Spike entered the Sparkle residence with Night closing the door behind him, "Twilight and her friends are upstairs, so is Shining Armor. I've asked them to come down and meet you. Not all of Twilight's friends however. I think you'd kinda get overwhelmed and I don't want to subject you to that kind of torture." Night joked, Spike said nothing to acknowledge Night's presence. Spike was taking in the surroundings, he saw doors and windows and was already planning an escape route. He then thought about the promise he made to Velvet and shook his head. Night took notice of this, "Something wrong Spike?" He asked.

"J-Just shaking an idea out of my head." Spike replied.

"Ahh, I get it. How about you hand your stuff over to me and I'll get you set up in Vel's office okay?" Night offered his hand and Spike backed up a bit, clutching his backpack strap tighter to his torso. Night noticed this, "Or you can keep it on you, you don't have to hand it over."

Spike took notice, "S-Sorry, it's just that one of the foster homes I was in-"

"Took a lot of your things and sold them." Night finished, "Which is why you keep everything close to you. Chrys let us know, if you want you can hand them over. But you don't have to. I was just being polite because you seem to be having some trouble lugging your backpack around with you everywhere."

"I-I'll be fine." Spike said.

"Well, I tried." He then peaked into the living room after hearing a shouting Twilight and where Velvet had brought in Shining and Twilight in tow, "Ready to meet your roommates?" He asked the preteen.

"I guess so..." Spike said.

Twilight took her time getting down the stairs, walking with crutches is not something she was used to. Grumbling to herself as she went down the stairs, "Stupid stairs, stupid crutches, stupid susceptible foot and toes."

"What was that Grumblina?" Shining teased as he passed her in the stairway.

"Shut it Shining!" Twilight shouted, only to be scolded by her mother.

"What was that I heard Twilight?" Velvet asked as she stood at the bottom.

"N-Nothing mom." Twilight was already in trouble for inviting her friends without permission.

"Uh-huh." Velvet said, "Look the doctor said you would only be on crutches for another month, then you can wear a big bulky boot." She smiled as she teased her daughter.

"Hehe." Twilight forced a smile.

"Can I ask what this family meeting is about?" Shining requested as he sat down on the couch.

"Honey, are you trying to get on my nerves?" Velvet asked her oldest child.

"MAY I ask what this family meeting is about?" Shining corrected himself.

"Yes you may, before Twilight got home from school and before you got home from the library, your father and I received a phone call from an old friend of mine, Chrysalis."

"Cadence's Aunt?" Shining asked.

"Yes her, she asked for us to take in a boy because we just applied and were accepted to become foster parents." Velvet explained.

"F-FOSTER PARENTS!" Twilight shouted.

"Twilight Sparkle you will keep your voice down." Velvet said sternly.

"S-Sorry mommy." Twilight immediately retracted while her cheeks had a faint crimson shade to them.

"Yes, we were approved to be foster parents." Velvet repeated herself.

"I have a question. Why?" Shining asked.

"Because you're leaving for your military academy and if it weren't for Twilight becoming a literal magic archangel she would've gone off to college and not given us a second thought." Velvet expressed, then sighed. "Sorry, sweetie." She apologized to her daughter because she knew that she was bringing up a very recent bad memory.

"I-It's okay mom." Twilight said.

Velvet breathed through her nose, "Anyways, Night and I are incredibly proud of both of you. However, the thought of having a big empty house to just the two of us felt...off. So we applied to be foster parents. Were we expecting to take on a child so fast? No, we weren't we only did so because a friend asked me to and he's a bit of a special case."

"Special as in...?" Twilight pointed to her head.

"No sweetie, not that kind of special. He has a problem with running away from the foster homes he's placed in. He's constantly trying to find his mom." Velvet clarified, "For right now, he'll be sleeping in my office. When Shining moves out in a few weeks, he's going to take Shining's room. Sound fair?"

"But, you said I could turn Shining's room into a lab..." Twilight said.

"That was before you turned the tool shed into your lab." Velvet pointed out which stopped that idea dead in its tracks.

Twilight was going to protest, except she was cut off by her father. "Twilight, Shining. This is Spike, Spike these are our children. Twilight and Shining." Night introduced the two to the green haired boy.

Spike had met other children before, foster children, biological children, or even adopted ones. He never gave a thought to remember their names, however Twilight and Shining stood out in his mind. He briefly met their eyes before looking down, the quartet turned quintet were silent for a good half a minute before Spike pointed at the signed cast on Twilight's left foot. "H-How did that happen?" Spike asked, breaking the silence.

Shining, whom like to take after his father in the inappropriate joke timing decided to pipe up with this gem. "Her friend pushed her out of a window, it gets real Game of Thrones around here." He smiled.

"Shining Armor Sparkle!" Velvet nearly screeched, "What did I just say not even a minute ago?"

Shining opened his mouth, his father cut him off. "Son, tis better to be silent and have everyone think you're a fool. Than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."

"I'm sorry..." Shining concluded, "It was a joke."

"And a bad one at that." Twilight commented, then turned to Spike. "The truth is that I got upset and kicked a metal cabinet when one of my experiments didn't go the way I wanted to. I fractured my toe, it's no one's fault but my own."

"I-Isn't it better to fail and learn what you did wrong than to get angry at the act of failure itself?" Spike asked Twilight.

"That's a very good point kiddo." Night patted Spike on his shoulder, which caused the boy to jump slightly, he then calmed down.

"Little nervous Spike?" Shining asked.

"This is the 20th time I've moved into a new foster home. I've seen families put up a nice front, only to find out they're in it for the checks from social services." Spike stated, "So I am a little apprehensive." Night and Velvet were thrown into a stunned silence, they looked at each other. Not only was this the most Spike had said when he had entered their lives but finding out something like that would facilitate repeat offenses of running away. Spike then spoke up again, returning to his former demeanor. "I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that."

It's like he's a younger male version of Fluttershy, but there's something else under there. Just who are you Spike? Twilight thought to herself, and she decided to speak up after Spike. "Don't apologize for telling the truth." This garnered a look of confusion from Spike, she then hobbled over to the preteen and held out her hand. Spike looked at it, then slowly took it in a handshake. "I'm Twilight Aurora Sparkle, it's nice to meet my new...roomate. You can call me Twilight." Twilight formally introduced herself, "And you are?"

"Spike Heathcliff Draconis." Spike replied shaking her hand, "You can call me Spike."

"Would you like to meet my friends?" Twilight offered to the preteen.

"Can I put my stuff down first?" Spike asked Twilight.

"Sure thing." Twilight turned to her mom, "Mom where's he sleeping?"

"He's going to be on the pullout in my office." Velvet stated, a mix of shock and pride that Twilight had decided to take this so well including taking the initiative.

"It gets cold in there around this time of year, so we might want to pull out more blankets for him." Twilight suggested, then she moved her way to the stairs. Looking back at Spike. "What are you waiting for slowpoke?" Twilight asked Spike, whom followed after her. They gradually made their way up the stairs, "Over here is my room on the right, Mom's office is on the end of the hallway, Mom and Dad's room is across from mom's office, Shining's room is to the left of Mom and Dad's room, and the bathroom is in between my room and mom's office." Twilight explained.

"Thanks." Spike thanked her, "I don't want to keep you from your friends."

"Oh they can wait, they come over all the time. I wanna know about you. Do you have any favorite books?" Twilight asked as they moved towards the office.

"Well....I like comic books...do those count?" Spike asked.

Twilight started to laugh and then, "Do comic books..." She stopped as soon as she saw the look on Spike's face. "Of course they count. Which comic book is your favorite?" She asked him as they opened the door and turned on the light. Twilight helped Spike prepare as she asked him all kinds of topics, his favorite food, favorite kind of music, favorite subject in school, favorite non-comic book. Pretty soon, Spike was set up. Twilight looked at him before she left him to get himself settled, "And Spike?" She asked.

"Yes?" He looked at her, a warm smile plastered across her face.

"Welcome home."

Author's Note

Damn it, made myself tear up at the end.

Any and all criticism is accepted.