The door chime roused Applebloom from the waking sleep she had dropped into while trying to fight her way through the pre-summer paperwork. Try as she might, she just could never get herself properly worked up about all the figures and scheduling needed to ensure that Crusader Camp ran smoothly. Sweetie Belle kept telling her that she just needed to adjust her attitude about the paperwork.
Scootaloo on the other hoof agreed whole heartedly with Applebloom on the subject, and was quick to point out that Rainbow Dash hadn’t become Captain of the Wonderbolts by being good at paperwork. To which Sweetie would point out that Dash could have made Captain years ago if she hadn’t kept getting busted down for constantly failing to file her reports. At which point Applebloom was forced to kick both of her friends and fellow camp councilors out of the room if she was going to have any hope of completing said paperwork.
She shoved the offending file folder to the side of the welcome desk and quickly wiped away a trickle of drool from one corner of her mouth. Applebloom glanced up as the door finished opening, and her face split into a wide smile.
“Rarity, Spike!” Applebloom exclaimed happily, trotting around the desk to greet them. “Well ain’t it a pleasure to see ya’ll, it’s been way too long!”
“Applebloom darling, how have you been?” Rarity beamed, coming over to hug the young mare.
“Aw shoot, Ah can’t complain,” she responded, returning the hug. When she pulled back, Applebloom was a bit surprised to realize she was actually looking down a bit at Rarity. Had she been taller than the fashionista last time they met? How many years had that been now? Two at least, and maybe more. “Hows about ya’ll?”
“Marvelous dearie, simply marvelous,” Rarity replied cheerfully. “My last fall fashion line did well enough that we’re getting the apartment renovated. We’ve been needing new doorways for a bit now actually…”
“New doorways?” Applebloom questioned. She got her answer when she realized that Spike was only just currently managing to squeeze himself into the room. “Landsakes,” Applebloom quipped as she watched the dragon unfolding himself to his full height, the spines on his head brushing the ceiling as he did. She could still remember when the two of them had been able to look each other right in the eye. Then she’d gone and hit puberty, leaving the young drake in the metaphorical dust. But Spike had kept on growing, slowly but surely, and as the years passed he had caught up with, and then passed Applebloom, and eventually every other pony in height. Then he’d kept right on growing, his body shifting until he was much more comfortable on all fours, which had brought him back down to merely tall instead of towering…and then he had kept right on growing…
“Hey there short stuff,” Spike boomed as he smirked down at her, earning a friendly scowl from Applebloom.
“One summer, just one summer and ya’ll never gunna let me live it down, are ya?” she complained through a smile.
“Serves you right Miss ‘Ah am a lady now’” Spike replied, his deep bass tone lending itself very poorly to his attempt to mimic her voice.
“Dear please, you’re going to set a bad example,” Rarity mock chastised.
“Too late for that,” Spike joked.
“So where is the little one?” Applebloom asked.
“Right here,” Spike replied, finally pulling his tail in through the doorway. It brought a young filly along with it, the tip wrapped snugly around her barrel even as her hooves dragged futilely across the floor in a desperate attempt to get away. Spike rather effortlessly swung her around, and plopped her firmly in front of Applebloom.
The young mare’s coat was as pristine white as her mother’s, though touched with kisses of purple around her hooves and muzzle. Said muzzle was somewhat more pronounced than normal, more rounded, casting a slight reptilian light to her features. The purple coloration continued along the leading edges of her wings, but her feathers where a deep green to match her mane, which was done up on a pair of bobbing pigtails that poked up behind her ears.
“I don’t wanna,” the filly pouted, sitting back on her haunches and crossing her front legs over her chest.
“Manners dear,” Rarity said primly. “Applebloom, this is Fire Ruby. Ruby, say hello to Miss Bloom.”
The filly glanced up at Applebloom uncertainly.
“Howdy, how ya’ll doin’?” Applebloom said cheerfully.
“…hey,” came the unenthusiastic reply.
“Fire. Ruby. Belle…” Rarity said in tones of descending doom. The young mare sighed, but got to all four hooves and dipped her head in a rather graceful little bow, her wings spreading. Applebloom noticed that she seemed to have some kind of thin membrane running along the length of the limbs, only slightly visible between her feathers in a few places.
“Pleased to meet you Miss Bloom,” Ruby said in a suddenly crisp, flawless upper Manehatten accent. The courtly greeting was rather ruined by the grotesque face she pulled, obviously certain her mother couldn’t see it from where she stood.
“Pleased ta meet’cha too Fire Ruby,” Applebloom replied, holding back a snigger and deciding she liked the little filly already.
“Okay, greetings over, let’s go home,” Ruby stated, no trace of the accent remaining. She spun and made for the door, but Spike casually raised one paw and caught her around the midsection. His talons encircled the filly’s entire barrel, and with a gentle flick of just his thumb and foreclaw, spun her in a complete one eighty between one step and the next, sending her walking right back to where she’d started.
“Welcome back,” Applebloom grinned. Fire Ruby blinked in mild surprise, then scowled over at her father.
“I don’t wanna,” Ruby repeated, sinking down to her belly on the floor. “I don’t even care about some stupid Cutie Mark.”
“Well that’s alright,” Applebloom said cheerfully, folding her legs under herself to join the filly on the floor. “Cutie Mark acquisition is only a small part of Crusader Camp,” she explained.
“I probably can’t even get one anyway,” Ruby said with forced indifference.
“Now what makes ya say that?”
The filly eyed Applebloom with that extremely serious look only young children can manage. “Because…” she said melodramatically “I’m a mutant!”
“Fire Ruby Belle…” Rarity repeated dangerously.
“What?” Ruby said indignantly. “I am. How many ponies you know that can do this?” She sucked in a deep breath, and huffed out a shower of green sparks that danced briefly across the floor before winking out.
“That doesn’t make you a mutant, dear,” Rarity said pointedly.
“Yeah, having me for a dad does that,” Spike agreed, earning a small smile from his daughter and a glare from his wife.
“Well Ah think that’s right amazing,” Applebloom told Ruby. “And who knows, maybe being half-dragon does mean ya’ll never get a Cutie Mark, or maybe it doesn’t. But like Ah said, that ain’t all camp’s about.”
“I know,” Ruby said. “And no offense meant Miss B, but I don’t want to go to camp, yours or otherwise.”
“Really? ‘Cause based on the last letter I got from your ma, she seemed to think ya’ll was plum ‘cited to go.”
“Yeah well…” the filly hedged. “That was then, this is now.”
“Well whatever made you change your mind darling?” Rarity asked, bewildered. “Most of your friends will be here...”
“I know…”
“As will Auntie Sweetie…”
“I know…”
“And you’ll get to do all kinds of activities that you couldn’t in Canterlot…”
“I know!” Ruby exclaimed, a small puff of smoke issuing from her nostrils.
“Ya’ll worried about being picked on?” Applebloom ventured, easily seeing how the filly would make a tempting target. “Cause Ah can assure ya, we don’t put up with none of that nonsense here at all.”
“Pfft, heck no,” Ruby said dismissively, surprising Applebloom with her obvious lack of concern at the idea. “Nopony’s picked on me, at least not to my face, since I threatened to eat Maple Leaf.” She smiled widely at Applebloom, showing off teeth that, while not anywhere nearly as pointed as her father’s, were noticeably sharper edged than most pony’s.
“You did what!” Rarity exclaimed even as Spike let out a snort of laughter that quickly turned into a loud cough as his wife fixed him another glare.
“She was being a jerk,” Ruby said defensively.
“That is no excuse to threaten to devour somepony!”
“I wasn’t really gonna,” Ruby replied. She dropped her voice until only Applebloom could hear her. “Bet she would have tasted awful.”
“That is not the point,” Rarity went on as Applebloom held in her laughter. “No wonder the Leafs have been so distant lately…”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Spike muttered. “I’m with the kid, one more snide remark from Elm Leaf and I might just have to eat him.”
“Nopony is going to be eating anypony,” Rarity declared imperiously.
“Fine with me, I’m no pony, I’m a dragon!” Ruby said brightly, snarling in a manner that made Applebloom want to cuddle her for being adorable.
Rarity rubbed tiredly at her face with a hoof.
“Well Ah got to side with your mother on this one,” Applebloom said gently. “Ya’ll just can’t go around eatin’ folks that ya don’t like. But that ain’t what we were really talkin’ ‘bout.” She leaned down to look the filly in the eyes. Narrow, vertically slitted eyes. “Why don’t ya want to go to camp anymore?”
“I just…” Ruby averted her gaze, glancing back at her parents for a brief instant. “…changed my mind.”
“Because you’re afraid to be away from ya folks?” Applebloom tried again, and this time she nailed it if the worried expression on Ruby’s face was anything to judge by.
“Wha, uh, no!” the filly denied hotly, the fierceness of her own reply betraying her.
“Oh, my little gemstone,” Rarity cooed, her eyes turning misty.
“That’s not it at all,” Ruby tried to protest, but her voice lacked any conviction, and she only squirmed for a brief moment when her mother scooped her up in a hug.
“You could have just told us darling.”
“I…I didn’t want you to be disappointed,” Ruby said softly.
“Disappointed? Ruby, why ever would you think that?”
“Not you mom, I know you wouldn’t be,” the filly ducked her head shamefully. “I mean dad…”
“Me?” Spike said in confusion.
“Being homesick doesn’t sound very dragonish.”
Spike’s mouth hung open as he tried to think of the right way to reply to that. He was saved the trouble by Rarity putting a hoof to her own mouth in an attempt to stifle a giggle.
“Oh my, excuse me dearie,” she chortled. “But if your father is anything to go by, dragons can and do get homesick. Rather easily now that I think about it…”
“Hey!” Spike boomed indignantly. Rarity just quirked an eyebrow at him, and after a moment he relented. “…yeah, fine…” he sulked.
“…really?” Ruby asked, wide eyed as she looked up at her father.
“Yeah really,” Spike admitted grudgingly, blowing out a smoky breath. “If you want to hear some really embarrassing stories, ask aunt Twilight. She’d be happy to spill the dirt on me.”
“So it’s okay to…to be homesick and miss your parents?” Ruby said in a small voice.
“That it is my little gemstone,” Rarity told her. “And we’d miss you too.”
“Really?”
“Absolutely, right dear?” Rarity asked up at Spike.
“Of course,” Spike replied. “I mean, who else can I share a sapphire sundae with?”
“Nopony,” Ruby answered, a bit of smugness creeping into her tone. “Not unless they want broken teeth.”
“And who else could I ask to judge my latest designs?” Rarity asked.
“Not daddy,” Ruby said around a small smile. “He doesn’t know the difference between a fashionable dress…”
“…and a dessert table,” Rarity finished with a giggle that made Ruby smile wider.
“One time…” Spike groused under his breath. “One time!”
“So…it’s really okay?” Ruby asked meekly.
“It really is okay,” Rarity assured her daughter. “Do you still want to come home instead?”
Fire Ruby looked at her mother, then up at her father, before finally turning around to face Applebloom again. Her golden eyes took on a sudden shine as they filled with determination, and she gracefully extracted herself from Rarity’s embrace.
“Miss Bloom,” she said, once more adopting the high class accent and giving her head a little upward tilt. “I would be honored if you would permit me to privilege of staying at your camp.”
“Well shoot, Ah’d be honored to have ya here,” Applebloom replied happily. “Come on, how ‘bout we fetch your luggage, and Ah’ll show ya and your folks where ya’ll be staying. And then we can track down where ever your aunt has gotten herself to.”
“I’d like that very much,” Fire Ruby said with dignity to do her mother proud. Then she dropped the persona, and was bouncing towards the door, trying in vain to push her father before her. “Come on!” she squeaked excitedly, making Spike chuckle as he slowly turned himself around and ducked to squeeze back outside.
“I must say Applebloom,” Rarity spoke as she watched her husband try to wriggle through the doorway. “You really have done an amazing job with this place. Who would have imagined what a little filly’s club could have turned out to be?”
“Ah know, right?” Applebloom said proudly. “Course, who would have thought helping others find their special talent could be a pony’s special talent?” She shook her head, glancing back at the image upon her flank. A stylized blue shield adorned the spot, with a yellow caped pony in silhouette within.
“Well I think it is a wondrously generous talent,” Rarity said. “And if Ruby can get a Cutie Mark, I know you’re just the pony to help her do so.”
“Thanks Rarity,” Applebloom replied warmly.
Spike finally managed to get through the door without breaking anything, and Fire Ruby bounded after him, a little shower of sparks flying around her as she gave a miniature roar of excitement.
“Oh, I am going to miss that,” Rarity spoke softly as she watched her daughter frolic around her husband.
“It’ll only be for a few weeks,” Applebloom reassured her.
“I know…” Rarity replied, wiping a hoof at her eyes. “…but she’s my little gemstone.”
“Well come on,” Applebloom laughed. “Before either of ya’ll changes her mind.”
Rarity tittered lightly, and followed the Crusader Camp’s head counselor outside.