“Thanks for helping me gather gems today dad. It’s been a while since we did anything together.”
Spike simply smiled in response to what his young Kirin daughter had stated. “Well it’s been hard since your mother passed and I shouldn’t let that stop me from being together with the most important people in my life right?”
Claire simply looked at her father with a heavy smile on her face, thinking about how much happier her dad was when her mom was around. She could tell that her father was still faking a smile even today, lost in his own mind of trying to find a reason to keep pushing forward in life.
“Well, I know she would be absolutely thrilled to see you up and about.” she said, trying to keep the elder dragons faith up. “Plus, me and T are still here and we aren’t going anywhere, not for a long time.”
Spike smiled at her “I know, and you two, your kids, and your aunt Twilight are the most important things in my life right now, and I don’t plan to let anything left unsaid in that time we have together.” Spike stopped his words when he felt his daughter run up to him and embrace him tightly; he eventually returned the gesture, trying hard not to hold her too hard. They both looked at each other with a smile painted across both their faces and continued the walk to the Boutique.
Claire was the first to walk in a noticed the lights were off. “Huh, could of sworn we left the lights on when we left.” she thought aloud. She eventually found the light switch and quickly turned the lights back on.
“SURPRISE”
Claire was taken aback when she saw all her friends and family jump out when she turned the lights on. Her expression quickly changed to one of utter happiness when she realized what was going on.
“Happy birthday Claire” the mob of her friends and family continued.
Claire quickly rushed to her group of friends and embraced most of them tightly “Thank you all, this is such a nice surprise, I had almost forgot it was my birthday.”
“Well that’s just silly” Candy said, “No one should forget when such an amazing friend, like yourself, is brought into this world.”
Claire was flattered by Candy’s words but her attention quickly turned to a young white dragon-pony hybrid that ran through the guests and leapt into the air to embrace the elder Kirin with a warm smile. “Hi Identity honey, did you miss me. I know I missed you.” Claire spoke to her young Kirin daughter who simply nodded with a smile painted across her face.
“Happy birthday honey” spoke her husband, Prince Illusion, who was holding her cake, “Make a wish.”
Claire looked at the cake and pondered for a minute. “What can I wish for? I already have all I need here.” she said, making everyone smile at her before she blew out the candles.
“LETS PARTY” said Candy and her Mom as the festivities really started to pick up.
Spike simply walked into the main room and laid down. He knew by the end of the day there was something he had to do, something to tell Claire; but for now, ‘Let her have her fun’ he thought.
Author's Note
I wont be surprised if it's bad, I thought of this story up in a day
But hey, it's only the first chapter.
The Party lasted from noon to dusk, by that time everyone had given Claire her gifts, partied the day away, and some were even to dizzy to stand up straight.
“Bye guys, thank you all so much, the party was great.” said Claire as her guests were getting set to leave. She stood at the doorway giving all of her friends and family a hug, making sure to give an extra I love you to her brother and aunt. Before she knew it, all but her, her husband and kid, and her dad had left the building, which was surprisingly enough still as clean as before the party.
“Wow big party and no mess to clean up, can Candy cater a party or what?” said Illusion.
“Yeah, she can still wear a pony down that’s for sure.” Claire’s attention was shifted to the small Kirin filly nested in her husband chest fur, fast asleep. “Here let me take Idie home and put her to bed.”
Her hands were blocked from her small daughter suddenly, when she looked up at her husband with a look of confusion he spoke up. “I’ll do it, it looks like your dad wants to talk to you alone.” he said gesturing towards to large reptile still laying in the same spot he was when the party started.
Claire turned to look at her dad and noticed it in his body language that he indeed wanted to talk to her alone. “Ok, I’ll be home soon. Be careful going back with her.” she said right before she kissed him and kissed the forehead of their small sleeping foal.
“I will, just don’t be gone too long.” he said with a smile. And with that, the young draconequus revealed his hidden wings and took off, holding the small child close as he flew home.
Claire then walked up to her father and sat down next to him. The two of them sat in the same room saying nothing for a good couple of minutes before Claire broke the silence. “Some party eh?”
“Yep,” Spike responded “glad to see Pinkie’s still got it, with Candy’s help of course. It’s amazing that she’s as old as she is and she’s still kicking.”
“Kicking, hooting, howling, and eating the same way she did back then.” The two of them shared a laugh at this finding humor in there interest over the pink party pony. “So something’s obviously on your mind. What did you need to talk to me about?”
“I didn’t want it to do it in front of so many of our friends, I wanted to wait til we were alone to give you your gifts from me.”
“Oh dad, you don’t need to give anything to me, having you around for once is the greatest gift you could ever give me. Besides, we were alone for most of the day earlier, why didn’t you just it to me then?”
“I wanted you to be happy with your friends and celebrate your special day with them. The gifts I have for you might have spoiled a momentous celebration in your life and I didn’t want to risk it.”
Claire was confused in more ways than one at this point. Usually if there’s some tragic news he would tell her ahead of time, but his time it felt like he had completely shifted his personality. “So what are they, and why are you giving me two?”
“One of them isn’t from me; one of these gifts is way past due.” Claire tilted her head to the side at his sentence in confusion. “One of these gifts, I was told to give to you the first birthday after it happened.”
“After what happened?” Claire asked even more confused than before.
“One gift is from your mother Claire.” Claire’s face lit up with shock at the very sound of these word’s ‘MY MOM?’ she thought to herself. “She wanted me to give it to you after she…you know; and all the time I was moping around, I had completely missed my chance to give it to you last year. So I’m making it up to you this year.”
“Dad…..I….” Claire tried to find the words to say, but her mind was going through mixed emotions and she couldn’t bring herself to say anything. Eventually she gather the strength to simply say “Thank you dad. I’m sure I’ll love both gifts.” she said with a smile.
Spike smiled at her and pulled out the first gift that he had kept in a small bag that he had been carrying around with him all day. It was a picture frame studded with amethysts, and in the frame was a picture of Rarity working with Claire to make a dress.
“Oh I remember this, it was when mom was making me my dress for my high school dance. She spent hours on that dress so that I would look nice when I went that night with Illusion.” She stopped and thought back to that night: All the mares were impressed by her dress, and all the stallions wanted to hook up with her; she couldn’t but laugh at all the girls that slapped their coltfriends for stealing glimpses. “You know Illusion made it hard to walk around that night without being embarrassed.” she said with a chuckle.
“If his dancing is in any way related to his father’s singing, I don’t doubt it.” Spike said, making both him and Claire fall to the ground with laughter.
“He made it fun for me though, and I’ll never forget it. Just like I won’t ever forget the time that mom spent on that dress for me. Thank you dad, the frame is beautiful and the picture is really nice to have.”
“Anything for you sweetie, now sit up and close your eyes.” he said, reaching into his bag for the second gift.
Claire did as she was told without giving it a second thought as she waited patiently for the gift from her mom that she told her dad to give her. She felt him reach behind her and hook up what she thought to be a necklace around the base of her neck. She felt the piece of jewelry hang from her neck as he finished putting it on her. When she tried to open her eyes, thinking that he was done, her father told her to keep them closed right before he grabbed one of her forelegs and led it to the necklace that was now around her neck.
“Keep your eyes closed and feel this, and tell me what you think it might be.” Spike said, finally breaking the long silence between the two.
“It feels like a necklace dad.” Claire said with a chuckle.
“There’s more to it than that Claire, really feel it.”
Claire chuckled at this but did as her father told her, and proceeded to fell all around the necklace, trying to take in the general shape of the object. As she continued to feel it, she felt like she had held this particular piece of jewelry before, like she’s worn it before now. ‘But, that couldn’t be, could it?’ she asked herself. Second later, her smile had started to slowly diminish to an expression of confusion and shock.
Without warning, her eyes shot open and she looked down at the necklace, which only confirmed her thoughts. She recognized it, SHE HAD MADE IT!
When Claire was about 6 years old, she had learned quite a bit from watching her dad about how to make jewelry. So one Mother’s day she decided to make a necklace for her mother for when she returned from delivering an order to a client.
With the help of her dad, Claire had made a special necklace just for her mom and couldn’t wait to surprise her with it.
“Hello darlings I’m home.” called out the familiar white unicorn fasionista. Turquoise leapt from his spot on the floor and ran up to her, cooing for her to give him a hug which she gladly did. “Hello Turquoise and how’s my big handsome man doing?” she said lifting the young Kirin up rubbing their noses together.
“Just fine, thanks for asking.” Spike said jokingly as he entered the room to greet her. Rarity simply gave him an annoyed glare before turning her expression into a loving one, kissing the young drake as he approached her.
“MOMMY” Claire called out running towards the white unicorn.
“Hello darling, oh how I have missed you too.” she said, bending down to embrace the young dragon-pony hybrid.
“Mommy, this is for you. Happy Mother’s day!” the young filly said, handing her the small box that she had put her gift inside of.
“Oh thank you darling, I had nearly forgotten that it was Mother’s day.” she said grabbing the gift. “But I really wish you had made me something, gifts like that mean so much more to me.”
“But I did make it mommy, me and daddy did.” Claire said gesturing towards the young drake who held a smile on his face.
“Oh really, then this should be a gift to remember.” she said as she picked up T and moved him to the main room, with Spike and Claire following closely behind. She set T down on the couch and opened the box, but was taken aback by what was inside. Using her magic, she pulled out a beautiful silver necklace with four gemstones carved into it. There were two purple gems; one big and one small; a small pink gem, and a small green gem. She looked closely at the word engraved behind the gemstones, it read ‘FAMILY’. Tears started to fill Rarity’s eyes as she was at a loss for words at the gift that her family had given her.
Claire looked at her mom starting to cry and said “You don’t like it Mommy?” tears starting to form in her eyes as well.
Rarity quickly looked at her daughter a smile painted on her face. “No honey I don’t like it, I love it.” Claire smiled at this, happy to hear that her mom loved the gift.
“It’s so that whenever you have to leave, you’ll always have your family with you.”
Rarity put the necklace on, it fit perfectly. She reached down and picked up the small filly and held her close. “Thank you Darling, I’ll cherish this gift forever.”
It seems like an eternity had passed since that day, and now here she was holding the gift that she had made her mom years ago. Tears were starting to fill her eyes at the sight of the four gems, perfectly lustrous as the day she had put them in the necklace.
“I……I don’t…….I don’t see…..why? Why?” she was at a loss for words. In her mind, she was thinking that her mom had lied about loving the gift and was giving back to her cause it meant nothing to her. “I thought she loved it, she said she would cherish it. Well why? Why did she want you to give it back to me Dad? WHY?!” She felt heartbroken, believing that her mom had lied to her all these years.
Spike could tell that Claire was getting hysterical from the gift, meaning that she didn’t understand why she was given it. “Claire calm down, your mother loved that necklace, in fact she loved it so much she never took it off, remember?”
Claire thought back to the years that followed the day she had given her the necklace. She remembered that, even when it didn’t match whatever dress she wore, she would wear that necklace, she would sometimes tuck it out of sight for appearance reasons only, but nevertheless, she would wear it. Nopony would go through that much trouble if it meant nothing to them.
“Okay, so maybe she did love it, but why did she want you to give it back to Me.” she asked, feeling a bit calmer than she did before.
“Claire, that necklace meant so much to her that she didn’t want it to just end up lying around and gather dust after she passed, and she thought that it deserved better than to be buried with her.”
Claire thought back to how her mom would hate to see a lot of her valuables get dirty over nothing and thought how what her dad was saying made a lot of sense to her.
“She wanted it to be given to the one person who she knew would cherish it as well as she did; you. Rarity thought that it would hold the same value to you as it did her, because, after all, you made it. Which means that it’s the one thing you could have from her that would always keep you and her together, even when she left this world behind.”
Claire started to tear up from her father’s words and she fell to the floor crying. It dawned to her how much this gift drew a line between her and her mom, how it was an eternal symbol of the bond that they share. The tears she was crying, were tears of joy, joy that she had finally found after being gone for so long. She felt the embrace of her father as he held her close to comfort her.
“Thank…..Thank you so much dad.” she said between sobs. “I promise I’ll treasure this necklace as much as mom did.”
“I know you will sweetie, and remember,” he said holding the necklace in one of his claws for her to see, “as long as you hold on to this, your family is always with you.” He spoke the words loud and true, tears now starting to form in his eyes as well.
Claire nodded and held her father close. “I will dad, I’ll never let go of this.”
The two of them stayed a while longer afterwards, just enjoying each other’s company. Before long however, it was getting late and Claire knew she had to get home soon.
“Want me to give you a lift for old times’ sake?” Spike asked.
Claire smiled “Sure dad, I’d love that.”
Author's Note
Man, I cried making this chapter and posting it
Hope it makes you guys feel the same, if not, there's always the third and final chapter
Author's Note
Well I managed to finish this story faster than I thought.
Warning: This chapter contains pro-afterlife beliefs; if this is in any way offensive to your beliefs, or against your ethnics, well just remember that I put this warning here for a reason
Enjoy :)
The Dream
Claire stirred silently in her sleep that night. She was still wearing the necklace that her father had given her, hoping that it would bring her a peaceful slumber. Little did she know, it would do much more than that for her.
Inside Claire’s Dream
Claire awoke in her dreamscape to find her surrounded by nothing but a starry sky above, expect the stars appeared closer than usual. The ground that her dream self was walking on appeared to be a white cloud that seemed to have miniature stars in it (looks like a nebula cloud). “What kind of dream am I having here?” she asked herself aloud.
“The dream that your necklace gave you darling.” called out a familiar voice to the Kirin.
Claire whipped around real quick to see a shocking sight that almost brought tears to her eyes, her mom. She looked as young as she did when she was raising her as a filly. “MOM” she called out right before she ran to her mom and embraced her.
“I see your father finally gave you the item I wanted him to give you. Oh how I have missed you all so much.” said the white unicorn, tears already forming in her eyes. “I’m sorry if it hurt you when he first gave it to you, but he clearly explained to you the reason why I wanted you to have it, at least ONE of the reasons.”
“What do you mean by ‘ONE’?” asked Claire, wiping away some of her tears of joy.
“Before I passed on darling, I asked for Twilight to enchant the necklace for me so that I could do one last thing for everyone in my family before I truly left you all behind. It was an enchantment that let me speak with each of you in your dreams.”
Claire was shocked but happy to hear this, thinking of how much her mom loved them enough to see them one last time and went through such a complicated way to do it. “So does this mean you’ve already talked to Dad?”
Rarity nodded “He also let Turquoise hold on to it for a night so that I could talk to him, but I wanted to make sure that when he let you have a night with it, that it was yours to keep for as long as you live.”
Claire smiled at this, but it soon turned to one of sadness. “So after tonight, no one else will be able to see you again, this is your final goodbye?” Claire asked, tears of sadness starting to overcast the ones of joy.
Rarity nodded slowly “Yes, I’m afraid so, but I knew how much you and I got along and that’s why I wanted the necklace to be given to you.” Claire raised her head at this while her mom continued on with her words. “The necklace was my most treasured possession that you kids and your father could’ve given me, and it meant so much more knowing that you, Claire, made it yourself with your father’s and brother’s help. A treasure that valuable deserves to be with the one that’ll hold it symbolic value as much as I did.”
Claire was overcome with conflicting emotions at this point, sadness overtook happiness and joy overtook sadness. In the end she could only hold her mom close as she softly cried. “Thank you mom, I love you, and I wish you didn’t have to go.”
Rarity held her cheek “I know darling, but we’ll see each other again one day. Just promise me it won’t anytime soon, I want to see you raise that child of yours from beginning to end.” she said with a smile.
Claire smiled at this “I promise mom.” She hugged her mom close when she suddenly felt herself rising from her sleep, the dream world slowly fading from around them.
"It's time for me to go now darling."
"NO!" Claire called out, "It's too soon, I can't lose you like this again." she said, tears beginning to stream down her face.
Rarity held her daughter's face in her hooves "You'll never lose me, not as long as your memories of us together stay with you. I know that you'll keep those memories alive and close to your heart."
"But....." Claire couldn't finish before she started fading from the dreamscape.
Before she was taken away by the morning rise she heard her mom say the words that she would always treasure to this day; “Your mother loves you darling, and I’ll always be with you, in your heart.”
Real World
Claire woke in a flash, fresh tears still streaming down her cheeks at the dream she had just experienced. She sat up and held her the treasure of her mother and herself close. She knew what she had seen, felt, and heard was real, as real as these emotions she was feeling now.
“As long as I have this treasure of ours,” she said to herself, “we will always be together. We shall always be what this necklace symbolizes in our hearts.”
She held the necklace up to her face as tears of joy continued to stream down her cheeks. She looked at the back of the necklace to find the one thing that she cherished more than anything.
‘FAMILY’
THE END
