eet?"

Fluttershy shrugged and responded.

"Well...it was sort of chewy but juicy. Succulent even. I don't know what it was but it tasted really good."

That only made Typhoon worry even more about what she was about to say. She looked back at Gem with a scared face then looked back to Fluttershy.

"Um....Fluttershy......zose are cockatrice bits. You just ate meat."

Fluttershy's eyes had never been more wide in her entire life than they were at that very moment. A lover of all animals and never willing to see them hurt or worse, she was a big time vegetarian. The word "meat" was almost like blasphemy to her. And now she just took a bite of the food she considered to be forbidden and evil. To top it off, she let herself say out loud that she thought it was good.

Her whole body began to shake like she was shivering cold. Her mouth began to utter random unreadable syllables. And to finally top of the panic attack, she fell flat on her back twitching a bit in her hooves.

Typhoon smacked a hoof to her face and let it run downwards till it finally touched the ground again. She then decided to utilize her aerokinesis to form a sphere of swirling wind to pick the traumatized pegasus up off the ground.

"I'm sorry, Gem. But we will have to talk later. Right now I must see eef Fluttershy ees ever going to be alright."

Sighing, Gem let her head hang down but Typhoon didn't notice.

"Yeah. Go ahead."

Typhoon walked off with Fluttershy floating next to her. She went upstairs and Gem sighed turning around and viewing a brown stallion with an hourglass on his flank.

"Oh why hello there!" He greeted somewhat enthusiastically.

Gem didn't really smile back or even look at him.

"I don't suppose YOU wanna talk with me do you?" She grumbled.

"Oh I'm sorry little one. But I can't. The TARDIS seems to be acting up and I must tend to it. Ta-ta!"

He walked past the unicorn leaving her standing there confused beyond all reason.

"What...the hell....is a TARDIS?" she whispered to herself.

"Nopony knows. That doctor guy always rambles on about things no one else but Derpy over there seems to understand. But enough about him. Having fun here?"

Gem turned to view a pegasus pony behind a table with mugs of cider spread out on it. Her coat was almost the same cyan as Rainbow Dash's but her mane and tail were black and blue. Her cutie mark was a mug filled nearly to the brim with foaming cider. Her eyes were bright green.

"I'm sorry?" Gem didn't quite hear her the first time she spoke.

"I asked if you were having fun." The pegasus repeated herself. "I mean it's only your very first birthday party so I would assume you're having fun. But now that I see your face I think differently. So before we get into that, you want a mug of cider? I'll assume you want it virgin."

Gem became confused by this pegasus' words. She had heard of cider before but she didn't know what she meant by it being virgin.

"I want it what now?"

The pegasus giggled and explained.

"Cider can come in two ways. Hard or virgin. Hard means there's alcohol in it. Virgin means there's not."

"Oooohhhh." Gem now got a full understanding and accepted the offer. "Sure I'll take some."

There was already a mug filled and waiting for the young birthday girl. The pegasus slid it closer and the mug soon was bathed in an electric purple glow. The mug floated off the table and right up to Gem's mouth so she could take a swig. It tasted interesting. New and interesting. Like apple juice but with a bubbly kick to it.

"And to answer your question, I'm not having as much fun as I thought I would. Well...actually that's sort of a lie. I never really expected to have fun to begin with." Gem spoke her mind for the first time that night.

"Do yourself a favor and try to keep that confession away from Pinkie. She thinks she can handle the truth. But the last time somepony told her that one of her parties wasn't fun, poor girl locked herself away in her room for two weeks. Took her months to even think about planning another party again." The blue pegasus winced upon that memory.

"How long ago was that?" Gem asked.

"Uh...about five years ago." The pegasus replied. "And just to let ya know, the name is Moonshines. But everyone just calls me Moony. And you must be Gem the birthday mare."

The purple unicorn smiled slightly and nodded her head.

"You are correct."

Moonshines smiled and chugged some cider from her own mug like it was the elixir of life itself. She downed the entire mug in less than five seconds, then moved on to another one. Then a third one before Gem even got halfway done with her first mug. Then she reached five mugs and her words became slurred and barely understandable. That was when Applejack came over and got angry.

"Doggone it, Moonshines! What have Ah told ya?! If yer gonna serve cider at a party, ya can't drink it all for yourself!" the cowgirl angrily shouted.

"Oh, Appleracks, you gettin' angry over nothin." Moonshines was now fully inebriated as could easily be told. "I just had a glupple of casses. PFFFFFTTTTT! AHAHAHAHAHAA! Glupple of casses!"

"Um...Applejack?" Gem softly muttered.

"Later, Gem. I gotta deal with this one here." Applejack waved her off.

Applejack groaned and Gem soon found herself walking away so she wouldn't have to listen to the mare of honestly try to argue with a drunken pegasus.

She knew it would be from the start and the events of the night were only confirming it more. This party was nowhere near the level of fun Pinkie promised her it would be. All of her friends were too busy doing something else to even pay her one minute of attention. Rainbow Dash was standing near Spitfire trying to see if she would respond, Spitfire herself was talking to Rarity about a commission for a party she was going to attend soon in Manehattan after a show. Agua was busy trying to flirt with mares and trying to score some action. Pyro was trying his best to comfort Cadence while Twilight was still thinking about reasons her brother is against Alamantians. Spike was being hassled by the Cutie Mark Crusaders to help them with another escapade. So he kind of had a valid reason. Pinkie Pie was oblivious as usual, Typhoon was still upstairs watchiing Fluttershy, it was all a mess to her.

She officially had enough. All she wanted to do right now was to find the nearest one and make them listen to her no matter how much badgering she had to do to make it happen. Taking a swift look around, she wound up seeing that Terra was the closest one. She didn't appear to be doing anything at all. She was just standing by herself, sitting on her haunches, and meddling with front hooves.

With a sigh, Gem walked up to her yellow sister with full intent to have a full conversation with no interruptions.

"Um...Terra?"

"Not now, Gem." The yellow mare instantly waved her hoof at her.

That was the reaction she had been getting the whole time from everypony. Frankly she was getting tired of it.

"Terra, can I please talk to you?"

"In a few minutes. Come back later."

Gem was starting to get angry. Her growling was a clear sign of that.

"What are you doing that's so important you can't talk?" she snapped.

"None of your business. That's what it is."

"Can't you spare a few minutes? One even? I just want to-"

"Would you buzz off, Gem?! I don't give a crap! Just leave me alone, you brat!"

Faster than another syllable could be spoken, the whole party went silent. Typhoon froze on the staircase as her time was unfortunate. Terra turned back around to see Gem backing away from her with tears running from her eyes. Immediately realizing what she just did, the mare of earth tried to approach her extending out a hoof.

"Gem...I-"

She didn't finish her sentence because Gem cut her off by swatting her hoof away. The unicorn shook her head and started to head for the door. Before she reached it, Pinkie Pie ran after her.

"Gem, wait! Please!"

The pink confectioner was halted when she ran her nose into a plasma wall formed right behind Gem's tail. The one who summoned the wall turned around and looked at Pinkie with a bit of a glare.

"Next time I tell you I don't want a party, shut your damn mouth and listen to me."

That was all she had to say. She dropped the wall, tore the dress off her body along with the necklace, and ran out of Sugarcube Corner crying her eyes out leaving everypony there feeling nothing but guilt. Nopony more than the elements themselves and Cadence. Terra had begun to bang her head against the wall while shouting a single word in between thuds.

"STUPID STUPID STUPID!" She finally stopped when Applejack came over and yanked her away from the wall, but there was already a good sized crack in it thanks to her hard skull. "How could I have done that to her? All she wanted was for me to spend some time with her at her own party, and I told her to buzz off. What kind of sister am I?!"

Terra looked as if she was about to start crying too. But that ceased when Pyro came over and nuzzled her.

"You're not the only one to blame. We all are." he gestured to his friends and adoptive siblings.

"He's right." Rainbow Dash admitted it. "I was just so desperate to hang out with Spitfire I forgot Gem was even here."

Cadence too felt some of the blame was hers to share.

"Coming here was a bad idea. I shouldn't have dumped all my problems on you guys. I should have just waited for Twilight to come back to the library and just talk to her."

"No. No, Cadence it wasn't a bad idea. Gem loved that you came but what she didn't like was being ignored at her own party by her own friends and siblings." Twilight tried to comfort the alicorn of love.

"Wait. What was Terra doing that made her yell at Gem?" Spike asked as he came over and hopped on Pyro's back.

Terra turned her head away ashamed of what she was about to say.

"I was thinking about leaving to go get my bong." She said with a cracking voice. "All she wanted to do was talk with me and all I could think about was having a puff. I just lashed out at her for no reason and...now look what I did."

A few sniffles later from the mare of earth and she found herself being nuzzled again, this time by her partner.

"It's alright, sugarcube. She tried to talk with me too but Ah just told her to go away." Applejack sadly said.

"We all had stupid excuses for not spending time with her." Rarity muttered. "Agua was too busy trying to find a girl to take home, I was entranced with Spitfire wanting a new getup, Applejack was arguing with Moonshines about the cider, oh my stars we were all just...awful."

If that wasn't enough to make them all feel bad, then what was said next certainly did.

"We are no better zen ze Eneoji Tribe." Typhoon muttered.

That stopped all thinking from the six bearers of harmony and Cadence.

"What do you mean?" Rainbow Dash asked curious to know more about her partner.

"Come with us." Pyro began to head for the staircase.

Everypony followed him leaving the other ponies outside their group downstairs to continue the party somewhat. Once they were in Pinkie's bedroom, Pyro closed the door, put a locking spell on it, then soundproofed it so no sound could get out. Fluttershy, who was already in there sound asleep, was woken up by her partner and filled in on what was happening. Finally, Pyro turned around to face his friends as Spike hopped off his back and joined them.

"Rainbow Dash, I apologize. There's something we should have told you about Gem before she began living with you." he said.

Typhoon, Agua, and Terra nodded agreeing with him.

"And that would be?" she asked wanting them to get on with it.

"Have you guys ever wondered why Gem never wants to talk about home?" Terra started.

The harmony bearers and Cadence all shook their heads.

"Well..." Pyro picked it up. "It's because she lived a very tormented life. You all know how she is younger than us and has trouble controlling her powers sometimes? Back home, those traits made her life a living Tartarus. You see, when Gem got her cutie mark, the chief of the entire tribe started putting so much pressure on her. Chief Niiharu was brutal. She started conducting tests on Gem to build her up but Gem couldn't take it. Whenever she failed one of the tests, she was beaten. Savagely."

"We saw it happen before we actually met her. It was just horrible." Agua murmured loud enough to hear.

It was horrible to just hear the story in the other seven ponies' opinions. Gem had just turned fourteen and that meant she only had to be ten or eleven when those experiments were going on. To take a beating like that so young in front of her entire village, it had to have broke her heart every day.

"The day we arrived at the Eneoji Tribe to search for her and take us with her, we saw what they were doing. She was strapped down against her will to a slab like she was a lab rat. She got all sorts of "endurance tests" performed before she was let go. Unfortunately, the tests didn't go well because Gem passed out. When she was brought to, Niiharu just began to beat the crap out of her. Her own mother and father wouldn't even do anything because they feared the chief's wrath." Agua explained.

"So...WE did something instead." Terra talked now. "You see, Niiharu was fed up with not getting anywhere with Gem. She was about to kill her."

"But before she could, we revealed ourselves and defended her. We saved her life and blocked ze chief from delivering ze final blow. She nearly attacked us before she saw our marks and realized we were Gem's equal." Typhoon took her turn to talk. "She tried to tell us Gem was her property and she would never let her leave. So...we did something zat we probably shouldn't have done een ze first place...but we didn't see any other option at ze time."

"And what exactly did you do?" Fluttershy asked.

Ten seconds and each of the four present elementals rubbing the back of their heads later, the one in charge of water answered her question.

"Pyro and Cryo used a couple healing spells on Gem to recharge her...then all six of us attacked Niiharu at once catching her off guard."

Twilight and Cadence were the ones who were the most taken aback by that. Cadence was already familiar with Alamantian culture and Twilight had been doing extensive reading on the subject. There was one chief for each tribal territory to rule over all the villages that were in it. And those chiefs were considered to be royalty. To attack royalty to Equestria is the equivalent of signing your own death warrant.

"Once we knocked Chief Niiharu off her hooves, we all huddled together and teleported as far away from Eneoji territory as we could. Then we ran for it. The rest I think you know." Pyro finished.

They indeed did. It took about another full minute or so until somepony finally said something to respond to the story.

"Gem...that sweet little thing...beaten?" Rarity put her hoof over her mouth.

"That just can't be. Why would anypony do something like to somepony so young and fragile?" Cadence wondered.

"Chief Niiharu has no heart and strives only for domination and power. She saw Gem only as a tool to make it happen." Terra replied.

"Oh poor Gem." Fluttershy whispered. "She had no friends? Not one?"

Typhoon sadly shook her head. "No. She lived een isolation under Niiharu's orders."

"I feel horrible." Pinkie looked like she was near tears. "She kept saying she didn't want a party but I just kept pushing it. If I hadn't thrown her one she wouldn't be sad right now."

"No. Don't you dare say that." Agua was surprisingly the one to object to that. "Pinkie, you love to make ponies smile. You've failed every time with me but let's not go there. The point is, this party you threw for Gem is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for her."

Pinkie sniffled and rubbed her left eye dry of an impending tear.

"Yeah, I mean even though she wasn't spending time with us, this party itself was one hell of a gesture. One she's never even seen before." Terra agreed.

Rainbow Dash was silent. She was wondering why her partner never told this information. She naturally thought it was just something painful for her that she didn't want to bring up again. But she thought Gem trusted her. Then she began to fully realize what she had done. Gem grew up with no friends. And when Rainbow left her to try to talk with Spitfire, she left Gem alone. That was what really got her. She betrayed her element and ditched her friend to practically drool over somepony who was pretty much paying no attention to her.

"But what do we do we do now?" Spike wondered. "She ran out of here crying and she was really upset."

"Well then we just have to go and bring her back." Pyro stated. "And this time, we're gonna do this the right way."

He turned his head to Cadence.

"No more crying," He then looked at Applejack

",no more yelling," Twilight looked into his eyes next.

",no more thinking," The blue stallion of water received a look after her.

",no more seducing," Finally, Pyro glanced at Fluttershy.

",and no more freaking out just because you had a small bite of meat. Get over it. It's delicious to us."

All of them nodded agreeing. Though Fluttershy sort of wanted to speak out against Pyro saying meat was bad but remembered where he came from, the ponies ate it on a regular basis. So she kept quiet and nodded too respecting him. They then followed Pinkie Pie as she led them outside the bakery.

"Where could she have gone?" Cadence asked anypony as she looked around.

"Hold on." Typhoon put a hoof to her head and closed her eyes.

A few seconds later, her telepathy had a lock on Gem.

"Zere." The pink pegasus pointed her hoof upwards to the only house floating above the ground.

Rainbow Dash's cloud house. Rainbow darted ahead of them flapping her wings as fast as she could. Everypony else just walked in her trail.

"Boy I sure hope Cryo is having a better night then we are." Rarity muttered.