The Sparity Family

by Zexoguy

First published 26th of July, 2015

An anthology of stories about Spike and Rarity's kids, based on the concepts created by TheFlimFlamBros and Pia-Sama.

A series of stories all about the children of Spike and Rarity. They might all be part dragon and part pony, but they're just like any other family. They have sibling squabbles; they search for romance; they have their own mini adventures; and they look out for each other when it really counts.

Set many years after the events of the comic Rogue Diamond by TheFlimFlamBros and Pia-sama

Cover art by Pia-sama

Dragon Ponies: Part 1

Rarity walked from her car up to the front door of her house as the sun descended into the horizon, ready to give way to the evening. After a long and tiring day of working to create stunning new works of fashion, she was starving and ready for a little relaxation. She did a quick inspection of her person and fixed her posture before opening the door.

"I'm HOME!" she sang as she raised her hand in the air, making a grand entrance. No sooner did she enter than when she was greeted by her big strapping hunk of a dragon husband, Spike. They embraced each other and exchanged a quick kiss on the lips.

"Mommy!" cried a little voice as their youngest daughter Ruby ran up to greet her mother with a big hug. Ruby was 7 years old and despite being about 30 percent pony, bore a striking physical resemblance to her father at her age. She was primarily part dragon with scales of bright red and short, curly golden hair with eyes to match. She wore the most adorable pink bow in her hair.

"Mommy, I brushed Opal today," she declared excitedly as her mother picked her up.

"Oh, wonderful," Rarity replied.

"Yeah. You should see the job she did," Spike chimed in.

The cat in question walked by, seeming to have a few chunks of fur missing. A part of Rarity wanted to laugh while another part was a little bit repulsed. She gave Ruby a nervous smile.

"Very good, but perhaps next time, let's try to be just a little more gentle, shall we?" she said delicately.

Ruby chuckled awkwardly. "Yeah, I guess I got a little too excited."

"Oh that's alright, sweetie," Rarity said with a chuckle as she put the child down. Her attention shifted as the most heavenly scent entered her nostrils. They all followed the smell to the kitchen, where the oldest daughter Citrine waited with a slightly messy apron and a joyful smile.

Citrine was 17, the firstborn of the family, with her coat being the same yellowish color as the gemstone of her name, her mane and tail a dark red, which she kept in a ponytail, and her eyes green and reptilian like her father's. Her fingernails and toenails were actually dragon claws and her teeth were also sharp dragon teeth. Her cutie mark was a jewel-encrusted fork due to her passion for cooking a culinary arts. As far as her parents were concerned, Citrine was also the most well-behaved and the most like her mother in personality. She held her arms wide open and greeted her mother as she entered the kitchen.

"Oh, darling. Something smells delectable," Rarity commented.

"Thanks, Mom," Citrine replied. "I made chicken parmassan tonight."

"And I helped." Spike submitted, pointing a thumb to himself in pride. Rarity gazed at the delicious looking meal and noticed the tiny green flakes covering it all.

"Are those emerald flakes?" she inquired.

"Peridot, actually," replied Citrine. "It was Dad's idea." The grown dragon just shrugged.

"You'll thank me," he bragged, earning a laugh from his wife.

Since the table was already all set, Rarity instructed Spike to call the rest of the family down for dinner.

"Kids! Dinner's ready!" He called from the top of the stares. He heard a clatter and then, instantly, one of the bedroom doors flew open and out ran a dark grey adolescent dragon with two heads on the same body, glaring and shouting at each other and running straight for the staircase. Spike tried to stop them, but he barely had time to get out of the way before they started running down the stairs. They tripped and fell onto the floor before they reached the bottom.

The two heads in question were Onyx and Obsidian (Obi for short), the second oldest of the kids at age 16. Nobody knew how it was possible for a dragon to be born with two distinct heads on one body, but they usually didn't bother asking. The real issue with these two was the fact that they were always arguing and fighting with each other. They were both equally greedy and selfish, which tended to be pretty typical among dragons anyway. Other distinguishing features of theirs were they're rounded eyes, the only part of them that was pony, as well as their two tails and lack of a cutie mark. Their dad had to step in and break up their fight.

"Alright, boys. What is it this time?" he asked with a stern annoyed tone as they stood up.

"I wanted to get down here first because I'm hungrier, but this guy got in my way," Onyx started.

"Dude, I'm starving! I haven't eaten anything since breakfast!" his brother argued.

"I haven't, but you ate like half a bag of chips today!"

"That was you, dumbass."

"Shut up!"

"HEY!"

Both of them stopped and turned back to their dad who pinched his forehead in frustrated.

"Okay. First, you both got downstairs at the same time and second, you only have one stomach so neither of you can be hungrier or fuller than the other. Get it? Now do I have to knock some heads or are you guys gonna go sit down and behave?"

Both twins sighed and sulked in defeat as they responded "Yes, Dad" and sat at the table. Rarity wished that Spike wouldn't be quite so hard on them, but she knew that it was the only way they listened.

Next down the stairs came a young light blue unicorn colt named Topaz with lavender colored hair and thick square glasses. Topaz was 12 years old and primarily a pony. The only part of him that was dragon besides his teeth were his eyes, which were the same color as his hair. His cutie mark was a book with a dragon's eye in the middle due to his aspiration to be a great magic user. He was easily the most studious in the family always dressing like a college professor and devoting most of his time to studying magic, which reminded his father of his aunt Twilight. He entered the dining room without much expression or even saying anything and sat down in his chair.

"Topaz, honey!" His mother greeted him. "How are you doing today?"

"Hi Mom." He responded rather blandly. "I'm doing fine."

"Oh, come now, dear. Give your mother a hug." She held out her arms for him. Topaz rolled his eyes, but there was definitely a smile there.

"Alright," he said as he got up and let his mom give him a big hug.

Onyx and Obi laughed at him. "I don't know about you, Mama's boy," Obi teased, "but I'm starving."

"Yeah. Let's eat," Onyx agreed. The boys picked up their knife and fork and went to pick up their food, until their mom gave an 'ahem' and they stopped and saw her glaring at them.

"You boys know the rules. No eating until every one is at the table," she scorned. They both dropped their utensils and grunted, annoyed that they still didn't get to eat. "Ugh, now where the blazes is Jade?" Rarity got up and headed upstairs to find their last family member so they could all start dinner.

She reached her daughter's room and heard the typical sound of rock and roll music blaring inside. A noise she herself did not really care for. She knocked on the door. "Jade?" she called. No answer. She tried again. Still nothing, so she opened the door and the music became even louder as she entered the bedroom. The chamber was an absolute pigsty with dirty clothes spread all over the place and decorated with posters of metal bands and musicians as well as a small television on the nightstand. Rarity always hated to step inside this place. On one side were the speakers blasting out the music. On the other side, spread out on the bed and sleeping like a rock was Jade.

Jade was the middle child at 14 years of age. In terms of her genetic pony to dragon ratio, she was exactly half and half. Her coat was the same shade of green as her namesake gem and her mane was jet black with yellow dye at the ends and on her tail. She had dragon eyes, teeth, claws, a tail with hair at the end and even large wings, as well as patches of glimmering scales on her legs and arms. She wore ripped grungy clothes, including shoulder length fishnet gloves, spiked armbands, a chain necklace and a belly button piercing (which her mother NEVER approved of). Her cutie mark was an electric guitar wrapped in barbed wire because she loved playing rock music with her band The Blood Dragons.

Out of all of Rarity and Spike's kids, Jade was the most troublesome and the most rebellious. Her mom turned off her speakers called her name again, making her jump awake.

"Ugh, what is it, Mom?" Jade groaned as she looked at the clock on her bedside. She was annoyed at seeing her mom in her room and also that she had woken her up and turned off her music.

"It's dinner time and everyone is downstairs waiting on you. Would you please be so kind as to join us so we can eat?" Rarity tried to speak in the most calm tone possible.

"I'm not hungry," Jade replied, lying back down, but her stomach immediately betrayed her with a loud rumble. "Fine." She got out of bed and stretched as her mom gave her a sly smirk. "But I've got band practice at Rip's house tonight, so I gotta leave pretty soon. We got a gig coming up." She packed up her electric guitar in its bag and through over her shoulder.

Then she reached under her bed, pulled out a fresh apple and held it up to something hanging from the ceiling: a vampire fruit bat named Shadow who happened to be her pet as well as another reason for Rarity to feel repulsed. The creature snatched up the apple and sucked it dry in seconds, then spit out the seeds into a small pile on the floor. Jade whistled and Shadow flew down clung onto to her necklace. All three of them then proceeded down to the dining room.

Once everybody was present at the table, it was finally grub time. Topaz barely touched his dinner and instead just stared at it mostly. He knew Citrine was an excellent cook and he didn't mind eating meat, but he didn't have much of a taste for gems. His father took notice of this and decided to speak up.

"So, Topaz, why don't you tell us what you've been studying lately."

"Well..." the colt began with a sort of half enthusiastic tone, "today I was reading up on the techniques of the Great Mage Meadowbrook. Did you know that she came up with a spell that allowed her to astro-project out of her body? She was able to explore the heavens and discover all kinds of fascinating magical..."

"Dude, you are such a nerd." He was cut off by both of his brothers at the same time. Instead of continuing, he just sat back angrily in his chair.

The rest of the meal went by without much conversation. Pretty soon, Jade picked up her guitar and started to leave.

"Well, I gotta go. See ya later," she said, but her mom grabbed her shoulder and made her sit back down.

"Not until you finish your spaghetti."

"Aw, come on, Mom. I'm gonna be late."

"I have to go out, too," Citrine said. "I'm meeting Pearly at the library so we can work on our science project."

"Do you have your phone on you?" her dad asked.

"Yes."

"Okay. Don't be out too late, honey."

"I won't."

Citrine got up, grabbed her jacket and headed out, leaving Jade in disbelief.

"Are you kidding?!" Jade shouted. "How come she gets to go out and I don't?"

"Jade," her dad said, hoping to calm her down.

"You can go as soon as you finish your dinner," said her mom.

"But I have to go now or I'm gonna be late."

"I'm sure your band can wait a few minutes for you."

Jade was extremely frustrated. It was only a couple weeks until The Blood Dragons' upcoming performance and she needed to be there to practice. The way she saw it, her parents were just playing favorites again and she was losing to Citrine. She picked up her guitar and headed for the door.

"Jade! Where do you think you're going?!" Rarity called after her.

"To be with ponies who get me!"

"Jade!" her parents called as she stormed out into the night.

Dragon Ponies: Part 2

Jade didn't know exactly how late it was since her phone was dead, but it was getting rather dark as she headed home. She was feeling pretty good about The Blood Dragons' sound and felt positive they were just about ready for their upcoming show, so that had improved her mood a little. Although, she was still a bit upset with her parents for supposedly favoring Citrine over her.

All her life, it seemed that Citrine could get away with anything. In fact, Jade was almost certain that she could commit a brutal murder and the worst she'd get would be having dessert taken away. Jade on the other hand, would be lucky to get away with eating a chocolate bar right before dinner. She didn't hate Citrine, but she often wished that she could have her good fortune.

Jade's train of thought was interrupted when her stomach gave a loud rumble. Suddenly, she actually wished that she had eaten more of her dinner before she left. She thought about getting home and having the rest of that spaghetti, assuming her parents had saved it, which she was certain they had. But then she decided that she didn't really feel like going home and facing the folks just yet, so instead, she went to a nearby outdoor fast food place and bought a hot dog, fries and soda. She sat down at the closest available table, but just as she started to eat, she caught sight of something that she couldn't believe.

Across the street, sitting at a table at another restaurant, was none other than Citrine herself, talking to some guy that Jade had never seen before. An earth pony with a grey coat and a silvery mane.

"What the...?" Jade said, not completely sure if what she was seeing was real. She didn't know who the guy her sister was talking to was, but he definitely wasn't her friend Pearly Shores and she was pretty sure they weren't there to do a science project together. "'Science project' my ass," she cursed under her breath. This was incredible! Jade had actually just caught her goody-two-shoes sister in a great big lie. She was half-contemplating whether or not she should take this opportunity to tell her parents and finally see Citrine get punished for something. Her better judgement, however, was telling her not to and she didn't quite know which part to listen to.

But then she noticed that the conversation the two were having, while she still couldn't quite make out what they were saying, seemed to be getting a little heated. The stallion stood up, angrily slamming his hands on the table, while Citrine was looking rather scared. She was apparently trying to talk him down, but then all of a sudden, the stallion raised his hand and SMACKED her clear across the face.

"Hey, whoa! What the hell?!" Jade stood up in shock and anger and marched right up the pair. "Hey!" she shouted, getting their attention. "I saw that, dude!"

"Jade? What are you doing here?" Citrine asked, a little embarrassed.

"I was gonna ask you that." Jade replied. "Weren't you supposed to be at the library doing a science project with Pearly?"

"Citrine, who is this?" The stallion demanded. Citrine was obviously nervous. She took a deep breath and started with introductions.

"Jade, this is Silver Shine," she said hesitantly. "He's my boyfriend."

Jade's jaw practically touched the ground after hearing that. "Boyfriend?! What?!"

"Shine," Citrine continued. "this is my sister Jade."

"Sister?" This revelation seemed to soften Shine's tone a bit. He turned to talk to the still angry half-dragoness. "Okay, listen. I know what I did looked pretty bad, but..."

"You're damn right it looked bad, asshole!" Jade cursed.

"Jade! Stop it!" Her sister demanded. Obviously, by now, pretty much everypony in the vicinity was watching, which only added to Citrine's humiliation. "I'm sorry, Shine. I think we need to have a private chat."

Citrine grabbed her sister's arm and pulled her around the corner into an ally where they could be alone.

"Alright, sis," Jade started. "Time to level with me. Who is this guy?"

"Look, it's not as bad as you think it is," Citrine answered. "Silver Shine plays on the soccer team at my school. We have six classes together... including gym." That last part she said in a bit of a sensual manner, which sort of annoyed her sister.

"I'm sure he's got a great flank, but I saw him slap you right across the face. How can you like a guy who would do that to you?"

"He didn't mean it, Jade. Trust me. Most of the time he's really sweet, caring, charming, funny and he loves my cooking. He just... tends to lose his cool sometimes. That's all. He's even been getting better controlling it."

"Uh huh." Jade could see where her big sis was coming from, but she still didn't like it.

"You know, when I saw you with some strange guy when you said you'd be studying with your friend, I was thinking about telling Mom and Dad just to see you get in trouble for once, but now it's because I can't in all good conscience let you keep this up."

"No!" Citrine pleaded. "Please! You can't tell Mom and Dad. They wouldn't understand. You have to promise me you'll keep this between us."

"Oh yeah? Give me one good reason why I should," Jade dared her.

"Because you don't know Shine like I do. He's really a good pony, even if you can't see it yet."

Jade was about to argue, but she could see in her sister's eyes how desperate she was. She was very conflicted at the moment and wasn't sure what to say next. She realized that she didn't really want Citrine to be miserable, but suddenly, she didn't really know what would be the right thing to do for her.

"Well, so what? He's... I mean you..." She couldn't even find the right words.

"Please, Jade. I know how you feel about me, but promise me you won't say anything." Citrine held up a fist for Jade to bump it. After briefly thinking about it, Jade gave in.

"Fine. I promise." Jade bumped Citrine's fist and then they both spread out their claws and growled. It was a secret handshake that they and the rest of their siblings shared as a sign of unity.

After Citrine gave Jade a hearty thanks, she suggested that they get home soon before their parents started wondering where they were. The two of them said goodbye to Silver Shine, with Citrine making a quick plan to see him again soon and kissing him goodbye, and made their way back home.

----

When the girls finally made it home, they found their parents and their two-headed brothers waiting for them in the living room. The parents didn't look too mad, just expectant.

"What took you girls so long?" Spike asked. "We thought you'd've been home at least an hour ago."

"Sorry, Dad," Jade answered. "Band practice ran a little longer than we thought."

"Yeah. So did my study session." Citrine added.

"We tried to call, but both of our phones are dead."

"Yeah. We ran into each other on the way back, so we figured we'd just walk home together."

"Ha! Yeah right," Onyx laughed.

"You were probably out drinking and hooking up with guys." Obi continued.

"Dude! I was gonna say that!"

"Boys!" Their mom shouted at them. "That's enough. Upstairs. Now."

"What? But it's only nine-thirty." Obi complained.

Rarity and Spike glared at them, so they just groaned and headed upstairs. The parents turned their attention back to the girls and Rarity took a deep breath.

"Well, it's alright," she said. "You're both home now and you're safe and that's all that matters."

"Right," Spike agreed. "Now go on and get ready for bed."

Both girls nodded and headed upstairs. "Thanks again, Jade," Citrine smiled. "I'll totally pay you back."

"Damn right." Jade said, knowing full well she was going to regret making her promise.

Author's Notes:

Thank you to everybody who read the first chapter. I've never had so much feedback so quickly, let alone positive feedback.

Also, I'll add a link in the description to the picture I wanted to use as the story's cover art, but the site said was too big. See you in the next chapter, hopefully.

Dragon Ponies: Part 3

It was early morning. Rarity was sitting at the table, enjoying her breakfast and glancing through a magazine when her personal phone rang. It showed that it was her assistant, Coco Pommel, so she answered it.

"Good morning, Coco, darling."

"Good morning, Miss Rarity," replied the mare on the other end, sounding a little distressed. "I'm afraid I have some bad news."

"What is it?" Rarity inquired.

Spike observed his wife from the seat right next to her. He knew being a big shot fashionista tended to take its toll on her peace and sanity, so he made it a second job to help reign her in whenever she got too stressed. And from the looks of how her phone call was going, he felt like he should be on standby just in case.

"What?!" The white mare exclaimed. "Two?! Now?!.... Oh, alright, fine, but what do we do now?.... You're right, Coco. Get to it and I'll see you in a bit. Bye now." She hung up and moaned in despair, holding her head in her hand.

"What's wrong?" Spike asked.

"Two of my models for the show next week canceled on us and now we have to find ponies to replace them." Rarity responded. "Where in Equestria are we going to find two new models on such short notice?"

"Hey. Don't worry, Rare." Spike laid a hand on her shoulder to try and settle her. "You're smart. I'm sure you'll find somepony in no time."

Just then, she perked up as a thought occurred to her. "I believe I know just the ponies to ask," she exclaimed. The upcoming show was to show off her new line of Spring attire for teens and, fortunately, she just happened to have two lovely and photogenic teenage daughters who would look perfect in her outfits. She was almost certain that Citrine would be willing to help, but Jade on the other hand may require a little more persuasion.

-----

"No! Freakin'! Way!"

That was Jade's immediate reply. "Like I'd ever wanna do some stupid fashion show." Her mom was standing over her in the middle of her room as she laid down on her bed.

"I thought you might say that," her mom replied. "...but what if I told you you wouldn't be grounded for walking out on us the other night after we specifically told you not to?" Now Jade was really intrigued.

"Really, Mom? Blackmail? Are you really that desperate to have me model for you? Because this is pretty low, what you're doing now."

"I know, but the show is next week and I need two more teenage girls to wear the last two outfits and I simply don't have time to look elsewhere."

"I see. So you come to me when you need a last resort, huh?" the young half-dragoness reasoned. "That's real flattering."

Rarity blushed, realizing what she had said. "No, that is not what I meant," she said defensively. "I...I've always thought you were photogenic, dear."

"Uh huh." Jade was not very convinced.

"No, honestly," her mom continued. "And I have just the outfit which I know would suit you perfectly."

"Yeeeaaahh, still not interested."

Rarity didn't want to have to do this, but she was running out of options. Reluctantly, she was forced to resort back to her original threat. "Very well, then," she said. "Enjoy a whole week of no television, no music, and no band practice."

"What?!" That got Jade's attention, causing her to spring up from her bed. "You're not serious, are you?"

"I'm sorry, but you've left me no choice."

The young mare groaned. "Fine," she declared. "I'll do your dumb fashion show."

"Splendid," Rarity elated. Her daughter shot her a deathly glare.

"Manipulating your own kids. How do you sleep at night?"

-----

Rarity, Citrine and Jade arrived at the headquarters of the Carousel Boutique fashion company. The building was enormous with the logo displayed proudly near the top. The girls had each been here at least once before, but not since they were little. Their mother was one of the chief designers of the whole company and highly respected within the fashion community. As soon as they walked through the door, they were greeted by busy workers walking back and fourth all over the place. The office was absolutely buzzing with ponies rushing to get work done and many of them turned to the white unicorn mare to greet her.

"Good morning, Miss Rarity."

"Hello, Miss Rarity."

"Welcome back, Miss Rarity."

They were met with greetings like that all over the office. As they entered the elevator and the doors shut, one mare said to another "She looks incredible!"

"I know!" The other responded. "You'd never guess that she's had five kids!"

The elevator reached the top floor where Rarity's office was and waiting behind a desk, typing furiously and wearing a big purple and red flower in her hair was Coco.

"Good morning, Coco, dear," Rarity greeted her assistant.

"Oh, hello, Miss Rarity," Coco replied. "I'm still searching around to find those new models. Don't worry, I'm sure we'll find the perfect replacements in no time." Her voice indicated a twinge of panic.

"That won't be necessary, dear, for I have our perfect replacements right here."

"Oh?"

"Yes. Allow me to introduce my very own daughters, Citrine and Jade." The former smiled shyly and waved hello while the latter just glanced at over as if to say 'hey.'

"Oh, so these are your daughters," the assistant reiterated as she shook their hands. "It's so nice to meet you. Your mother's told me all about you."

"Thanks," Citrine said. "She's talked about you a lot, too."

Coco went to shake Jade's hand and felt something lightly scratch her wrist. "Ooh, those are some sharp nails."

"They're claws," Jade corrected flatly, turning Coco's smile into more of an awkward grin.

Coco was suddenly having concerns about her boss's decision, so she pulled her aside and whispered to her.

"Um, Miss Rarity? You know I hate to question your judgement and I'm sure you know what you're doing, but..."

"What exactly are you trying to say, Coco?" Rarity asked, starting to feel offense for her children.

"Oh, no! Don't get me wrong!" Coco pleaded. "Citrine is absolutely gorgeous and she seems very sweet. I'm not worried about her. Jade is... cute in a grungy sort of way, but do you really think she's the modeling type?"

"Are you insinuating that she doesn't look like she could be a model?"

"No, no, of course not! I'm just saying that she doesn't seem to be into it."

They both glanced back and saw Jade laying back in a chair and picking her teeth with her claw.

"Well, to tell you the truth she's not," Rarity confessed. "I had to persuade her to do this because, frankly, we don't have many options at this point."

"Mmm... I guess that's true."

"Just wait until you see her in the outfit I have in mind for her. And don't worry. Everything's going to turn out just fine. Trust me."

Coco hesitated for half a second, but she realized that Rarity had never steered her wrong before, so she told herself she had nothing to worry about. "Okay," she said. "I trust you."

"Excellent!" Rarity exclaimed as she turned back to her daughters. "Come along, girls. We have to get you both fitted." They both followed her back downstairs as Coco took a deep breath to calm herself.

Dragon Ponies: Part 4

Citrine admired herself in the changing room mirror. She wore a beautiful light blue sundress with a navy blue sun pattern and gold-colored trim at the base, along with a pair of turquoise rimmed sunglasses. She liked how the outfit complimented her curves very well and felt very comfortable. In short, she loved it.

She heard frustrated groans and then a loud thud come from the stall next to her. She hurried over and saw her sister on the floor rubbing her shoulder in pain.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, I think so." Jade answered, standing back up. "It's just this damn jacket. I can't get it to fit over my wings."

"Here, let me help." Citrine gave her sister a hand getting up and tried to help her put on a cropped denim jacket. Jade was right. The holes in the back were almost too small for her stiff dragon wings to fit through, but they had to try. She was also wearing a tight purple top with a horizontal stripe pattern, a red wavy skirt and matching sandals.

"I can't believe Mom's making me do this." Jade groaned. "She knows I don't care about this stupid fashion stuff. I mean, does she really think I wanna go out there and have a bunch of fashion snobs judge me for my looks?"

"Jade, it's not about you. It's about showing off Mom's outfits."

"But that's the problem. It's never about what I want. It's always about her. She wants me to be more like her.... and like you."

"Me?"

"Yeah, because you're her perfect little princess. She and Dad just thinks you're so perfect in every way. You're so pretty and girly and sweet to them. It's nauseating and it makes the rest of us look bad."

"Hey!" Citrine grabbed her shoulders and looked her square in the eyes. "You know darn well I'm not perfect, but that still needs to stay between us."

"Okay, yeah! I know." Jade was slightly surprised. She had never seen such intensity in her sister's eyes before. It was a little unnerving.

When Citrine calmed herself down, she took a deep breath and let go of Jade's shoulders. "Look, I'm sorry if I've ever made you feel like you had to compete with me just to get Mom and Dad's approval, but I'm sure they're proud of you, too. I mean, you're awesome at playing guitar and singing and you're in a band. Plus, I'm sure Mom thinks you're very pretty."

Jade scoffed. "Yeah right." she said, looking at herself in the mirror. "She thinks I'm a lot of things, but there's no way she thinks I'm pretty."

"Why not?" Citrine asked.

"Well... I mean... look at me."

Citrine stepped up and put an arm around her younger sister's shoulders. "I am," she said softly. "And I think you look great."

The young dragon pony looked herself over in the mirror. "Really?" she asked.

"Yeah," The older one gave her a smile.

Jade just stared at herself for a second. She had never thought of herself as pretty before, but she had to admit, the outfit really didn't look half bad on her. She gave a small smile, too.

"You know," Jade began, "I don't really mind the top and the jacket, but the skirt and shoes I could do without." This made her sister giggle. Suddenly there was a knock on the door and a voice said "Showtime!" which they recognized as their mom's voice.

Citrine patted Jade's shoulder. "Let's do it."

"Yeah.... Great." Jade still wasn't fully onboard with the whole thing.
------

Bright lights flashed as cameras snapped all around, making it difficult for Jade to keep her eyes open. She and Citrine were in the middle of a photo shoot to see if they could really pass as ideal models and while Citrine seemed to be having a great time smiling and posing with ease, the less than enthusiastic Jade was far outside of her comfort zone. The bright houselights and the incessantly flashing cameras were almost enough to make her go blind. What's worse, she could hear the photographers and other ponies in the room whispering insulting comments about her. It was like being surrounded by a swarm of fireflies at a light show.

"Sheesh. Would it kill the green one to smile?"

"What is with those wings?"

"She can't even keep her eyes open."

"The glare from those scales is throwing off my white balance."

"I'm gonna throw off a lot more than that, you jerks," she thought to herself.

Jade still tried her hardest to do like her sister and strike a few decent poses for the cameras. She was able to keep her eyes open long enough to see her mom quietly signaling her to smile big and wide. She had never been good at smiling on cue (many of her school yearbook pictures could attest to that), but she did as she was told. She did her best to give a big toothy smile, but instead, it ended up looking more like she was passing a kidney stone. Her lips and cheeks were spread out so wide, you could see almost all of her sharp teeth as well her gums.

The photographers had momentarily stopped taking pictures and judging by their faces, you'd think they thought they were about to be eaten. They all seemed either frightened or disgusted by Jade's "smile." Rarity looked a little embarrassed for her and Citrine looked as though she had just witnessed a horrible prophecy come true. The truth was Citrine had been afraid that this would be a problem for Jade, but had tried to remain optimistic.

"Wow." one of the photographers commented. "That's quite a set of teeth she's got."

That was the last straw. Jade let out a loud and frightening growl. "THAT IS IT!" she shouted as she ripped off the denim jacket and stormed out of the room.

"Oh no," Citrine said worriedly. "Jade! Wait up!" she called out as she walked after her disgruntled sister.

"Girls, wait!" Rarity called after them. "Oh dear." She picked up the torn jacket and then turned and gave a scolding look to her staff. "Well I hope you're all proud of yourselves. You may have just damaged my daughter's self-esteem."

The ponies all quickly tried to apologize, desperate not to get on their boss's bad side. "I swear, Ms. Rarity, we had no idea she was your daughter."

"Even so." Rarity glared over them, watching them beg for forgiveness, then she took a deep breath. "Now if you'll all excuse me, I have to go and comfort my little girl. Meanwhile, I suggest you all wrap this place up while you still have your jobs." As everypony scrambled to wrap up the set as quickly as possible, the worried mother left to try and find her daughters.
------

The three mares arrived home having barely spoken at all in the car. Citrine decided to head straight upstairs and give her mom and sister some space to talk. Jade refused to look her mom in the eye, keeping her back turned to her. Rarity tried to think of what would be the best way to go about this, until she took a deep breath and finally spoke up.

"Now, Jade, dear," she said, trying to speak as delicately as possible. "The things those ponies said were completely out of line and I don't want you taking any of it to heart, but..."

"Oh, come on!" Jade suddenly burst out as she turned to face her mother. "You think THAT's what I really care about?! This is exactly why I never wanted to do that stupid modeling crap in the first place! You keep trying to force me to be like you, but I'm not, Mom! I'm just NOT!"

The white mare was at a loss for words. "Jade, I... I didn't..."

Jade continued. "I'm never gonna be like you, Mom. You should've known that the minute you saw what my cutie mark was."

"Jade! I've always known you were different than me, even before your cutie mark appeared."

"But you still haven't accepted it, have you? You never let me do anything I wanna do."

"What are you talking about? I let you take guitar lessons. I let you join your garage band. I let you keep that nasty little bat as a pet. I let you dress like... THIS!" Rarity gestured to her daughter's grungy, ripped clothing.

"Nothing I do is ever good enough for you, is it? It's always about what you want. The Blood Dragons have a concert coming up in just a couple of days and I missed a day of practice for your damn fashion photo shoot!"

"Don't you dare use that language with me, young lady!" Rarity raised her voice and then calmed down a little bit. "Look, I am very sorry for the way things went today, but you had no right to behave the way you did, especially when you ruined my hard work." She presented the torn up remains of Jade's jacket. Jade remained silent for a moment, her head lowered as she glared back at her mother.

"Well I'm sorry, too, Mom," she finally said. "Sorry I'm not the daughter you wanted." With that, she turned and headed upstairs to her bedroom. Once she was out of sight and her door slammed shut, Rarity's heart filled with regret. She held her forehead in her hand as Spike at last entered the room.

"Hey, I heard all the yelling," he said. "What's going on?"

"RRRAAAAAAAAAUUUUUGGGGHHHH!!!!!" They both jumped as they suddenly heard Jade screaming, growling and stomping around in her room. Crashing sounds could be heard all over the house as she demolished the entire bedroom, letting her full anger run wild. She climbed up onto her bed and with one final outburst, let loose the loudest, most furious dragon roar her parents had ever heard. Then, once it was all out of her system, she collapsed face first into her pillow and began to sob lightly.

Just the sound of that roar was enough to break Rarity's heart. She wished so badly that she could alleviate her daughter's pain, but she didn't know how. She wanted the chance to take back the things she had said and help make things right again, but for now, she knew that Jade needed her space and all she could do was listen to her suffer. She sought comfort in Spike's arms as tears began to roll down her cheeks.

"Hey, hey. It's okay, Rare," Spike said in a comforting tone. "You want me to go talk to her?"

Rarity rubbed the tears from her eyes and responded. "No, no. She just needs some time alone to breathe. I think we both do."

"Okay." Spike let her go. "What's wrong?"

"Oh Spike," Rarity started to cry again. "Have I failed as a mother?"

"What? No, no. You're a great mother." Spike held her by the shoulders. "Look, no one ever said parenting would be easy, especially when it came to teenagers. Whatever happened, I'm sure you two will work it out."

Rarity wiped her eyes again and cracked a grateful smile. The two embraced each other again while Jade's sobbing started to settle as she lay in her bed.

Author's Notes:

Thanks a lot for your patience. Hopefully, I can start getting chapters done more quickly in between my school work and the social life that I'm hoping to have this coming semester. I hate putting my writing off for so long, but I'm hoping to do more for this story soon enough.

Dragon Ponies: Part 5 (WARNING!: CONTAINS SERIOUS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE)

It was late the next night as Citrine pulled up and parked the car on the curb right next the park. She had told her parents the truth about where she was going, but not about who she was meeting with. As far as they knew, she had gone to meet her friend Pearly Shores again in the park, but the truth was that she had gotten a message from Silver Shine telling her to meet him at the gazebo so he could apologize in person for the other night.

There weren't a lot of ponies roaming around the park at this hour, so the walk to the gazebo was mostly pretty quiet. So quiet, it was almost eerie. The path was lit by small fluorescent lights strewn along the concrete and the only sounds that could be heard were those of crickets chirping and toads croaking. Finally, Citrine saw the gazebo, illuminated by the the surrounding lights, with her beloved Silver Shine sitting inside patiently waiting for her. When he saw her coming, he stood up and met her with open arms and a big smile.

"Hey! There you are!" he greeted her joyfully. "What took you so long?"

"I had to convince my parents to let me borrow the car." Citrine explained.

He walked up to her and gave her a big passionate hug, which she gladly returned. She sniffed and rubbed her muzzle clear of an itch and then they broke away from each other.

"So you're not still upset about the other night?" Shine asked.

"Nah," she answered. "I know you didn't mean it and I feel fine now. I'm just sorry my sister had to butt in and spoil our date." She rubbed her nose again, scratching another itch.

"You okay?" he asked with a hint of concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just an itch." she reassured him.

"Okay. Well I still felt bad about what I did to you," he explained. "So I got you a little something to make up for it." While Shine turned around to grab his present, Citrine felt an even bigger itch in her sinuses that she tried hard to get rid of. She couldn't figure out what was making her nose so itchy until Shine turned back around and showed her her gift: a bouquet of bright orange and red flowers with long yellow stamens that looked like suns. Dragon sneeze.

The itch turned into a full-blown tickle deep within Citrine's sinuses. She fought to hold it back, but the more she struggled, the worse it got. Shine got worried as he wondered what the problem was. Finally, when the yellow mare couldn't take it any longer, she released an almost explosive sneeze, sending a burst of fire right in Shine's direction. The gray stallion jumped out of the way unharmed, but the same could not be said for the flowers, which had been incinerated and reduced to a burning black pile. Shine stomped on the flowers desperately trying to put out the flames. When the fire was out, he looked at Citrine with an angry glare in his eyes.

(WARNING: SKIP AHEAD TO THE NEXT SEGMENTED LINE IF YOU ARE UNCOMFORTABLE WITH DOMESTIC ABUSE!)

"Oh my God, Shine! I'm SO sorry! I couldn't help it!..." she desperately pleaded.

"Do you have ANY IDEA how much those things cost me?!" Shine shouted at her. She backed away from him, afraid of what he would do next. "You almost BURNED ME ALIVE, you big klutz!"

Citrine was so scared, she started to cry and curl up on the ground. "I'm sorry. I can't help it. Shine, I'm..."

"SHUT UP! I don't wanna hear it!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. "Geez! I try to be nice an apologize and THIS IS THE THANKS I GET?!"
Suddenly, he yanked her up by the color of her blouse and punched her hard across her head, sending her collapsing back down. His fury overtook him as he proceeded to stomp on her torso repeatedly, yelling insults at her as she pleaded and begged him desperately to stop.

Shine raised his foot about to stomp again, when he heard a loud and furious roar that made him stop. Then, all of a sudden, something, or someone, flew out of nowhere and tackled him. It was Jade. She body slammed him up against the pillar of the gazebo and punched him rapidly in the face.

"HOW DO YOU LIKE IT, YOU BASTARD?!" She yelled at him. When her punches finally stopped, she pulled Shine up and pushed him out of the gazebo, where he fell onto the grass. "GO! GET OUT OF HERE!!!" she yelled again as he picked himself up and limbered off.

Citrine struggled to maintain consciousness as she lay in pain on the floor. As Jade rushed to her side, she could see the severe panic on her face.

"Citrine! Citrine! Can you hear me?

She tried to answer, but couldn't form the words.

"You're gonna be okay, alright? I'm gonna get you to a hospital!"

That was the last thing Citrine heard before she finally blacked out.

-------

When Citrine finally woke up, the first thing she saw was a bright white light. She had a huge migraine, but she could hear a familiar masculine-sounding voice saying something like "Look! She's waking up!" Then she realized it was the voice of her father. She tilted her head and sure enough, she saw the faces of her dad, her mom and all of her siblings. They all looked really worried.

"Oh, my poor baby!" Her mother exclaimed, sounding on the verge of tears as she ran to give her a hug. Her father followed after and then picked up her little sister Ruby so she could hug her, too.

Citrine was lying in a hospice with bandages wrapped around her head and ribcage. She was still in a lot of pain. "What are you guys all doing here?" she asked.

"Jade called us and told us what happened," Topaz answered.

"Everything?" the yellow mare asked again, looking to her grungy sister and wondering what exactly she had told them.

"Yeah. Everything!" Jade said kind of snappishly. "I told them about Silver Shine and how you made me swear not to." Citrine suddenly looked down dejectedly.

"But that doesn't matter right now," her dad proclaimed, coming in for another hug. "What's important is that you're alive, honey." The pressure on her ribcage made Citrine wince in pain, but she accepted the hug anyway.

"Yeah, you're lucky I came looking for you or Shine could've pounded you to death," Jade said. "Seriously, Cit. You need to end it with that guy. I mean, look at you. You're lying here with three broken ribs and a mild concussion! That psycho almost killed you just because you sneezed on him!"

Nobody said anything for a long time. Citrine started to cry despite the pain it caused her. Jade softened up a bit at this and moved in closer. Suddenly, Citrine leaned over and grabbed her in the biggest hug yet, catching Jade completely by surprise.

"Thank you, Jade," she whispered through her tears. "You saved my life." Once Jade was past her shock, she returned the hug and held it for a few seconds. When they let each other go, Citrine tried to stop crying. "You're right. I can't do this anymore," she said. "I just can't believe I was so stupid. I kept falling for his lame apologies and his dumb excuses."

Just then, there came a knock on the door. Everyone turned and there stood Silver Shine, his face all bruised and bandaged up thanks to Jade. He was wearing a hospital scrub when he came in looking all worried. Topaz held Ruby's hand for safety.

"Citrine. There you are," he exclaimed.

"Shine?" Citrine said, surprised to see him.

"Listen, I just wanna tell...." he was cut off when Spike, Rarity, Jade and the twins stood in front of him, all glaring him down.

"You listen, tough guy," Spike growled. "You stay away from my little girl or I will personally shove your head so far up your ass, you're gonna be eating your own crap for the rest of your life!"

Shine was starting to shake now. He knew Citrine's dad was a dragon and by the looks of him, he could probably make good on his threat and then some. What really freaked him out, though, was the black two-headed dragon who was also glaring at him with all four of his eyes.

"O-Okay, I'm sorry, but.... s-she almost burned me alive tonight!" He said in his own defense, pointing at the injured dragon-pony lying in bed.

"You idiot!" Jade scolded. "Those flowers are called dragon sneeze for a reason!"

"Yeah, dude! That was your own fault!" Onyx accused.

"Yeah. Now get out of here!" Obi added.

"Whoa, hang on." Shine said. "Cit, you don't really want me to go, do you?"

Everyone turned to her and waited for her answer. Finally, Citrine looked him straight in the eye and said, "Yes I do."

"What?" Shine couldn't believe what she had said.

"It's over, Shine. Now please leave me alone."

"Hey, come on. I said I'm sorry..."

"NO! I'm sick of all your fake apologies. I got sent to the emergency room because of you! I'm not gonna let you hurt me anymore!"

"Cit, come on! Don't do this to me."

"You heard her, punk." Jade said. "Get lost. Unless you want me to snap your arms off."

"I'd gladly let her, too." Rarity chimed in.

Shine was completely at a loss for words. The whole room was staring him down, even his (ex)girlfriend, ordering him to leave right away. He could see that he was out of options, so he surrendered. "Fine," he said in a huff. "But you're gonna regret this someday."

"You try anything and you're gonna regret it, kid." Spike countered.

"That's right." Rarity agreed.

With that, Silver Shine turned and walked begrudgingly out the door and out of their lives for good. After he was gone, everyone smiled back at Citrine.

"You were awesome, Citrine." Topaz complimented his sister on her bravery. Ruby tried to break free of her brother's grip.

"Um, Topaz? You can let go of me now," she told him. He realized he was still clutching her hand.

"Oh right. Sorry," he said letting go of her.

"You guys were all awesome." Citrine replied. "Thanks so much for helping me do something I should've done a long time ago. Especially you, Jade."

"My pleasure, sis." Jade said with a satisfied grin. She held up her fist and declared "Dragon ponies!" Citrine did the same and the two of them performed their sibling handshake. Spike put a hand on Jade's shoulder and gave her a smile.

"We're very proud of you, Jade," he said. "You were very responsible to get your sister here as fast as possible and then call us and tell us what happened."

"Well done, darling." Rarity added.

"Thanks," the young mare said with a joyful smile. "It's just too bad you gotta stay here for two and a half weeks before you're all better."

"Oh, it's not so bad," her sister retorted. "I might not even be alive right now if it weren't for you. I'm just sorry I won't be able to do your fashion show, Mom."

"Oh, pffft!" the white mare scoffed. "Don't give it a second thought, darling. You just focus on getting better and we'll come by to visit everyday. I promise."

Just hearing that made Citrine feel a lot better already. She felt lucky to have such a supportive and understanding family.

"I just need to know one thing." Spike said.

"What's that, Dad?" Citrine asked.

"Did he take advantage of you?" he asked bluntly. Citrine was confused at first, until she realize what he meant.

"Dad!" she shouted, insulted that he would ask such a thing.

"Did you two sleep together?!" he asked again, not letting up until he got an answer.

"No!" Citrine insisted angrily. "I wasn't that stupid."

Spike looked at her silently before he spoke again. "Okay. I believe you," he said. "It's not that I don't trust you. I just had to be sure." he threw up his hands defensively.

Yep. Supporting and understanding family.

------

It was almost midnight when the family arrived home from the hospital. Ruby was so sleepy, she could barely walk, so her daddy picked her up and carried her inside.

"We're gonna go see her again tomorrow, right, Daddy?" the little red dragon asked groggily.

"Yeah, of course." Spike answered. "We're gonna go see her everyday until she comes home."

"But the doctor said that would take two and a half weeks. I'm not good at math, but I know that's a long time."

"Well, she was hurt pretty bad, so she needs a long time to get better." He explained. "But don't worry, sweetie. Citrine's gonna be just fine. As for you, it is way past your bedtime and you need to go get ready."

"That goes for all of you. Go brush your teeth and head straight to bed, alright?" Rarity instructed.

"Okay, Mom." Topaz obeyed. Spike set Ruby down, where she took Topaz's hand and let him guide her up the stairs along with the twins.

Jade stayed behind. She didn't want to leave until she got something off her chest. Something she'd been thinking about the whole way home.

"Mom?" she said, her sullen appearance causing her parents slight concern.

"Yes, dear?" her mother responded. "What is it?"

Jade paused and breathed in before she spoke. "Look, I... I'm sorry I flipped out at the photo shoot yesterday. And that I ruined your outfit."

Both parents were a little surprised to hear that. Rarity bent down to meet her at eye level.

"No, honey," the white mare retorted. "I'm sorry that I forced you into it and made you so uncomfortable. Seeing you so upset was one of the worst feelings I've ever had. I can always make another jacket, but I could never live with myself if I lost you."

To say that Jade was incredibly touched would be an understatement. She hadn't expected her mom to apologize to her and she hadn't realized that she really felt this way.

"I just always thought you guys wanted me to be more like Citrine. All sweet and girly."

"Jade," her dad jumped in. "We don't want you to be like Citrine. We just want you to be like you. We love you just the way you are. Grunge and all."

"That's right, dear." Rarity added. "And we're both very proud of you. You are a fantastic musician. That rock and roll may not be my cup of tea, but it's what you were born for. It's your destiny. We couldn't change that even if we wanted to."

Jade didn't know what to say. She never thought her parents would ever understand her. She felt as though a great weight had been lifted off of her shoulders and before she knew it, her eyes began to to flood with tears.

Smiling, her mother pulled her in for a warm hug, which she eagerly accepted. Spike immediately joined in as Jade continued to cry out all of her pain. "I love you guys, too." she confessed through her tears. Hearing her say that filled her parents with joy. At last, Spike decided to ask her something.

"Hey," he said softly. "Would you be totally embarrassed if we came to your concert?"

They finally broke away from their hug. Jade wiped away her tears and smiled, shaking her head. "No way," she responded. "I'd love that. I really would."

They all hugged again as Jade felt closer to her parents then she ever had before.

Dragon Ponies: Part 6

As the Blood Dragons set up backstage for their big show, Jade was feeling really pumped. For a school fundraiser, there seemed to be a pretty big crowd out there from what she could hear. It wasn't a huge honor, but it was the most impressive gig they'd ever gotten. Even more exciting was the fact that her whole family was out there waiting for her. Even Citrine would get to watch the show from her hospital room via web stream. As soon as the guy on stage announced them, Jade was going to go play her heart out and give them all a show to remember.

"Curtain in two minutes," the stage hand said.

Jade took a drink from a water bottle and coughed to clear her throat. "Alright, guys," she addressed the rest of the band. "You ready to go out there and rock this bitch?"

"Hell yeah! Let's do it!" Rip the drummer exclaimed excitedly, raising his sticks in the air.

"Yeah!" the others all said in unison.

"Alright! Showtime!" Jade said, loving their enthusiasm.

-----

Meanwhile, out in the crowd of ponies that filled up almost the whole auditorium, the Sparitys waited anxiously for the show to start. Spike was having a little trouble trying to set up the live video chat on his phone and was growing impatient.

"Do you need some help, Dad?" Topaz offered.

"No, no. I think I almost got it," he said, fiddling with the buttons on his screen. Finally, he saw an icon with a picture of a camera on it and touched it. Then he scrolled down to the bar that said "Live Chat." From there he found Citrine's e-mail address and when he touched it, he could finally see Citrine's face smiling back at him. "Yes! I got it." he exclaimed. He waved back at Citrine and then showed her around to everypony else so they could say hi, too.

At last, the lights in the auditorium went down and a teenage stallion in a black shirt and head set stepped out on stage. Everypony in the crowd went quiet as Spike held up his phone for Citrine to see.

"Welcome, everypony," said the young stallion, "to the Tenth Annual Meadowbrooke High Musical Fundraiser!"

Everypony cheered.

"Thanks to your contributions, we've already raised so much money tonight for our school's many awesome programs. And now, without further ado, please give it up for Meadowbrooke High's very own... THE BLOOD DRAGONS!"

The entire crowd erupted into applause and cheers as the curtains went up, the lights flashed and the music instantly picked up. And there, standing center stage, was Jade with her guitar in hand and a mic on her face as she began to sing.

"Little filly, you like it loud.

Come alive in the middle of a crowd.

You wanna scream. You wanna shout.

Get excited when the lights go down,

At the rock show!

You'll be right in the front row!

Heart and soul, they both know,

It's where you gotta be!"

As the song went on, Jade got more and more swept away by the incredible sensation. It was the same way she felt the first time she played her guitar and got her cutie mark. The feeling of doing what she knew she was born to do. It made her feel so alive that when the instrumental part came, she blew a burst of fire right out at the crowd. Nothing got burned, but the crowd loved it.

Her family was all having a great time, too. The kids were all jumping and screaming for her and her mom and dad couldn't be more proud. Even Rarity was enjoying the show. Albeit, the music was a little too loud and some of the lyrics were a bit too vulgar for her tastes (in fact, she was starting to think maybe Ruby and Topaz should've stayed home), but just seeing Jade up on stage and performing her heart out was more than enough to make her forgive all of that. Rarity knew all too well what Jade was feeling right now and that made her happy as well.

-------

Citrine lay in bed at the hospital with her computer in her lap, watching her sister rock the house live on stage. She still had a ways to go before she was fully recovered, but at that moment, she didn't care. She was well on her way to recovery, her family and friends came to see her everyday and to top it all off, her crazy ex-boyfriend was in jail on physical assault charges.

Citrine giggled when she watched Jade fly up and briefly hover over the stage while she kept playing. She was glad to have a sister like her who she wouldn't trade for anypony else in the world. After all, dragon ponies have to stick together.

Author's Notes:

And that's the end of this arc, but stick around because I've got two more planned. Thanks to all my readers for all the positive feedback and constructive criticism. I hope you enjoy the next arc as much as this one and don't worry. I promise it won't get nearly as graphic as this one did.

The lyrics that Jade sings are from the song Rock Show by Halestorm.

Topaz's First Crush: Part 1

It was a normal Sunday afternoon at home. Everyone was off doing their own thing. Rarity and Citrine were at the hair salon getting their manes done, Jade was listening to music in her room, Ruby was playing with her toys in the living room, Spike was watching his favorite show, Onyx and Obi were laughing their heads off at their latest prank and Topaz?

Topaz was walking in pain with his underwear full of mud and pulled over his head. The twins thought it would be hilarious to hold him down and give him a "mud wedgie" while he was trying to read. This kind of treatment was nothing new, though. The twins were always jerks, especially to Topaz. As much as he tried to get the underwear off his head, it was snagged tightly on his horn.

"Very funny, guys!" the young colt yelled out to them. When he hobbled into the living room, his dad saw him and knew instantly what had happened.

"What the?! BOYS!" He got up from the couch and yelled at them.

"It wasn't us, Dad!" They called back in unison as they ran down to the basement that was their bedroom.

Spike groaned in frustration. "Come here. Let me help you with that," he said, yanking the ruined underpants off of Topaz's head.

"Thanks, Dad," said Topaz, feeling so much better.

"You go throw those out and put on some fresh ones. I'll take care of those two."

"Yeah. Good thinking."

The young unicorn headed upstairs to change while Spike knocked on the door of the two troublemaking twins.

"Nobody's here!" Onyx called from inside. Spike opened the door and barged in anyway.

"What did I tell you guys about picking on your brother?" He said angrily as he closed the door behind him.

Topaz made his way to up to the second floor of the house. There were five rooms upstairs. One was a bathroom, one belonged to his parents, one was his sister Citrine's, one was Jade's and one was his that he had to share with Ruby. He entered his bedroom. On one side was Ruby's stuff: her bed, toys, dirty clothes and posters of baby animals. On the other side was the closet and Topaz's stuff: his bed, desk, books, study materials and his own dresser.

The book on his desk was still open to the page he had been reading before he was so rudely interrupted. It was a book about advanced magic and it was open to a chapter on animation spells, designed to temporarily bring objects to life. He couldn't wait to get back to reading it, but first, he had to take a shower to wash the mud out of his hair and put on some clean underpants.

Topaz loved to read and study things like science, history and especially magic. It was his goal to someday be one of the greatest mages of all time like Starswirl the Bearded or even his aunt Twilight Sparkle, who was all too happy to give him a lesson whenever they saw each other. He already had a few colleges in mind with great magic programs that he wanted to go to when he got older. For now, though, he was stuck in a house with two idiot brothers who made fun of him, picked on him and gave him mud wedgies.

-----

The next day, Topaz rode with his mom on his way to school, which wasn't much better for him when it came to being picked on. His parents were, of course, very proud of him for being so smart and studious, but often wished he would socialize more often with other kids his own age. He tried from time to time to make a new friend with somepony who shared his interests, but more often than not, he just couldn't form much of a connection with anypony. Either that or they would get freaked out by his reptilian eyes and pointy teeth and just not want to talk to him. Worst case scenario, though? He had to deal with bullies at school who teased him both for being part dragon and for being an "egghead."

As they came up to the school's football field, Topaz decided that they were close enough that he could walk the rest of the way.

"You can just drop me off right here, Mom," he said.

"Oh, don't be silly," she replied. "We're almost there with plenty of time to spare."

"Really, it's okay. I can walk," he persisted.

"What's the matter? You don't want to be seen with your mother driving you?"

"No, it's not that. It's just..." he couldn't think of what else to say since it kind of was that. Suddenly, Rarity had a thought and put on a sly smirk.

"Is it a girl?" She teased, making his cheeks turn bright red.

"What?! No! No, there's no girl! It's just...! You're-You're crazy, Mom!"

The white mare giggled. "Oh, relax, honey. I'm just teasing.... Although, if it was a girl, I'd be more than..."

"It's not a girl, Mom!" Topaz exclaimed defensively.

"There's no need to shout, young colt," she said with stern expression.

"Sorry," he said recoiling.

Finally, they pulled up to the front of the school, where buses and other cars were dropping off kids for the day. Topaz grabbed his backpack and opened the door.

"Have a good day, sweetie. I love you!" Rarity said as her son stepped out of the car.

"Love you, too, Mom," he replied, closing the door.

As Topaz walked up to the front door, he suddenly noticed two colts taller than him standing nearby, waiting for him. He kept walking and pretended not to see them, hoping maybe he could at least get inside without much trouble.

"Hey, Topaz!" One of the colts called out to him. "Where you going, buddy?"

Topaz groaned internally, still trying to get to the door. "Just trying to get to class, guys. I don't want any trouble."

"Aw, come on, dude. That hurts," the other colt said sarcastically. They both stopped him and turned him around to face them. "We just wanna have a little fun with you before class."

"Yeah. Come on. Why don't you show us your teeth?"

"I'm gonna be late." Topaz tried to walk away, but the two bullies grabbed him by the shoulder.

"No, no. Come on. Let's see those teeth," the first one ordered, forcing his mouth open.

The two bullies laughed at his sharp dragon teeth as he struggled to get free. The held him for about six seconds before they let him go.

"Leave me alone, you guys!" Topaz demanded angrily.

"Why? What are you gonna do? Breathe fire on us?" The first bully mocked, making Topaz even more mad.

"Yeah. Go ahead," the second one said. "Burn us alive right now with your scary dragon breath."

Just one more reason for the blue colt to feel different. Unlike his dad and all his siblings, Topaz couldn't breathe fire. Even Citrine could do it and she was mostly a pony herself. He would love to be able to burn those smug, stupid grins off their faces, but he just stood there and glared at them, watching them laugh when nothing happened.

"That's what I thought," the second bully said.

"There's a good little freak," the first insulted, tussling his hair. Then they both headed inside. Topaz was so aggravated. As if getting that kind of treatment from his big brothers wasn't bad enough. He had to take it from those two idiots everyday, too.

His bad mood started to quell when he saw a young pegasus filly with a mint green coat, blue and yellow mane and tail and silver colored eyes sitting alone on a stoop and reading a book. He knew her from the four classes they shared each day. Minty Gold. That was her name. And what a beautiful name it was.

Topaz had often admired her from afar, as he'd always thought she was rather pretty, but something new caught his attention this time: the book she was reading. It was the same advanced magic book he had been reading the day before in a more condensed size. In all the times he'd seen her in class, Topaz had never taken Minty for the type to be interested in magic. Mostly because she wasn't a unicorn.

Suddenly, he found himself even more attracted to her than ever before. He debated whether or not he had time to go over and talk to her before the bell rang. He kept going back and forth in his head until finally, he decided that he didn't have time to hesitate any further. He finally steeled himself enough to go up and talk to Minty, when suddenly he heard a loud voice.

Topaz turned and saw his mom waving at him from in front of the car, his lunchbox in her hand.

"Yoo-hoo! Topaz!" She called to him, causing several of the kids in the courtyard to turn their attention to her. "You forgot your lunchbox in the car, honey!"

As Rarity jogged over to him to hand him his lunchbox, she didn't realize that she was inadvertently attracting the attention of several of the preteen colts (and one or two fillies) around her. While Topaz merely watched in complete embarrassment, the others watched in total admiration as her shiny lavender hair bounced and billowed in the breeze. Her curvaceous hips swayed and her ample bust bounced with each skip she took. To a bunch of young ponies on the cusp of puberty, she must've looked like an angel from heaven.

She finally stopped running when she reached her son, who was trying his best to hide his shame. He took the lunchbox from her hand and said "Thanks, Mom," trying his best to sound sincere when he was in fact dying a little more inside with each passing second.

"You're welcome, sweetie," Rarity said, giving him one last humiliating kiss on the forehead before trotting back to the car with everypony still staring at her.

When his mom was back in her car and driving away, he looked around and saw everypony, including the two bullies, staring at him as they walked inside. Suddenly, the bell rang, signaling that it was now time to get to class. He looked back at Minty, whom he noticed giving him a light giggle as she got up to head to class. Now that Topaz had been thoroughly humiliated twice in one morning, he was not having high hopes for the rest of the day.

Topaz's First Crush: Part 2

Second period was gym class. Topaz emerged from the locker room wearing a plain grey t-shirt and baggy black and white shorts. Needless to say, gym was not his favorite class. It's not that he hated it. It's just that he would rather read a book than run around in giant circles, which was always the first thing they had to do.

As soon as the kids stepped out of the locker rooms, they had to either walk or jog around the width of the court. Topaz usually chose to walk unless he was feeling especially energetic. Today was not one of those days. He began his tedious routine walk around the gym, joining the rest of the class. The more athletic kids jogged while the ones who were more like Topaz just walked.

"Hey, Topaz," came a voice from behind. The bullies from earlier jogged up to Topaz from behind him and then slowed down to his speed. Topaz cursed internally.

"You know, I finally saw something I like about you today. Your smoking hot mom." The two colts laughed, reminding Topaz of his earlier embarrassment. Of course, just when he had put it out of his mind, somepony had to come along and put it right back in.

"Yeah. Now I can see where you came from," The other one added. "If I was a dragon, I'd want a piece of her, too."

"Better make sure you forget your lunch everyday, huh?"

Topaz was about three seconds away from punching both of them right in the faces, until suddenly, he heard another voice. A feminine one.

"Knock it off, you guys," Minty Gold scorned. Topaz's heart jumped and sank into his stomach as he didn't even realize she had been walking right next to him.

"Fine. See ya, Mama's boy." The bullies kept on jogging, leaving Minty and Topaz behind.

"Don't listen to them," Minty said softly. The blue colt turned and looked up at her. She had a couple of inches on him and if he was really honest with himself, she looked a lot like Jade, except without the scales and punk rock attire. "I think it's sweet that your mom brings you your lunch," she continued.

"Huh? Oh yeah," he stammered, snapping himself out of his trance. "Well, you know, she doesn't do it everyday. Just... on days when I forget." He started to blush a little bit. Minty giggled.

"Okay. Well it's still sweet."

"Hehe. Thanks. And thanks for sticking up for me."

"No problem. Somepony had to shut those guys up."

Just then, the coach blew the whistle, signaling that the required jogging time was up. The young ponies all split up to do their own things like play basketball or jump rope.

"Do you wanna go sit with me?"

That question made Topaz's heart skip a beat. He hadn't expected this to happen. "Uhhh... Yeah, sure," he stuttered. As the two of them walked over to the bleachers, tons of questions ran through his mind. What would he say? What did she want to talk about? Could he even maintain eye contact with her? Did his breath stink? Did he have B.O.? Finally, they found a spot up on the bleachers and sat down side by side. Topaz took a deep breath to calm himself down.

"So," Minty began, snapping Topaz back to reality. "Can I ask you something?"

"Um, yeah. What is it?" he replied.

"Is your dad really a dragon?" she inquired.

Topaz was a bit confused. To him, the answer was obvious because of his eyes and teeth. Still, he responded with a polite "Yep."

"Oh my gosh!" Minty suddenly beamed with excitement, her wings spreading out in response. "That's so cool! I've read all about dragons. Can he breathe fire? Can you breathe fire?"

"No," he said with an awkward chuckle, "but all my brothers and sisters can. I wish I could, but I'm really only five percent dragon."

"That's still pretty cool. You're the first kirin I've ever met. That's the technical term for a pony-dragon crossbreed, right?"

"Yeah."

"Sweet. How many siblings do you have?"

"I have three sisters and two brothers."

"Really? Wow!"

"Yeah. My brothers are actually two heads on the same body!"

"Whoa! Seriously? That is nuts!"

"Well, when a unicorn and a dragon have kids together, it's like a box of chocolates. You never really know what you're gonna get."

"I guess so, but five siblings?"

"My parents reeeeally love each other."

Minty burst out laughing at that. Topaz was pleasantly surprised with how well things were going already. She was a really smart pony who was a lot of fun to talk to. It was as if his anxieties had all but disappeared. He couldn't believe he was ever so nervous about talking to her. He decided to bring up the thing he'd been thinking about since he saw her earlier that morning.

"So, hey. I noticed that book you were reading this morning," he said. "'Advanced Spells and Magical Properties' by Heart Arrow?"

"Oh yeah," Minty exclaimed. "It's a great book."

"I know. I have the same one."

Minty grew excited again. "Really?!"

"Yeah."

"Magic is so cool. I love reading all about it. Sometimes I wish I was a unicorn so I could actually use it."

Suddenly, the whistle blew again and all the kids stopped what they were doing and headed towards the locker rooms. Topaz and Minty both stood up and did the same. After hesitating for a moment, Topaz decided to ask one last question.

"Hey, Minty?"

"Yeah?"

"Um... do you wanna... maybe get together again sometime and... talk a little more about... magic and stuff?"

"Yeah, totally," Minty responded. "You can come over to my house this Saturday if you want."

"Really?" Topaz perked up.

"Here. Let me give you my address." Minty took out a slip of paper and wrote down her home address and handed it to Topaz.

"Thanks."

"See you later," she said. Then she disappeared into the girl's locker room.

Topaz couldn't believe it. As he looked down at the piece of paper in his hands, a huge smile crept across his face. He had a date with Minty Gold! Then his excitement suddenly turned into terror.

He had a DATE with MINTY GOLD!

-----

When Topaz came home that day, He was still a nervous wreck. He had a date with the girl of his dreams and he had no idea what to do about it. Well, technically, they didn't actually use the word 'date', but still, he was both excited and horrified at the same time. He had to calm himself down. He took a deep breath in and then a deep breath out. Suddenly, he was relaxed enough to think straight.

Topaz needed advice, so he asked himself who he should go to for advice about talking to girls. The answer? His dad.

Spike was in the living room, watching TV when Topaz walked in.

"Hey! Topaz! How was school today?" The purple dragon greeted his son.

"Hey, Dad. It was okay," Topaz responded nonchalantly. Looking down nervously, he decided to just go ahead and ask. "Hey Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"I need to talk to you about something."

"Sure. What is it?"

Topaz sat down on the couch next to his father, still not really looking him in the eye.

"Well, you see, I talked to this girl today. She's really nice and smart and cool and I really like her. It seemed like we really hit it off talking about magic and stuff and..." Topaz pulled out the piece of paper in his pocket. "She gave me her home address."

"Hey! That's awesome!" Spike shook his son playfully, feeling very proud of him. The young colt smiled awkwardly. "Look at you, buddy. You got a date?"

"Y-Yeah. Well, sort of. I just asked if she wanted to hang out with me so we could discuss magic some more. It's more like a study date, really."

"But you like her, don't you?"

"Yeah, but I don't know what to do. I'm supposed to meet her at her house this Saturday, but I don't wanna screw anything up."

"Just relax, dude. You're over-thinking it. It sounds to me like she already likes you. She gave you her address, for crying out loud. You just have to relax and be yourself, okay?"

Topaz smiled, starting to feel a little better. "Okay. Thanks."

"I'll tell you what you don't wanna do," the grown dragon continued. "Don't put her on such a high pedestal. If you do that, you're gonna be too scared to do anything. Just think of her as a normal pony. She eats and sleeps just like you do. Remember that and you'll do just fine. That's how it was with your mom. Okay?"

"Alright. Thanks a lot, Dad." Topaz got up and headed to his room.

"Anytime, buddy. Anytime." With that, Spike went back to his show, proud that his son was growing up so much.

As Topaz made his way upstairs to his room, he saw Onyx and Obi about to pass him on the way down.

"Hey, Paz. There's a bug on your face. I'll get it," Obi said just before slapping Topaz right in the face, causing him to stumble against the wall. Both of the black dragon heads laughed as they passed him.

When Topaz reached the top of the stairs, he noticed that Citrine's door was open. Given what the twins had just done, he figured maybe he could use some advice on one other thing. He peaked into Citrine's room and noticed that she seemed to be doing some homework. He hesitated a little since he didn't want to interrupt her, but he knocked on her door anyway to get her attention.

"Oh. Hey, Topaz. What's up?" Citrine said as she put her notebook and pencil down, giving him her full attention.

"I need your advice on something," he confessed.

"Sure. What do you need?"

"Have you ever gotten bullied or picked on for being... you know, part dragon?"

Citrine seemed to be caught a little off guard by the question. She sighed, as if revisiting old memories she had thought about in a long time.

"Sure I have," she began. "Years ago. Kids used to pick on me and make fun of me all the time. I was the only kid in my class with slit pupils and fangs and sharp claws. A lot of ponies were afraid of me, too, because every time I sneezed, fire came out. One time, I accidentally set my desk on fire. Even the teacher was afraid. It was pretty hard just going to school everyday." She started to trail off a little bit.

"So what did you do?" The blue colt asked. Citrine managed to perk up a bit and gave him a smile.

"Well, having my family to go home to everyday was a pretty big help in getting me through it. Mom and Dad were always there for emotional support and you guys always reminded me that I wasn't alone. You were just a baby at the time, but that's how we came up with our secret handshake."

Topaz thought back to the twins and chuckled at the thought of them offering any kind of support. "Well I think Onyx and Obi may have forgotten about that." Citrine laughed.

"Come on. They can be nice... on occasion."

"What about them, anyway?" he asked. "Did they ever get picked on? And what about Jade?"

Citrine thought about the twins and Jade in school. She imagined them walking down the hall with all the kids staring at them and muttering, then she imagined them glaring back at everyone and growling angrily, freaking all the kids out so much that they run away. She laughed at the thought.

"I think most ponies are too afraid to make fun of them," she joked. Topaz laughed with her.

"Yeah, you're probably right."

"Just remember, if you ever need to talk about anything, we're always here for you," Citrine reassured him. Then she held her fist out for him to pound.

"Thanks, Citrine." Topaz pounded her fist with his own and they spread out their fingers and growled. After that, he left and his sister returned to her homework.

Topaz was already feeling much better now that he knew he had somepony to talk to.

Topaz's First Crush: Part 3

Saturday finally arrived. The day that Topaz was to spend with Minty Gold, the filly of his dreams. He was so nervouscited, his heart was beating like a bongo drum. He had asked his dad to drive him since his mom had to go to work early that day, which he thanked his lucky stars for.

He could only imagine how much she would flip out if she found out about his date. Constantly fussing over his hair, his clothes, his mannerisms, his hygiene (actually, he did put on some deodorant and grab some breath mints before he left, just to be safe). On top of that, his mom would no doubt get all emotional and suffocate him to death with all the hugging and kisses.

His dad was much more chill about it, so Topaz trusted him not to embarrass him when they got to Minty's house. Speaking of which, here it was now. Topaz could tell by the address. He could feel himself starting to sweat as Spike stopped right in front of the house. He opened the door to get out of the car.

"Well, this is it," the young colt said nervously. "Any last minute words of wisdom?"

"Yeah. Whatever you do, keep your hands to yourself," the dragon advised. "Don't make the mistakes of your ancestors." He laughed as he pointed to himself. Topaz laughed awkwardly with him until Spike turned serious again. "Seriously."

Topaz stopped laughing. "Got it. Thanks."

"Just call and let me know if you wanna get to get picked up early."

"Okay, Dad." And with that, they waved goodbye to each other and Spike drove off, leaving his son to fend for himself.

As he approached the front door, his whole world felt like it was spinning. He was so dizzy that he felt like he could puke at any minute. It was like being on a roller coaster and he wanted to get off so badly, but he was already strapped in for the ride and there was no turning back now. He reached out his finger, rang the doorbell, and braced himself, not knowing who was going to answer.

Only a couple seconds passed before the door flung open and there she stood. Minty Gold in all of her bright green beauty, delighted to see him.

"Topaz! You're here!" she exclaimed with a smile.

The light blue casanova cleared his throat to at least attempt to speak. "Uh, h-hi, Minty!" he said with a nervous grin.

"Well don't just stand there." The excited young pegasus yanked him inside and dragged him up the stairs all the way to her bedroom. "I've already got it all planned out."

It happened so fast that Topaz barely had time to react. Before he knew it, Minty had let go of his hand and he was standing in her room. It was pretty typical. It had a one-pony bed, a dresser, a desk, a few posters, some assorted stuffed animals and a closet. What really caught Topaz's attention, though, was the bookshelf. It reached all the way up to the ceiling and it was completely filled with books of all different sizes. He decided to get a closer look.

"What do you think of my room?" Minty asked while Topaz was admiring the shelf.

"Look at all these books!" He exclaimed. "Have you read all of these?"

"Most of them. If you look, you can see they're divided into two sections. Fiction and non-fiction."

The shelf had pieces of wood lined up right down the middle that kept the two groups separate. The fiction books were on one side and the non-fiction books were on the other. Topaz was impressed.

"Wow, Minty. I never knew you were so organized."

"Thanks."

Suddenly, the door opened and a navy blue pegasus mare entered the room. "There you are," she said. "You ran up here before I could catch you. I wanted to meet this boy you've been telling me about."

"Mom!" Minty groaned.

"You're Minty's mom? It's nice to meet you," the colt greeted nervously as he approached her. "I'm Topaz. I go to school with her."

He reached out his arm to shake her hand, but she seemed to have a surprised look in her eyes. She just stood there staring at him.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry. It's nothing," the mother said as she snapped out of it and shook his hand. "It's nice to meet you, too, young colt."

"Okay, great, Mom. You met him. Now if you don't mind, we were about to start studying here," the filly complained, urging her mom to leave them in peace.

"Oh sure. Don't mind me. I'll just let you two get started. Let me know if you need anything."

"Don't worry. We will."

Minty's mom closed the door and left the two kids alone, but they could still hear her give an audible sigh before she walked away.

"Sorry about that," the green filly apologized.

"It's fine. I was gonna meet your parents eventually."

"Yeah, but I'm just sorry about the way she stared at you like that."

"Don't worry about it. It's not the first time I've gotten that reaction."

"If it's any consolation, I know how you feel."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Then, out of nowhere, Minty started to lift up her shirt, making the young colt's face turn so red that it could stop traffic. His better instincts told him to look away, but she clearly had something she wanted to show him, so he kept looking anyway.

"You see this scar right here?" Minty pointed to something on her left side. Topaz moved in for a closer look and sure enough, there was a decent sized scar just under the spot where her hand was holding up her shirt.

"Uh, yeah?"

"I got it in a flying accident when I was little," the green filly confessed. "A few kids used to make fun of me for it all the time, calling me things like 'klutz' or 'chicken wings.' After I started hiding it, eventually, everypony just sort of forgot about it, but I never did."

She lowered her shirt and Topaz barely knew what do say.

"Wow, Minty. I never would've guessed."

"There's a lot you don't know about me Topaz."

"Touche."

Topaz couldn't believe that this girl trusted him enough already to show him something so personal. Just one more reason not to mess this whole thing up.

"You know, you're lucky my dad's not home," said Minty. "He gets really protective when it comes to boys."

"Really? Where is your dad?"

"He's working today and he usually doesn't get home until about eight."

Topaz was relieved to hear that. Meeting Minty's parents was one thing he had sort of been dreading, especially her dad. He felt really glad that he had avoided having to make that first impression... for now.

Minty decided it was time to get down to the reason they were there. She pulled a book off the shelf and set down it on the desk. The cover read Alchemy 101: A Guide to Basic Potion Mixing.

"Okay. So obviously, I can't cast any spells, but I love making potions," Minty began as she opened the book to page 1.

"You can make potions?" Topaz said in amazement.

"Yeah. I've got all the stuff I need right here." She reached under her bed and presented a couple of different sized beakers.

"No way! How many of those do you have?"

"Come see for yourself."

Topaz peeked under the bed and couldn't believe his eyes. There were beakers, tubes, bunsen burners and flasks of all different shapes and sizes. There were also lots of jars and bags filled with all kinds of different ingredients. It was way more interesting than anything he kept under his bed.

It was official. He was in love.

-----

Topaz and Minty Gold passed hours reading and talking about different kinds of magic spells and techniques. They even managed to teach each other a few new things. Topaz didn't have much experience with mixing potions, so Minty was happy to show him a thing or two. She demonstrated by mixing some of her best potions for him to watch. She made potions for growing plants, changing voices, changing hair colors and even turning cockroaches into butterflies.

In return, Topaz showed off some of his most impressive magic spells, including one that he was still trying to get the hang of: generating a forcefield. He put all of his concentration into it and just when it looked like he was about to pull it off, Minty got all excited and started bouncing in her seat. Just looking at her distracted him and made him lose his concentration. Even though Topaz kicked himself for failing to do the spell, she still thought it was impressive.

Eventually, Minty told Topaz about a certain potion that she'd always wanted to try and make.

"Oh yeah? What is it?" he inquired.

"It's a healing potion," she replied, pointing to a picture of it in the book. "It can heal any injury or cure any infection. It's never been perfected, but once it is, it'll be the ultimate medicine."

"Are you saying you want to try and perfect it?"

"I would love to be the one to perfect it someday, but the problem is it takes a lot of ingredients and some of them are really hard to find. I've asked my parents to try and get them for me, but they just bought these lame instant mix packets."

Topaz glossed over the page with the potion's recipe. "You know, I've seen a lot of these ingredients around town before," he said. "I bet I could find them all for you, if you want."

"You'd really do that for me?"

"Sure. I mean, we're friends now, aren't we?" Topaz asked with a slight blush in his cheeks.

"That would be awesome!" She surprised him with a big hug that rendered the young colt paralyzed. "If you can get me all these ingredients, I could get right to work on perfecting that potion." Even after she let go of him, he could still barely move a muscle.

When it finally came time for Topaz to leave, Minty thanked him again and loaned him her potion book so he could be sure what to look for. He got in the car with his dad and drove off with Minty waving goodbye. Topaz now had a mission. He had to find everything on this list for Minty's potion or die trying.

Maybe not necessarily that last part.

Topaz's First Crush: Part 4

Topaz began his quest to find the ingredients for Minty Gold's potion. Looking back at the book that she had loaned him, there were some rather bizarre items on the list. He decided to begin his quest at the only shop in town that he thought would have at least some of them. He also decided to bring Citrine along so he wouldn't have to go it alone and because he needed a ride.

When the two siblings entered the shop, they were met with a strange smell that neither of them was could quite recognize. It wasn't a horrible smell, but it wasn't very pleasant either. Just looking around at all the strange objects lying around the shop, Topaz was sure that they could find at least some of the things they were looking for there. The pony behind the counter was a green earth pony with maroon dreadlocks and a bandana on her head. She seemed to be in the middle of some deep meditation, as she had her eyes closed and she kept saying "Oommmm" repeatedly. Topaz figured it would be rude to disturb her, but they did have a job to do.

"Um, excuse me? Hello?" Citrine said carefully, trying to get the pony's attention without shocking her. She didn't respond. Topaz decided to try again a little louder.

"Hello! Miss? We need to..." That seemed to work as the mare snapped out of her trance.

"Huh? Wha? Who's there?" she blurted out in confusion. Then she noticed that she had customers. "Oh hey!" She greeted them. "Welcome to Tree Hugger's All Natural Emporium. Blessiiiiings." She waved her hand in front of them as if casting some sort of enchantment on them.

The two siblings exchanged a confused look before Tree Hugger continued.

"So, like, how can I help you?"

"Well, we're looking for some ingredients to make a potion." Citrine explained.

"Righteous."

"You wouldn't happen to have any of these things in stock, would you?" Topaz inquired, showing Tree Hugger the page with the recipe on it. She examined the list carefully, trying to remember if any of the things were in her store.

"Hmm... I'll have to check. These are some really groovy items. Let's see what we can find."

Tree Hugger stepped out from behind the counter to begin her search. When she did, however, Topaz and Citrine were totally unprepared for what they saw. This pony was completely naked except for the smock covering her front. They tried to avert their eyes.

"WHOA! Whoa!" The two kids exclaimed in shock.

"Y-You are not wearing any clothes!" Citrine pointed out obviously.

"Oh yeah," said Tree Hugger. "When I say 'all natural,' I mean, like, 'all natural.'"

"But you can't just walk around butt naked in public with nothing but a smock on!" Citrine argued. "It's illegal!"

"Whoa. You're really starting to harsh my mellow. Besides, it's, like, my shop and if you don't approve of the way I choose to live my life, then you can just, like, leave."

Citrine was about to do just that, but Topaz stopped her.

"This could be the only place to get what we need. Just suck it up for a little while and we'll be out of here in no time. Please."

Looking into her little brother's eyes, Citrine decided to swallow her discomfort for his sake and let them stay, knowing how important it was to him that they get those ingredients.

*Sigh* "Okay. For you, bro," she conceded.

"I'm sorry, Miss Hugger," Topaz said to the naked mare. "Can you please help us?"

She gave them a blank look, but then smiled and said "Sure. Why wouldn't I?"

Citrine and Topaz looked to each other with confusion and concern, but then just shrugged it off.

"Now let me see," said Tree Hugger. "Where did I put that volcanic charcoal? Oh yeah! I think it was over here." She turned around and walked over to a shelf on the far side of the room, revealing her unclothed backside to her reluctant young customers. They both covered their eyes in sheer embarrassment to avoid direct eye contact as she looked across the shelf for the jar of charcoal. Fortunately, her tail covered up the most private part of her bottom, which helped a little, but not much.

Having no luck finding the charcoal on the top shelf, Tree Hugger decided to bend down and search the bottom one. Unfortunately, when she did, she bent her back more than her knees and her bare bottom stuck out even more. Both of the kids' faces grew extremely red as they tried hard not to look. Topaz couldn't help but take one little curious peek between his fingers, but then his sister covered his eyes for him.

-----

After about half an hour or so, they had already found most of the things they were looking for. Topaz was starting to think that this whole quest might be easier than he thought. When Tree Hugger was done ringing up the items one by one, she tallied up the total cost.

"That's 38 bits," she said. The siblings started to sweat. The cost was a little more than they had expected.

"Well, Citrine? Pay the nice mare," urged Topaz.

Citrine rummaged through her bag, but she couldn't find enough cash to cover the bill. "Do you take credit cards?" she asked.

"Uh, I don't really know how those things work," Tree Hugger replied, "but I do accept hugs as payment."

Both kids were stunned at such a proposal, especially Citrine. She stumbled over her words trying to come up with a counter offer.

"U-Um, no thanks. Can't we just work it off or trade or anything else? Please? HERE! PLEASE JUST TAKE MY CARD!"

"Are you sure? Everypony needs a hug once in a while."

Topaz grabbed her arm and whispered in her ear. "Just close your eyes and it'll be over before you know it."

"I am NOT hugging a naked mare!"

"Look, I'm sorry, but I don't have enough money either and I don't think she's gonna let us pay any other way. Besides, she's not totally naked. She's got the smock on, doesn't she?"

The yellow drake mare cringed and groaned at the thought of having to hug a naked mare for who knows how long.

"Please, Citrine?" pleaded the blue colt. He then held up a fist to signify their bonding handshake. Citrine decided that her hands were tied and, reluctantly, she pounded his fist back and agreed.

"I really hope you appreciate what I do for you!" she whispered angrily.

Swallowing her pride and with tremendous hesitation, Citrine lifted up her arms and invited Tree Hugger in for a hug, which Tree Hugger gladly accepted.

"Just pretend it's Mom," whispered Topaz. Finally, Tree Hugger made contact and the two mares embraced each other. Citrine kept here eyes shut tight waiting for it to be over. The hug only lasted five seconds, but it felt like five minutes. When Tree Hugger finally let go, Citrine breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"See? I told you," the shop owner bragged. "Don't you feel much better now?"

'Better' wasn't a word that Citrine would use to describe how she felt. 'Sick,' 'dizzy' and 'violated' all came to mind, though.

"Your turn, little dude," Tree Hugger said pointing to Topaz. The young colt felt his face get really hot all of a sudden. He was really embarrassed at the idea, but to be honest, a part of him actually wanted this. The green mare held out her arms and pulled the little colt in for his payment. His face landed right between her breasts, but he turned his head sideways so that he wouldn't suffocate. He eagerly wrapped his arms around her waste.

"Okay, I think that's enough," Citrine said with a grimace as she pulled her little brother out of the green mare's arms and chest. "Can we just take our stuff and go now?"

"Totally."

The two siblings each grabbed two bags full of random and strange items, plus the book, and headed out the door.

"Thanks for shopping with us and have a blessed day," the shop owner wished them as they exited the store.

After they put their bags in the trunk of their car, they climbed into the front seats and prepared to drive off.

"Don't you EVER make me do that again, Topaz," growled Citrine, buckling her seatbelt.

"Sorry," said Topaz. With that, his sister started the car and they drove off.

-----

There were only three things left on the list. In order to find two of them, Topaz and Citrine had to take a little trip into the woods. The recipe called for pedals from a Poison Joke blossom and lucky for them, there was a whole patch of Poison Joke not too far off the local nature trail.

When they reached the flower patch, it was like hitting the mother load. There were flowers stretching on for at least a yard. It almost looked like a big blue pond. There would have been enough to make the potion a hundred times over, but Topaz only needed one. As he prepared to take what he needed, he put on a pair of latex gloves and pulled out an empty glass jar.

"You know, there's no telling what those flowers will do to you," Citrine expressed with concern. "Are you sure those gloves will protect you?"

"Not entirely, but I don't really have a lot of options," Topaz responded. "Cheap cleaning aisle latex, don't fail me now."

Topaz approached the flower patch and ever so carefully bent down and reached for two flowers. He grabbed them by the stems and gently yanked them out of the ground. After placing both flowers in the same jar, the young colt did a careful inspection of his person, checking for any anomalies caused by touching the touching the enchanted plants.

"Do I look any different? Do I sound any different?" Topaz asked as his sister examined him carefully.

"Hmm. No. You seem fine to me," Citrine replied.

"Success!" Topaz proclaimed as he turned around and threw his hands in the air. Just then, however, there came a *poof* from behind him.

"Oh! Wait a second. Strike that," Citrine snickered, barely containing her laughter.

"What? What is it?"

"Look at your tail."

Topaz looked down and saw that his normally long, soft, purple tail had shrunken in size and turned brown and ropey. It looked just like the tail of a dog.

"Oh man," the blue colt said, blushing with embarrassment. "This is just great."

"Aw, it's not so bad. It's kinda cute, actually. Especially when it was wagging a minute ago."

Topaz glared at her as she let out another giggle. "Come on. Let's just go get the next thing," he said leading them onward.

-----

The next item was phoenix egg shell and getting that would be no easy task either. The two siblings spotted a phoenix nest high up in a tree. They couldn't tell exactly what was in it, but it looked like the parents weren't home, which was good since phoenix's were notoriously protective of their children.

"Hopefully, I can find some broken pieces up there," said Topaz.

"No way," Citrine protested. "You're out of your mind if you think I'm letting you climb all the way up there. Give me the bag. I'll do it. I'm a better climber anyway."

Topaz thought about it for a second. "No arguments there," he replied. "Okay. Good luck," he said, handing her the plastic bag to carry the shells in.

Citrine dug her claws into the tree trunk and began climbing. It was a bit of a workout, but it wasn't too long before she made it up to the nest. When she got there, she was greeted by seven little phoenix chicks, who all looked at her with curious eyes.

"Aww. Hi there, little cuties," she cooed. "Don't mind me. I'm just here to borrow your-" When she reached out her hand to grab the shells, the chicks all started chirping loudly like crazy, fearing danger.

"No no no! It's okay. See? I just need some egg shells. That's all." The yellow mare started collecting as many pieces as she could and put them in the bag. Before long, though, two great flaming balls of feathery fury came flying right at her. The phoenix parents were home and they were not happy to see an uninvited guest.

"Oh crap!" Citrine exclaimed. The two angry firebirds swooped right past her head, knocking her off balance and sending her plummeting toward the ground. He brother rushed to catch her, but when he did, she was so heavy that they both plopped onto the ground.

"Sorry. Are you okay?" Citrine asked.

"Yeah, I think so. How about you?"

"Fine."

"Good, 'cause here they come!" Topaz pointed as the two phoenixes flew after them. They picked themselves up and ran for their lives with the angry birds close behind them.

-----

There was only one more ingredient to get, but it was by far the most unpleasant. At the very least it could be obtained right in their own home. Topaz had insisted that he could get this one on his own, to which Citrine didn't argue since she didn't want any part of it anyway. Even though objectively, it may have been the easiest item to obtain, compared to everything else, it was the hardest thing Topaz had ever had to do. Just thinking about it made him sick to his stomach.

As the young unicorn looked around the house, he found his dad resting in bed. The last ingredient had to be from a dragon and he sure as hay wasn't going to ask his brothers for it. He girded his loins as he prepared to do something he really, really didn't want to do. 'It's for Minty! It's for Minty!' he told himself, which somehow only made it sound even worse. Nevertheless, he entered the bedroom and did what had to be done.

"Um... Hey, Dad?" he said meekly, getting the adult dragon's attention.

"Hey. What's up?"

"Uh... well...... Look this is gonna sound really weird, but.... I need you to do something for me."

"Sure. Anything."

After Topaz explained his request to his father, the dragon didn't know what to say. "Wow... That's, uh.... That's quite a request."

"I know and I wouldn't be asking this of you if it wasn't super important. I swear," Topaz defended. "It's the last thing I need and then I'll have everything for Minty's potion."

"Hey, hey. It's okay. I understand," Spike said, giving his son a comforting smile. "Of course I'll do it. For you, kiddo."

"Really?"

"Of course."

"Thanks, Dad. You're the greatest," Topaz praised, feeling a little better.

"I just need to get a jar and a good picture of your mom."

Aaaand there was that sick feeling again.

Thirty minutes passed before Topaz finally got what he needed. The last ingredient for Minty's potion. Finally, he had everything on the list and he could return to Minty's house a hero. He even had the mental battle scars to prove it.

Author's Notes:

I know there are some really mature and even gross implications in this chapter. When I first thought of it, it just wouldn't leave me alone, so I decided to just go with it. I tried to keep it vague so as not to offend the censors too much and I really hope I didn't gross anybody out too much either.

Honestly, though, have you ever known anyone who would go that far just to impress somebody they had a crush on? If that's not devotion, I don't what is.

Topaz's First Crush: Part 5

Topaz returned to Minty's house with a wagon full of all the assorted items he and Citrine had collected just for her. He was just about ready to step inside when Citrine spoke up.

"Hey," she said with a tender smile. "I just wanna say how proud I am of you, little bro."

"Really?" he responded.

"Of course. Going to all these great lengths just for one girl. She's very lucky to have a friend like you. And I think any girl would be lucky to date a colt as thoughtful and committed as you."

"Gee. Thanks, Citrine."

She reached over his shoulder and pulled him in for a hug. "I'm still gonna get you back for making me hug that naked pony, though."

"Hehe. I know," Topaz said with a nervous giggle. With that, they broke away from their hug and he stepped out of the car.

"Now go get her, you little lover boy."

"Thanks for everything, sis," he said to her as he pulled his wagon out of the back seat.

Topaz knocked on the front door and was greeted by Minty.

"Topaz!" she exclaimed, delighted to see him. He greeted her back and presented his special delivery to her. The fruits of his successful mission. As Minty examined each of the jars and their contents, she could hardly believe it. Every last ingredient she needed to complete her potion was present and accounted for. "Whoa! Is that...?" she said in amazement as she paused to examine one jar in particular. "How the heck did you get the..."

"Don't... Please don't make me talk about it," the blue colt interrupted with a combination of shame and disgust. Minty was a bit grossed out, too, as she set the jar back down.

"Okay. Well, it doesn't matter," she said, pushing the matter aside. "I just can't believe you got every single ingredient so fast! This is the most incredible thing anypony has ever done for me!" Without warning, she grabbed Topaz and gave him a great big thankful hug. He was completely petrified with joy and his heart beat faster than a bass drum. "Thanks, Topaz. You are by far the coolest pony ever!"

Just then, the green pegasus noticed Topaz's oddly canine tail wagging rapidly back and forth from his overwhelming happiness. "Uh, what happened to your tail?" she asked while suppressing a giggle.

"Huh? Oh yeah," Topaz said, popping out of his trance and blushing awkwardly. "Turns out this is what Poison Joke does to me."

Minty laughed. "Wow. That is classic! And it's the perfect chance to test out the potion. If you're up for it, that is."

Topaz thought about it for a second and then decided to go for it. He told Minty he'd love to be her test subject, even though he was still pretty nervous about it. They grabbed all the ingredients and headed upstairs to Minty's room.

Topaz watched as Minty Gold set up all her supplies to make the healing potion. He was feeling pretty uneasy about being the test subject since Minty said the potion had never been perfected for whatever reason, but he knew he had to have faith in her abilities. Besides, he had to get rid of that dog tail somehow. Following the recipe very carefully, Minty added just the right amount of each ingredient in exactly the order in which the book said to. Topaz admired her diligence and attention to detail.

At one point, he noticed that she started looking rather frazzled as she kept looking frantically back and forth between the book and a jar in her hand.

"Uh, let me see. Two tablespoons of... NO! That's not right! I need the charcoal! WHERE THE HECK IS THE CHARCOAL?!"

Topaz quickly grabbed the jar of volcanic charcoal and handed it to her. He spoke in a soothing voice, trying to calm her down. "It's okay! It's okay. It's right here. Just calm down, okay? Calm down. You're doing fine."

Minty breathed out, allowing herself to relax. "I'm sorry. It's just, this is a really delicate mixture and I don't know what's gonna happen if I don't make it right," she confessed. "I don't want you to get hurt because I made a mistake."

"Hey," Topaz said, looking her right in the eyes. "You can do this. I know you can. You're the greatest potion maker I've ever seen. I believe in you, Minty." He gave her a reassuring smile. She smiled back at him. "Just stay calm and follow the recipe and you'll do just fine."

"Thanks, Topaz." The young pegasus was starting to feel confident again as she got back to work.

Once all the ingredients were added, Minty kept stirring and stirring the strange orange mixture until it was nice and bubbly. She examined it closely to make sure it looked exactly like it did on the page and as far as she could tell, it did.

"Okay. I think it's ready," she informed the blue colt.

"Great," he exclaimed with a hint of nervousness.

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Positive," he said unconvincingly with a gulp. His fear was written all over his face, but he still took the beaker from her hands and prepared for whatever was about to happen once he tasted this potion. "Bottoms up," he declared. He closed his eyes and took a long, careful sip of the orange liquid. The two kids held their breath waiting for something to happen.

Just then, a soft *poof* came from behind Topaz, making both the kids jump. When they looked, they saw that Topaz's tail was back to its old purple, pony-like self. In fact, his whole body felt even better than ever. The potion was a success!

"It worked!" Topaz exclaimed with excitement. "You did it!"

"I did it?" Minty could hardly believe it was true. "I DID IT!" She repeated with a big smile. "I can't believe it!"

The kids jumped around and celebrated this incredible achievement, until the young filly embraced Topaz in her arms, causing him to freeze up once again. "Thank you so much, Topaz. I couldn't have done this without you."

An overjoyed smile krept across the young colt's face. At that moment, he felt like he was prepared to die right there on the spot. He wrapped his arms around Minty's back and returned her hug. They held each other for a few more seconds before Minty tried to break away.

"Uh, Topaz. I think we're done," she said awkwardly.

"Okay..." he replied absentmindedly. He was still too excited to really think straight. He loosened his grasp enough for her to slide out of his arms while he still touched her body. Minty was starting to feel uncomfortable as Topaz maintained his goofy smile and kept holding onto her.

Finally, without him realizing it, his hands came to rest on a very inappropriate spot, making the young pegasus filly blush really hard.

"TOPAZ!" she snapped loudly, bringing him out of his trance. "What are you doing?!" He finally noticed where his hands were and quickly let go.

"Oh My Gosh! I am so, SO sorry!" He pleaded. "I-I-I don't know what came over me! I swear!"

Minty crossed her arms. She was confused and uncertain of what to think at the moment. "I... I think it'd be best if you just leave. I'll see you at school tomorrow."

"Minty, I'm sorry."

"Just go, Topaz! I need to be alone right now."

With a heavy heart, Topaz decided to honor her wishes. He called Citrine to come and pick him up, knowing full well that he had officially blown any chance he had with Minty. He knew that once her parents found out, they'd never let him see her again. He cursed himself for being so incredibly stupid.

Still, the young unicorn wasn't about to give up completely. He couldn't stand the idea of Minty staying mad at him, so he decided that he had to make it up to her. Somehow.

Topaz's First Crush: Part 6

The next day, during lunchtime at school, Topaz looked around the cafeteria for Minty and spotted her sitting all alone at a table for two. She seemed to be lacking her usual chipper attitude, which was hardly surprising. He swallowed his nerves and approached her with caution.

"Hi," he said, trying to put on a smile to diffuse the tension.

"Hey," she replied, showing zero emotion. Not a comforting sign. The young colt hesitated for a moment.

"Mind if I sit here?" he asked.

"Sure," Minty responded, still rather monotone.

Topaz took the seat right across from her. The two young ponies sat in silence for a short moment before Topaz decided to get to the point.

"Look," he began. "I really am sorry about what I did yesterday. It was stupid. I wasn't thinking straight. And I brought something to at least try and make up for it."

Topaz reached into his backpack and pulled out a small vile of a red potion. He showed it to Minty, who eyed it suspiciously.

"I was up all night working on it," he said. "One sip of this and you'll be able to breathe fire for seven whole minutes. You can feel what it's like to be a dragon. Isn't that cool?"

Minty still didn't seem very impressed as she took the bottle from Topaz. "Yeah. Thanks," she said. "Look, I wanna forgive you Topaz, but you really crossed a line yesterday."

"I know," he stated dejectedly. "It's just that you're the first girl I've ever really liked and I guess I got carried away. I understand if your parents don't want me to see you anymore either."

"I didn't tell my parents."

"You didn't?"

"No. They don't know anything about it." Topaz was a little relieved to hear that. "But I do have something else to tell you."

"What is it?" The blue unicorn listened closely as his quasi-friend prepared to deliver some unpleasant news.

"My mom got a promotion at work. They want her to transfer to Whinnyapolis." She paused briefly before she continued. "She took it."

Topaz couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You're moving away?" The green filly nodded, clearly no happier about it than he was. "When?"

"Tomorrow."

"What?" Topaz grew even more upset. "But that's so last minute. Didn't you have any say in it?"

"She asked me last night and I said I was fine with it. It really means a lot to her."

The colt hung his head dejectedly. "I understand. I must've made the decision pretty easy for you, huh?"

Minty looked away in shame. "Maybe a little bit." She hated to say it, but it was true. "Hey, I really don't wanna leave things like this. I don't want to be mad at you because I know you're really a sweet guy and I love hanging out with you, but... when you touched me like that, you went way too far. And I think it's gonna take a while for me to totally get over it."

"I understand," Topaz replied.

Just then, the bell rang, signaling that lunch was over and it was time to head to class. As the two kids got up to leave, a thought occurred to Topaz.

"Maybe we'll see each other again someday," he said with an optimistic grin.

"I hope so," Minty responded. Then she gave Topaz a friendly hug goodbye, which caught him by surprise, but he was all too happy to accept it. "No matter what, you'll always be my friend. I'll never forget you, Topaz." She sounded like she was about to cry. The young colt felt like he could cry any minute as well.

"Thanks, Minty," he said, trying to keep himself together. "I'll never forget you, either. I promise."

With that, the two saddened young ponies grabbed their things and headed off to their separate classes, knowing full well that after tomorrow, they might never see each other again.

-----

Topaz arrived home, feeling more miserable than he had ever felt in his life. His brothers, Onyx and Obi, were on the couch waiting for him. He was just about to head on upstairs when they stopped him and grabbed him by the back of his shirt.

"Oh, hey, bro. Glad you're home," Onyx greeted him. "We need you to do us a little favor."

"I am in no mood for this, guys," Topaz protested angrily.

"See, we need you to smell all our dirty socks and tell us how bad they reek," Obi said as he pulled out a bunch of their nasty old socks. He was just about to shove them into the colt's face when Topaz furiously pushed their hand off of him.

"I SAID KNOCK IT OFF!" he shouted, his horn glowing in self-defense. The twins were surprised to see him so angry, but they weren't going to take any lip from their pipsqueak brother.

"Listen, smart guy," Onyx said, yanking him up by his shirt. "When we tell you to smell our socks, you'd be smart to smell 'em good."

Topaz pushed them off again. "Don't you think I get enough of this crap everyday at school just for being me?! Just for looking like THIS?!" He gestured to his face, being sure to emphasize his pointy teeth and his eyes, which seemed to be developing tears. "I'm already having the worst day ever and I don't need you idiots adding insult to injury! I just wanna be alone right now!"

Topaz turned around and headed upstairs. He really didn't want the twins to see him cry, especially not right now since he knew they'd just make fun of him for it. Although, odd as it may appear, his words seemed to strike a chord with them.

A few minutes later, while Topaz was still sulking in his room, Onyx and Obi opened the door and went right in without even bothering to knock. "Hey," Obi said.

"I told you I'm not in the mood, guys," Topaz snapped at them.

"We just wanna talk, dude."

"Oh yeah? What do you wanna talk about?"

The twins leaned up against the door frame. Whatever they wanted to say, it clearly wasn't easy for them. "Look, we get it, okay?" Onyx started. "Believe it or not, you're not the only one around here who's ever gotten crappy treatment just for looking like a freak. We all have to deal with it."

Topaz was really surprised. He'd never seen this side of the twins before. It made him curious to see just how deep this rabbit hole went. "Yeah? What are you saying?" he asked.

Obi gave an almost painful sounding sigh. "I guess... what we're saying is..." he struggled to get the words out. "You don't really need us... you know... making it much worse for you. So..."

"I guess we could, like, ease up on the teasing a little... if you really want," Onyx finished.

"Are you serious?" Topaz responded in shock. "You're really gonna stop picking on me all the time just like that?"

"Don't make us wanna change our minds," Obi said almost threateningly.

"I won't. Wow. Thanks, guys. I'm really impressed."

"Yeah well don't get too used to it, squirt." The twins grinned and rubbed their brother's head, which he didn't really mind. "But listen. Next time anyone messes with you, just remember, we've got you're back, alright?" They held up a fist, initiating their private handshake.

Topaz gave a light chuckle. "Thanks," he said as he returned the fist bump. The twins gave an extra scary growl which made him jump back in shock, but he quickly recovered from it with a good laugh.

Even so, all of this wasn't enough to make Topaz forget about Minty Gold. His brothers took notice of his change in demeanor and figured they should probably ask.

"So what exactly happened today that's got you so down?" Onyx asked. Before Topaz could answer, however, Citrine suddenly appeared.

"Hey. What's going on?" she asked.

"Nothing," Topaz answered sadly, which she couldn't help but notice.

"What's wrong?" she asked with concern. "How did it go with Minty today?"

"Minty?" Obi said, confused. "Who's Minty?"

Topaz sighed defeatedly. "She's... she was this filly in my class. I really liked her, but I did something really stupid and screwed it up. I tried to make it up to her today, but she told me..." he paused, tears forming in his eyes again. "She's moving away tomorrow."

Citrine couldn't resist the urge to comfort her little brother. She bent down and gave him a big hug, letting him cry on her shoulder. Even Onyx and Obi couldn't help but feel bad for him.

"Oh man. That sucks, bro," they said as sincerely as they could. Topaz kept on letting all his sorrow out in Citrine's arms.

"She was the most amazing filly I've ever known. And now I'm never gonna see her again."

"There, there," Citrine said, trying to soothe him. "It's alright. I know it hurts now, but trust me, it will get better soon enough. You'll see. And we'll all be right here to help you through it."

"Yeah," Onyx chimed in. "It's not the end of the world, dude. It's just one girl."

"You'll forget about her once you meet someone else," Obi added.

"I don't want someone else," Topaz snapped at them. "I want Minty."

"I think what they're trying to say," Citrine interrupted. "Is that the thing about first crushes is that they're the first of many. You'll always have a place in your heart for Minty and maybe you will see her again someday, but remember to leave room for other ponies who come along. You're only twelve. You'll have plenty of other chances. I stand by what I said yesterday. Anypony would be lucky to go out with a colt like you. Right guys?"

"Oh yeah. Totally." The twins tried their best to sound sincere and smile in response even though they didn't quite believe what they said. Regardless, at least Topaz was starting to smile again. Citrine grimaced at the two of them and then turned back to the sad little colt in front of her.

"Take it from me, bro," she continued. "Dating is all about trial and error. You just have to keep on trying until you find the pony that's best for you."

Topaz smiled and hugged his sister again. In that moment, he felt lucky to have her and the rest of his family by his side. They'd helped him through his first crush and now they were helping him through his first heartbreak.

Author's Notes:

I'm sure some of you are probably a little pissed off right now. Believe me, I hate to do this to the kid, but unfortunately, the other thing about first crushes is that they usually end in heartbreak. But, like Citrine said, they're also the first of many, so I wouldn't feel too bad for young Topaz.

Two arcs down. I hope you've all enjoyed this one and stay tuned for number three.

The Treasure of the Rogue Diamond: Part 1

It was that time once again. Time for the grown-ups of the family to take care of the bills, which was always a nightmare. There were scraps of paper strewn out all over the dining room table that all demanded money for something or other. Even with Rarity's booming fashion career, it was still rather difficult keeping up with all the family's finances. Spike's job as a delivery dragon for Pizza Shack helped a little bit, but at a minimum wage salary, staying out of the red wasn't that easy.

Speaking of red, while Rarity and Spike were busy tallying up numbers, Ruby showed up wearing a pirate's hat and eyepatch and waving a plastic sword around. "Ahoy, Mommy!" she shouted, giving her mother start. "Wanna play pirates with me?"

"I'm sorry, Ruby," the white mare sighed. "We can't right now. We're in the middle of paying all these taxes that simply cannot wait. Although, some of these charges are inexplicable. When did anypony in this house ever buy a timeshare in Saddle Arabia?"

"I have no idea," Spike responded.

Suddenly, there came a loud, obnoxious screech that was all too familiar. Jade was upstairs blasting her music over the speakers. There was no way the parents would be able to focus on their work with such noise going on, so Spike headed upstairs to deal with it.

"HEY!" He shouted at Jade as he opened the door. "TURN THAT DOWN! WE'RE TRYING TO DO THE BILLS DOWN THERE!"

Jade turned down the volume to a more reasonable level. "Jeez, Dad. You don't have to shout," she said nonchalantly.

"You don't have to crank up those amps all the way, you know. No wonder the electric bill's so high."

"Sorry, but you know how I like it loud. Oh, by the way, we're all out of snacks."

"What? How is that possible?! I just went to the store and loaded up two days ago."

"Hey, what do you expect? You've got, like, five stomachs and six mouths to feed. Besides, the twins eat more than all of us put together."

Just then, the two headed brothers walked by inhaling a bag of chips. "What? We're growing dragons," Onyx defended, spraying crumbs everywhere as he talked.

Rarity decided it was time for a quick bathroom break, but when she got there, Topaz was already standing next to it. She heard the sound of running water along with her daughter's singing. "Is Citrine still in the shower?" she asked.

"Yep," Topaz answered. "She's just taking her sweet time in there like she always does."

"Honestly. It's been almost an hour," Rarity sighed in annoyance. She knocked on the door. "Oh, Citrine!" she called. "If you're quite done wasting all that water, other ponies are waiting to use the restroom."

The faucet creaked and the water stopped. "Sorry, Mom," Citrine called from inside. "I'll be out in a minute."

"Oh well. No matter. I'll just go use the one in our bedroom."

As her mother entered the other bathroom and shut the door, Ruby couldn't help but feel bad for her. "Gosh," she said. "Mommy and Daddy are really stressed out today, huh."

"Yeah," Topaz answered. "Tax time always does that to them."

"Why's that?"

"Because there's a lot to pay for. Electricity, the phone, the house, the car..."

As if on cue, Citrine stepped out of the bathroom with a bathrobe on and a towel wrapped around her head. "Not to mention water," Topaz concluded in a snarky tone toward his older sister.

"Sorry. I just tend to lose track of time when I'm in there," the oldest defended.

"Sure you do," Topaz condescended. Citrine, not wishing to be insulted any further, walked off to her own room to get dressed.

Ruby turned back to her brother. "Hey. You wanna play pirates with me? I'll even let you be me first mate." She said the second part with a very thick seafarer's accent.

"Yeah, sure," the blue colt agreed. "Right after I take care of some urgent personal business." He quickly entered the bathroom and closed the door behind him.

-----

Later that night, Ruby got out of bed, unable to sleep. She walked down the hall to ask her daddy for a glass of milk. Before she could knock on the door, though, she heard the sound of his voice on the other side. He sounded pretty upset, too.

"Just look at this!" he complained. "These kids are bleeding us dry!"

"Simmer down, dear," Rarity told him. "It's not as if we haven't dealt with this sort of financial trouble before."

"I just can't believe it. Even with your career, we can still barely afford to keep our own house because we've gotta pay for all the kids' stuff, too."

"Well now. No one ever said it would be easy taking care of so many children."

Spike sighed. "I know. It's the life we chose to live. I just wish it wasn't so dang expensive."

Ruby couldn't help but feel a little guilty for causing her parents so much stress. She wished there was something she could do to help them out. And then she got an idea. Maybe she could find some of old stuff around the house and sell it to make money. Then she could help pay some of the bills for them. She was so excited, she couldn't wait to get started.

Then suddenly, she heard her mom speak again. "Oh, Spike. I think we could both use some stress release tonight," Rarity said softly.

"Uh, I don't know, Rare. I'm kinda tired," her husband responded.

"Oh, please, Spikey, dear? It'll help me relax." Ruby couldn't see, but her mommy sure sounded pouty.

"Well, okay," her daddy giggled. "Since you put it that way."

Before she could hear anything else, the little dragon walked away and headed for the attic. It seemed like a good place to start since there must be plenty of useless old junk up there to sell. Looking up at the hatch on the ceiling, she couldn't help but feel just a little bit scared. She had never been up in the attic by herself before, but she knew she had to do it. The chord to open the hatch was pretty high up. Ruby jumped with all her might to try and reach it, but to no avail. She tried again and again, but she just couldn't reach it.

"Come on, Ruby. You can do it," she told herself. "Just pretend it's a sapphire donut." Ruby concentrated, envisioning the chord as a delicious glazed donut with sapphire sprinkles hanging from a string, and made one more swift jump for it. At last, she was able to grab the chord and pull down the ladder to the attic.

When she got up there, it was so dark that she could barely see a thing. She felt all over the wall until she found a light switch. Just as she thought, there were boxes upon boxes and assorted junk everywhere. She figured any box would do, so she decided to start with the first one she saw. It wasn't very big, but it was still pretty heavy. When she tried to lift the box over her head, she lost her balance and dropped it, causing the contents to spill out all over the floor.

As Ruby went to pick up the mess, she saw that the box was full of old news paper clips and documents. The first one she saw had the headline 'Millionaire's Priceless Yacht Captured By Pirates' and showed a picture of a very large, expensive-looking boat. The little dragon couldn't help but wonder why her parents would have something like this. Then she picked up another article, which read 'Deadly Pirates Still At Large.' The subtitle below it read 'Royal Officers Offer Reward of 500,000 Bits For the Capture of the Rogue Diamond Pirates.'

Looking at the pictures that came with it, Ruby couldn't believe her eyes. Along with the face of a blue pegasus mare with rainbow hair that she didn't recognize, was a picture of a much younger version of her aunt Applejack. And next to that were the faces of... her own parents!

She couldn't believe it. Her parents were pirates! After taking a second to process all the questions in her head, she came to realize something important. Where there are pirates, there's treasure!

The Treasure of the Rogue Diamond: Part 2

Topaz lay fast asleep in bed, until he was woken up by a very annoying hissing sound that was right in his ear along with the sound of someone whispering his name. Annoyed, he turned his head and opened his eyes slightly to see his little sister crouched over him for some reason.

"Oh, good. You're awake," Ruby whispered happily.

"What do you want, Ruby?" Topaz grunted.

"I found something and I just HAVE to show it to you."

"Can't it wait until morning?"

"Don't worry. Once you see this, you'll be so excited, you won't be able to sleep again."

Somehow, that didn't make Topaz feel any better. Ruby showed him the article that had the pictures of their parents. He couldn't quite make it out, so he grabbed his glasses off the nightstand to get a better look. When he read the headline and saw the pictures, he was very confused.

"Did you know Mommy and Daddy were pirates?!" Ruby said in a whisper-shout voice.

The colt had to admit, it was pretty hard to believe. He took the paper from Ruby's hands for a closer observation. Judging by the date, the article was over eighteen years old. Still, it was perplexing nonetheless.

"Where did you get this?" He asked.

"I found it in the attic while I was looking for stuff to sell," she answered.

"Wait a minute. You went up into the attic by yourself?!"

"Yeah, but relax. I'm fine."

Topaz didn't like that Ruby had done something so dangerous all on her own. He wondered how she even got up there without help. However, he decided to brush it aside for the time being and turned his focus back to the paper in his hands.

"Hang on. If this is real, then how come they never told us about it before?" He wondered.

"I don't know, but what I do know is that pirates always have treasure buried somewhere and if we can find it, then all our money troubles would be over forever!"

"That's ridiculous. If they actually had any treasure, we wouldn't be having money troubles in the first place. Plus, that thing about pirates burying treasure is just a myth anyway."

"Look, Topaz. I heard Mommy and Daddy talking. It's our fault that the bills are so high. I think the least we can do is help them pay some of them. And if we find that treasure, they'll never have to worry about bills again. And we can use whatever's leftover to buy stuff for ourselves."

After thinking on it for a brief moment, Topaz realized that Ruby did have a point. With so many expenses to keep up with, he was sure their parents would appreciate any help they could get. So, even though it was really late at night, he decided to go along with it.

"Okay," he said. "I'm still not totally convinced that there's any treasure, but if there is, where do you think they would hide it?"

"Maybe it's in the house somewhere?"

"Nah. That'd be way too obvious. It'd have to be someplace where they could be sure no one would ever find it."

"Like where?"

"Hmm. I'm not sure."

Topaz took another look at the paper in hopes of finding something that would give him an idea of where to start looking. Unfortunately, nothing really seemed to stick out to him. That is, until he spotted a picture of the ship that Ruby had seen in the other article.

"Aha! Ruby, I think I've got an idea," he declared happily.

"What is it?" Ruby asked.

"You see this?" He pointed to the photo of the yacht. "This must've been the ship they used to sail around the world. And it might still be out there somewhere. We track down that ship, we might at least be able to find a clue of some sort."

Ruby smiled with pride. "Topaz, you're a genius!" she exclaimed, making her brother grin sheepishly. "So, how do we find the ship?"

"Well, that's gonna be a bit of a challenge," the blue colt confessed.

"Oh come on. If anypony can do it, you can. You've got the biggest brain in the family. Why do you think I asked you for help?"

Topaz couldn't help but smile from all his little sister's flattery. Now he really didn't want to let her down. "Alright. Let's get to it," he declared. "We've got a mighty booty to find." He accentuated the last part with one closed eye, a raised fist and a hefty accent.

Ruby giggled at the word 'booty' as Topaz pulled off his sheets and climbed out of bed. Then she noticed something kind of important.

"Wait. Speaking of booty," she said with a chuckle, "maybe you should put some pants on first."

Topaz realized she was right. He blushed awkwardly and hurried to his closet to grab some pants.

-----

Downstairs in the den, Topaz fired up the computer in hopes of finding something that would tell him what happened to the ship. After sifting through three pages of nothing, he finally found an article that looked promising.

"Ooh!" He exclaimed.

"What? Did you find something?" Ruby asked excitedly.

"I think so." The young unicorn read quickly through the article until he spotted exactly what he was looking for. "Okay. It says here that the ship formerly known as the Rogue Diamond was sold to a pony named Blue Bijou, who transformed it into..." he paused in disbelief as he read the last part. "...The Stomach of the Sea Seaside Restaurant?"

Ruby gasped and lit up with excitement. "Oh my gosh! I know where that is!"

"Really?"

"Yeah. It's on the way to my school. Come on! No time to lose!" The exuberant little dragon yanked at her brother's arm, eager to get going.

"Whoa, whoa! Easy there," Topaz protested, pulling his arm back. "We can't just sneak out in the middle of the night. It's dangerous."

"Don't worry. We'll get on our bikes and be back before anyone notices. We have to find that treasure before Mommy and Daddy decide to kick us all out of the house."

"Oh come on. Now I know you're being crazy. They'd never do that."

Frustrated with Topaz's stubbornness, Ruby then got a mischievous idea. She didn't want it to come to this, but she had no other option.

"Topaz. If you don't come with me, I'll be forced to everyone those pictures you keep under your mattress."

Topaz froze, struggling to come up with a response. "You wouldn't dare," he said quickly.

"Oh, wouldn't I?" Ruby asked rhetorically. "I don't know why you have those or what they're for, but you sure try real hard to keep them a secret."

The young colt realized that his hands were tied, so he gave in and followed his little sister out the door. They each mounted their rides, Topaz on his bicycle and Ruby on her trike. Then they set off to pay a visit to the Stomach of the Sea and hopefully find a clue to their parents' lost treasure. If there even was any.

The Treasure of the Rogue Diamond: Part 3

Despite the late hour, there were a decent number of cars parked outside The Stomach of the Sea when the two kids arrived. The converted-ship restaurant floated at the edge of the dock with lights and music pouring out from every window. It was adorned with strings of bright blue lightbulbs to give off an ocean wave vibe, along with a large decorative sign hanging above the entrance. Ruby and Topaz dismounted their bikes and headed up the gangplank to the front door.

Suddenly, a loud SNAP made Ruby jump. She turned and briefly saw a dark, shadowy figure disappear behind a nearby car.

"Topaz!" she cried in alarm.

"What is it, Ruby?" the young unicorn asked, turning to his little sister.

"I saw something over there." She pointed to the spot where she had seen the shadow vanish. "I think someone's following us."

"It was probably just a squirrel. Don't worry. If anyone jumps out at you, I'll protect you. Okay?"

Ruby thought for a moment. "Okay," she replied. "Thanks."

"No problem. Now come on. Hold my hand and let's get this over with." The little red dragon grabbed hold of her big brother's hand as he lead her inside the restaurant.

As they stepped through the doors, they were met with the smell of boiled lobster and salt water. The entire restaurant was covered with all kinds of ocean decor from navy flags to mounted sailfish to pictures of boats. There were even three octopus-shaped chandeliers hanging from the ceiling that, with the help of the lanterns on the wall, lit up the place quite nicely. The maitre de, a salmon-colored mare with light-purple hair wearing a false naval uniform, stood at the podium with a smile.

"Hello," she greeted with her eyes closed. "Welcome to The Stomach of the Sea. Table for..." She was cut off by the sight of the two unexpectedly young customers. "Um... Can I help you kids?" she inquired.

"Uh, yes! Hi," Topaz greeted the confused hostess. "We were wondering if we could talk to the owner of this place, please?" The hostess gave them a wary look.

"Okay.... Are your parents here with you?" she asked.

Topaz struggled to come up with a response. "Uh... well... y-yes, they are!" he blurted out nervously. "I-I mean, they're not here with us right now, but... they're waiting for us inside and they told us to meet them here."

Ruby nodded nervously in agreement. "Yeah and they're gonna be mad at us if we're late, so if you don't mind, we're just gonna go ahead and..."

The two kids tried to slip by, but the maitre de stopped them. "Right..." she said snidely, not believing their story for a second. "You know what? I will take you to the owner. You can wait with him while he makes sure you kids get to your parents safely."

The children cursed themselves internally for their failed plan as the pink mare escorted them to the back of the restaurant towards the manager's office. They were busted for sure now.

-----

When Topaz and Ruby were dropped off in the office in the back of the restaurant, that's where they met the manager and owner of the place: a tall, rotund, navy blue unicorn stallion with a black, curly handlebar mustache and a naval uniform similar to the hostess's, only more realistic and sophisticated-looking. The nameplate on his desk read Blue Bijou. Topaz recognized it as the name of the pony who had purchased the ship years ago. This was definitely the pony they needed to talk to.

"So," Mr. Bijou said, his voice thick with a French-like accent. "You children say you are 'ere to meet your parents?"

Ruby and Topaz both panicked. Mr. Bijou clearly didn't fully believe their story, so Topaz decided there was no use in telling the exact same lie twice. "W-Well... n-not exactly," he said quickly, trying to buy some time to come up with something believable. "But... trust me. They do know we're here!"

"Is zat so?" Mr. Bijou inquired suspiciously. "Well, perhaps I should call zem and let zem know you are 'ere." As he reached for his phone, Ruby got up in a panic and stopped him.

"Wait!" she exclaimed. "Before you do that, we really need to ask you about this boat."

"Oh really? What for?"

"Well, you see," Topaz began, "we're doing a school project and we need to know. What can you tell us about the history of this ship?"

"Yeah. We heard it used to be a pirate ship. Is that true?" Ruby asked.

The tall blue stallion hesitated for a moment, making the kids shake with suspense, before finally making up his mind. "Alright. I will tell you," he said with a chuckle, his expression softer and friendlier. Topaz and Ruby exhaled in relief as Blue Bijou stood up and began pacing around the room.

"Zis ship was once indeed home to a small band of fearsome pirates," he began, walking over to a portrait of the ship hanging on the wall. "She was known as ze Rogue Diamond and zis was her crew." He pointed to a small group of mares (and one dragon) standing in the portrait in front of the ship. Sure enough, the dragon and one of the mares among them were definitely the two kids' parents.

"Mom and Dad," Topaz whispered under his breath.

"Ze ship used to be a yacht zat belonged to ze Rich family. Zose pirates stole it right out from under zeir muzzles and, Ou la la, zey were not too 'appy about zat." Mr. Bijou paused to give a hearty laugh. "For years, ze Rogue Diamond pirates sailed all across Equestria, lead by ze dreaded Captain Rarity, robbing cargo ships and pillaging goods everywhere zey went and evading capture every time."

The kids were finding it hard to imagine their parents ever being cold-hearted thieves, especially their mother being a sea captain. Topaz wondered what could've driven them to become pirates and why they decided to give it up.

"Filthy Rich offered a mighty reward for zeir capture and for ze return of his yacht. At first, bounty 'unters from all over started going after zem in 'opes of collecting ze reward for zemselves. But as time went on, he eventually just stopped caring and bought a new one. One day, ze pirates decided to retire and turn zemselves in to ze Royal Guards. However, instead of being sentenced to prison as everypony expected, Princess Celestia pardoned zem for zeir crimes."

"Really? Why?" Topaz interrupted.

"Eh, beats me," Mr. Bijou shrugged. "Soon after zat, zey sold ze ship to me and I transformed it into ze five-star seafood shanty you see today."

"Wow!" Ruby exclaimed in amazement. "So why did they retire from being pirates?"

"No one knows. Zey just retired and nopony has 'eard from zem since. Except for Captain Rarity, who I 'ear has gone on to become a very successful fashion designer."

"Have you ever found anything... weird onboard this ship? Like a treasure map, maybe?"

Mr. Bijou laughed. "Unfortunately, no."

"Did they ever say anything to you about a treasure? Any clues to where it is?"

"My dear, I have explored every inch of zis boat many times and ze weirdest thing I have ever found is you two sneaking into my restaurant all by yourselves. And now, I really think it is time I got your parents over 'ere to pick you up."

Looking back at the portrait on the wall, Topaz got an idea. "Mr. Bijou, before you call our parents, would you mind if we got a closer look at that picture over there?"

The blue stallion thought for a moment. "I suppose not, but be very careful with it," he warned them.

"We will," Topaz promised.

Mr. Bijou pulled the picture off the wall and handed it to the young colt. Topaz and Ruby studied it closely, hoping that maybe something in it would give them a clue to where the treasure might be. When they didn't see anything on the front, they very carefully removed the picture from its frame to get a look at the back. On the back of the portrait, there was a part of a news article. An obituary full of ponies who had all died in a battle against the Rogue Diamond crew.

"Hey, wait a minute," Ruby said, snatching the picture out of her brother's hands. She couldn't believe her eyes. "It can't be!" she exclaimed.

"What is it, Ruby?" Topaz asked.

"That pony right there looks just like my teacher!" The young dragon girl pointed to a mug shot of a mare with a mocha brown coat, long bleach-blonde hair tied in a braid, and the numbers 00284 tattooed on her right cheek. She had a very serious expression on her face as if she were about to pick a fight.

"Your teacher?! Are you sure?" asked Topaz, making sure his sister wasn't just seeing things.

"Yes! That's definitely my teacher, Miss Goldenrod."

Topaz looked closer. There was no name under the picture. All it said was Unknown.

"But why would the paper say she was dead?" Topaz said, confused.

"I don't know," his sister admitted. "But maybe she knows something about the treasure."

"You think so?"

"It's worth a shot, isn't it?"

"Hmm, I guess so."

The kids slid the picture back into its frame, placed it back on the wall and then slowly made their way toward the door. "Well, thanks for all your help, Mr. Bijou," Topaz said as casually as possible. "We'll just be on our way home now."

"Not so fast," Mr. Bijou stopped them. "You two are not going anywhere until your parents arrive."

The kids thought fast to come up with a way to escape before he picked up the phone. "Well, what about that?" Ruby said quickly, pointing to the wall behind the mustachioed stallion. He turned around to see what she was pointing to, but nothing was there. When he turned back, they were gone.

Topaz and Ruby charged past the hostess and out of the restaurant as fast as possible. They quickly mounted their bikes and rode off down the street into the night again with the two adult ponies shouting after them.

The Treasure of the Rogue Diamond: Part 4

Ruby and Topaz arrived at a nice little suburban house that was only about five blocks away from their own home. After parking their bikes in the driveway, they walked up the barely visible path to the front door.

"Are you sure this is where your teacher lives?" Topaz wondered out loud to his sister.

"Positive," Ruby answered. "She showed us a picture of her house in class once."

"Okay then," Topaz shrugged and then proceeded to ring the doorbell.

As he did, Ruby turned and saw the bushes rustling. She stared at them carefully and then shrieked when she saw something run out of the bushes and behind the house.

"What is it?" asked Topaz.

"I saw that thing again! It ran out of the bushes and went behind the house!"

"Oh relax. It was just another squirrel."

"Nuh-uh. That was way too big to be a squirrel. I'm telling you, someone's been following us."

Before the blue unicorn could retort, the two of them heard footsteps approaching them from inside. The door started to open and when Topaz saw the pony who was on the other side, his eyes went wide. In front of them was a groggy-looking mare wearing a plain white tank top and boxers who had clearly been woken abruptly from a deep sleep. She did indeed look just like the mare from the obituary, except that she was missing the tattoo on her face (though judging by the faint mark, she had probably had it removed). But that wasn't what drew the young colt's attention. Topaz couldn't help but notice that her breasts were almost larger than her head and her white top didn't really stop him from getting a small peek at them.

When the mare saw who was in front of her, she practically jolted awake. "Ruby?!" she exclaimed, hiding her semi-exposed body behind the door. "What are you doing here?! And who's this?"

"Hi, Ms. Goldenrod," the little red dragon greeted her teacher. "This is my brother, Topaz. Sorry to bug you so late, but can we please come in?"

Reluctantly, Ms. Goldenrod opened the door and let the two kids in, angrily stating that they shouldn't even be out by themselves at this hour. "You should be at home in bed right now."

"We know," Topaz defended, "but we really need to ask you some questions, so can we please stay?"

The brown mare took a moment to think. "Fine," she said, "but afterwards, I'm calling your parents. Wait in the living room. I'm gonna go put my robe on and I'll be right back."

The two kids watched the blonde-maned mare head upstairs and then sat down on a couch in the living room. When she came back down, she was wearing a robe that was emerald green, not unlike the color of her eyes. Topaz could still see her cleavage, though. She sat down in a rocking chair facing the kids.

"So what do you need to ask me so badly?"

"Uhh... well..." Topaz mumbled with a blank expression on his face. Ruby wondered what was wrong with him until he seemed to snap back to reality. "Oh! Well, see, we found out our parents used to be pirates and we think they might've hidden a treasure somewhere," he said. "Do you know anything about that?"

Ms. Goldenrod chuckled in amusement. "Treasure? No. Why would I?"

"Because we found a picture of you in an old newspaper that said you died fighting them," Ruby explained.

"What?!" Ms. Goldenrod exclaimed, shocked. "That's ridiculous! I would never wanna fight your...... parents." She paused, suddenly looking lost in thought.

"What is it?" asked Ruby. "Do you know something?"

Ms. Goldenrod sighed deeply as if she was about to lay some bad news on her guests. "Okay, look," she began. "The truth is, I have amnesia. I can't remember anything from before twenty years ago."

"What? Why not?" Ruby urged.

"I don't know. The first thing I can remember is waking up on your parents' ship with my head hurting. I had no idea where I was or how I got there. I couldn't remember anything about who I was. Not even my own name. But your parents, they helped me. They gave me a new name and a new life. Thanks to them, I was able to buy this house, find my first job and decide that I wanted to be a teacher. I don't remember who I was before, but I don't care, because it's not who I am now. I love teaching and I'm happy with my life, even if it's not exactly perfect."

"What do you mean?" Ruby asked.

"Nothing. It's grown-up stuff. The point is I don't know anything about a treasure or a battle. Sorry."

"That's okay. Thanks anyway."

Ruby glanced over at her brother. He looked like he was in pain and about to explode. "Are you okay, bro?" she asked worriedly.

"Oh yeah, don't worry. I'm fine," Topaz answered quickly.

"Are you sure?" Ms. Goldenrod asked. "You look like you really need to use the bathroom or something."

"Actually, now that you mention it, a bathroom sounds great right now," Topaz admitted. "Where is it?"

"Upstairs, second door on the right."

"Thanks." The young adolescent colt got up and ran up the stairs, desperately holding his groin.

"Wow. He must really have to go," Ruby joked.

After a few minutes, Topaz came back downstairs looking much more relaxed. Ruby, on the other hand, looked more anxious and ready to get out of there. As soon as she saw her brother, she practically jumped out of her seat.

"Well, now that he's done with that, I guess we'll just be going now, right Topaz?" she said quickly and nervously, yanking his arm toward the door.

The unicorn hesitated at first. "Uh... oh yeah. Don't want our parents wondering where we are, so we should go home before I have to, uh, use the bathroom again."

"Thanks for all your help, Ms. Goldenrod. I'll see you in school on Monday."

"Not so fast," the teacher stopped them. "You two aren't going anywhere until I call your parents."

"Please don't. They're gonna be so mad at us," Ruby begged.

"Sorry, but I have to. So you might as well get comfortable until they get here."

Ruby and Topaz both sighed, cursing their rotten luck. "Oh well," Topaz shrugged. "I guess if I have to be stuck anywhere until Mom and Dad show up and totally nuke our childhood, I'm glad it's with such a....... responsible grown mare like yourself, ma'am." He walked up right next to Ms. Goldenrod, standing almost too close for comfort.

The Treasure of the Rogue Diamond: Part 5

A sapphire blue sedan pulled up into the driveway as the two kids and their temporary guardian waited at the front door. They both stood petrified with guilt as their parents, who were clearly not happy with them, climbed out of the car and marched up to them.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Spike shouted in anger. "We get a call in the middle of the night from your teacher telling us that you're at her house instead of asleep in your beds?! Do you have ANY IDEA how wrong that is?!?"

"I hope you two enjoyed your little late night excursion," Rarity chided, "Because once we get home, neither of you will be setting foot out of your room for weeks! Thank you for calling us, Goldenrod."

"No problem, Rarity," Ms. Goldenrod said. "I'm sorry it had to be so late."

Suddenly, everyone was startled by a loud belching sound that seemed to come from nowhere. The burp was followed by the sound of voices arguing, which they could tell were coming from behind the bushes. The voices sounded vaguely familiar.

"Who's there?" shouted Goldenrod. Out of the bushes came the troublesome dragon twins, Onyx and Obsidian, frustrated that the jig was up for them.

"What? You guys, too?!" Spike exclaimed.

"I had no idea. I swear," the teacher defended.

"So you guys were the ones following us?" asked Ruby.

"Yeah, that's right," Onyx conceded. "We heard you guys talking about the treasure, so we decided to follow you."

"We figured you'd lead us right to it so we could take it all for ourselves," Obi finished.

"Alright! Everypony in the car, now!" Rarity commanded. The whole family did as she said. They packed up the kids' bikes in the back and soon, they were all on their way back home.

-----

When the family arrived home, Rarity ordered everyone into the living room to give the kids a chance to explain themselves. When they explained that they had been out searching for their parents' hidden treasure, the two grown-ups were more than a little confused.

"Why would you think we had any treasure?" Spike asked. Ruby took a deep breath and hung her head in shame before answering.

"Because... I found a box full of your old newspapers in the attic," she confessed. "They said you used to be pirates, so I just thought you must've buried your treasure a long time ago and forgot about it."

The two parents looked at each other with concern and then returned to scolding their children. "And what were you doing in the attic?" Spike inquired.

"I was just looking for some stuff to sell to help pay the bills," the young dragon admitted. "I heard you talking about how we were bleeding you dry and I just wanted to help."

Both parents felt a pang of sympathy for their daughter. "Look. I'm sorry you heard us say that, but that's no excuse to go wandering around where you're not supposed to, especially this late at night. Understand?" Spike stated, regretting his choice of words earlier that night. Ruby and Topaz both nodded and apologized for what they had done. The twins, however, were still focused on one small issue.

"How come you guys never told us before about you being pirates?" Obi asked bluntly.

Spike sighed in regret. "I knew we should've thrown out those old newspapers years ago."

"Now, now, darling. We both knew we'd have to tell them someday," Rarity reasoned, patting his shoulder.

"Yeah. I just didn't think it would be this soon. Guess I'd better go wake up Jade and Citrine, huh?"

Rarity nodded and the big purple dragon walked upstairs and knocked on the doors of the two teenage girls, waking them from their slumber. He explained that they needed to have an emergency family meeting. Reluctantly, the girls followed their dad downstairs and joined the others.

"Do we have to do this now?" Jade groaned with a yawn. "It's like 2:30 in the morning."

"I was having the most soothing beach dream," Citrine complained.

"Sorry girls, but this is important," Rarity stated sympathetically. She looked to her husband for support. He nodded and gripped her hand, signaling her to begin. "Kids... there's something your father and I have to tell you."

The kids all listened attentively as their mother gave a heavy sigh before starting her story at the beginning.

"It all started many years ago back in Ponyville," the white unicorn began. "I was just a simple young pony with a simple dream of becoming a world-famous fashionista. It wasn't a glamorous life, but it was wonderful nonetheless. And then.... the Great Flood happened and everything changed. I lost everything in that horrible disaster. My home, my dreams.... my family."

Rarity choked up a bit as she recalled the painful memory. Her husband put his arm around her for emotional support and she went on.

"I didn't know where I was going to go next, but I vowed that I would never give up on my dream and that I would honor my family by making a new life for myself. The kind of fabulous life that I always wished I could give them. I took on a few odd jobs so I could earn enough money to buy myself a new house. Along the way, I met several other ponies whose lives had also been uprooted by the flood. We all became good friends and together, we made a plan. We... um... acquired a ship to sail around the world with and began taking on more.... exciting jobs to earn money."

"Are you talking about that yacht you stole from Filthy Rich?" Topaz interrupted.

"Wait! You did WHAT?!" Citrine exclaimed in shock.

"Wow, Mom. I never would've taken you for a boat thief," said Jade, surprised, but also mildly impressed.

Rarity continued. "You must understand. This was a very long time ago. After the flood, times were hard and ponies did many desperate things just to get by. Some of them very regrettable." Sensing the shame in his wife's voice, Spike decided to take over.

"Meanwhile, I was just your average schmuck who hated my job and my life, but one day, my boss gave me a special assignment to deliver a briefcase to some unknown location. Turned out to be a really bad job, but that's another story. I was on my way to deliver the case when the ship was attacked by your mom and her crew. Before I knew it, I found myself cowering on the floor with a briefcase cuffed to my wrist and a psycho pegasus pointing a gun at me."

His kids each gave expressions of amazement and horror.

"And that's when I saw her. Your mom stepped onboard the ship and saved my life. She was the most beautiful mare I'd ever seen. And I could tell just by looking at her that she had a heart of gold."

"Aww! That's so sweet," Ruby cooed.

"Yep. It was love at first sight for both of us."

"Well, I wouldn't say love at first sight," Rarity chimed in, "Though, you were quite easy on the eyes yourself. Despite the fact that you were quivering like a chihuahua caught in a blizzard and sweating up a fountain."

"Hey, give me a break. I was a little new to having a gun aimed at my groin."

He returned his focus to telling the story. "Anyway, they wanted me to give them whatever was in the case, but I didn't have the combination or keys for the cuffs, so they brought me aboard their ship, got the case off of my wrist and that's pretty much how I became a part of the Rogue Diamond crew."

"Whoa," Topaz exclaimed. "That's amazing."

"Yeah, it is. We did a lot of things we weren't exactly proud of, though. Honestly, if I could do it all over, I can think of a few things I'd do differently, but in the long run, the good far outweighed the bad." Spike smiled at Rarity and she smiled back. "You know what? As horrible as my old boss was, and as much as I hate to say it, I really owe him a whole lot. If he hadn't sent me on that delivery, I never would've met your mom. She and her friends may have abducted me and taken me prisoner, but she took me away from a life of misery and showed me a life of adventure and excitement. It was even thanks to them I got to be reunited with your aunt Twilight. Your mom was my angel."

"Oh, Spike! You are the sweetest thing ever!" Rarity said with tears of joy in her eyes. The two of them exchanged a kiss, much to the disgust of their children.

"Oh come on. Take it upstairs, will ya," Onyx whined. The parents chuckled in amusement.

"Seriously, though, how come you guys never told us any of this before?" Topaz asked, changing the subject.

"Because we didn't want you thinking of us as criminals," their mother admitted.

"What about Ms. Goldenrod?" Ruby asked. "How did she lose her memory?"

Spike recalled his past experience with the reformed mocha brown-colored mare. "Well, Ms. Goldenrod and I used to work under the same boss. I was just a cubicle jockey, but she was his own personal secretary. It was a big office building, so I never actually met her until the same day I got the order to deliver the briefcase. Let's just say... she was kind of a psycho."

"Spike!" Rarity gave him a disapproving look.

"Well she was," he defended. "She attacked our boat with an army of snipers."

"Ahem!" she coughed, taking over the story before it got too violent. "True, but after she lost her memory in battle, rather than leave her to fend for herself, we decided to help her make a new and better life for herself. Just because someone does terrible things to you, doesn't mean you can just abandon them in their time of need."

"Yeah, you're right. Besides, as far as anypony knew, including Fancypants, she was dead, so no one came looking for her."

"Well I think it's great that you helped her out like that," Citrine said proudly.

"Thank you, dear," said Rarity with a smile.

"Question," Jade announced, raising her hand. "If your old life was so exciting, why did you give it up?"

"Well, two things happened that made us decide that," said Spike. "First, there was the fact that a lot of ponies were out to get us. We had a pretty big bounty on our heads and every once in a while, we had to fight off some crazy pony who wanted to collect it."

"One time, we got a job request from a pony who wanted us to steal a one-of-a-kind treasure for him." Rarity recalled. "He offered us a handsome payment, so we did what he asked. But once I had it in my possession, it turned out to be a trap. He captured everyone except for me, including your father. He said it was for 'insurance' to make sure I didn't try and take the treasure for myself. He said that if I delivered it to him, he'd let them all go, but if I didn't..." She paused, a look of sorrow in her eyes.

Even without finishing her sentence, her kids knew what she meant and they all gasped in horror.

"I went to give him the treasure in person, but as soon as I did, he captured me, too, planning to turn us all over to the royal guards and collect the reward money."

"The whole time, he used us to get the treasure AND the reward for bringing us in," Spike recalled begrudgingly.

"Fortunately, I came prepared for just such a situation," Rarity said proudly. "I was able to free my crew and we managed to defeat those double-crossing charlatans. Even so, we barely escaped with our lives."

"After that, we both realized we loved each other too much to keep putting ourselves in danger like that," Spike said.

"So that's why you retired and sold the ship?" Topaz asked.

"That... and one other thing."

"What else happened?" asked Citrine.

The two parents exchanged a loving glance before Rarity answered. "You happened, sweetie."

Citrine's eyes widened. "Me? You mean, you gave up pirating because..."

"...Because I got pregnant with our first child."

"That's when we knew it was time to settle down and move on to the next stage of our lives," Spike finished. "And we wouldn't want it any other way."

The kids all looked to each other and then smiled back at their parents.

"Mom, Dad, thanks for telling us all this," Topaz spoke up.

"Yeah," Jade agreed. "I had no idea you guys were so badass back in the day."

"And we totally understand," Citrine added. "You made some mistakes when you were younger and you didn't wanna tell us about it until you thought we were ready. But you shouldn't worry so much about it."

"Yeah. I mean, look at us. We screw up all the time and you never hold it against us for long," said Jade.

"The point is we love you no matter what you did in the past," said Citrine.

"Yeah," Ruby agreed. "It's like Ms. Goldenrod said. Whoever you were before, it's not who you are now."

A big smile lit up the parents' faces. "Thanks, sweetie," Spike said, giving his youngest a big hug, which the others, minus the twins, quickly joined in on. "Guess we have the greatest treasure of all right here." The family held onto each other for about five seconds. The twins only joined in reluctantly when their mom waved them over.

"Alright," Rarity spoke up. "Everyone off to bed. You've got school in the morning."

With that, the kids all headed upstairs and into their rooms.

When Topaz and Ruby were in their room, their parents popped in on them.

"Oh, and by the way you two," Rarity addressed them, "You're still grounded for sneaking out. Four weeks, no TV, no books and no dolls."

Both kids groaned. "Oh, come on, Mom," Topaz whined. "That was in the past. It's not who we are now." He gave a nervous grin, hoping his little rationalization would sell.

"Yeah, we'll be better in the future," Ruby added.

"That's what the punishment is for," Spike said jokingly. The kids groaned again in defeat. "And Ruby. You let us worry about the money situation, okay? And don't go up in the attic again."

"Okay, Daddy."

"Good night, my darlings," Rarity said softly before planting a kiss on each of their foreheads. "We're so happy you're safe."

Spike smiled at the two youngsters before he and Rarity closed the door to let them get ready for bed. Ruby and Topaz got into bed as quickly as they could. They had learned a lot about their parents that night. If they were really as tough as all that, they decided it was probably best to do what they said and not make them upset. They may not have found a horde of gold, but they had gained a whole new level of respect their mom and dad.

Author's Notes:

And there you have it. The third and final arc of The Sparity Family saga is complete. It's been a long road, but I hope you've all enjoyed the ride. I've certainly enjoyed writing for these characters and I thank TheFlimFlamBros for allowing me to do so. And thank you to all of my readers who have stuck with the story to the very end. Like I said, I had a lot of fun writing it, but I'm glad I can finally move on now.