"When is as soon as possible?" Twilight asks as I head inside.

"Yeah. I have the coordinates, lets get going. Unless you've decided that I should just go on home.."

"NNope." Storm says as he heads to the podium and pulls out a map.

"Great, then lets get this figured out and get going." I say as we head into the kitchen and sit at the table. Storm rolls out the the map as I pull out my phone and look up the coordinates. "OK... so here is Topaz.... then... Quartz Crest is... here!" I say as I point to a patch of green on the map.

"Hmm.... hold on." Twilight says as she runs off into the Library.

"You realize that we both just got off of our honeymoons, right?" Storm asks as he looks over the map.

"EEyup."

THUD

Twilight walks in with a rather large book and drops it on top of the map. She flips through it, glancing between the map below and the pages in the book until she comes to a stop.

"Moosden." She says proudly.

"What?"

"There is a city of moose where you pointed out. Moosden. Its a month walk, week flight by balloon." She says as she shuts the book and levitates it to her side.

"Hmm... where can I get raw materials?" I ask as I look the map over.

"Some stores sell some, but it really depends on what you're going to make. Why?" Storm asks as I pocket my phone.

"Can you two get everyone together at my place in an hour, I need to check something." I ask as I stand and head to the door.

"Alright, but what are you checking?" Twilight asks as she sets the book back with her magic.

"What materials I need." I say as I march out of the room. Storm flies off in the air to gather everyone.

"HEY! THERE'S A DEAD ORC IN MY ROOM! STORM! MILES!" Twilight yells.

I start out by going back home and looking over the jeep. Its in really bad condition. I need to either patch or replace the tires, the archaic condensers needs new gems and patching... as well as the hood, and I need to jury rig the steering wheel back on. So rubber and gems, that shouldn't be too hard to get. I head inside, nearly falling over as Hati and Lupus come running out, and get my bags and some money. It's pretty late, I hope I can still catch some of the stores before they close.

Running through the shopping district is fairly daunting. It seems that everything here is haggled on. I guess that'll work towards my favor. I see a tent with a large blue gem on it, so I figure that's the gem shop. I walk up to it, having no line, and look at the selection. There's a fairly large diamond that would easily fit the bill, and that's it.

"Can I help you?" Asks the merchant, a small unicorn stallion with black coat and yellow hair. He's wearing an apron that has a pocket filled with credits.

"Yeah, how much for the diamond?"

"Eighty grand."

".... no really, how much?"

"Eighty grand, really." I shift my stance and stare at him. He can't be serious. He has to be trying to hustle me.

"You want me, to pay eighty thousand credits, for something I could get back home for five grand."

"Don't like my prices, then go somewhere else." He says as he puffs his chest out a bit.

*Eye twitch eye twitch*

I pull out ten platinum credits and set them on the counter.

"Ten thousand and that's it." I say as I set my hands on the table and get eye level with him.

"Eighty and that's final." He growls back.

"Do you know who I am?" I ask as I stare at him.

"Yeah. Ponyville's new millionaire."

".... how do you know that?" I ask as I stand straight up.

"Pinkie told me, and everypony, about how her friend TB wants everypony to know about you being rich. Something along the lines of a joke that they want you to know about so some guy named Aere can laugh at you. So that'll be eighty thousand bits."

*Eye twitch eye twitch*

"How much?" Some mare asks as she walks by.

"Four thousand."

"WHAT!" I yell as the mare pulls out some bits and buys the diamond.

"Oh, though carrots kid. Better luck next time." He says before he pulls a string and closes up his shop. Pinkie, next time I see you...I collect my credits and walk off...

THUD

I trip over something and land flat on my face. With a groan I push myself up and look underneath myself.

"Oh, sorry about that Spike." I say as I sit up and help him to his feet. He shakes his head a bit before he grabs the handle of his red wagon and looks back to me.

"Its alright, you're a tall guy. Sorry but I can't talk right now. Rarity and I are going out to dig up some gems." He says as he walk off.

"Oh, alright............WAIT! TAKE ME WITH YOU!"

.................................................................................................................................................................................................

After some convincing arguments, and a lot of pleading, I finally convinced Spike to take me along for the gem hunt. He seemed rather irritated by my coming along, but I need a gem. We make it out of Ponyville and head towards the southern hills, just past whitetail woods.

"Hello Spikey Wikey, and Miles! When did you make it back from your honeymoon?" Rarity asks as she walks around with her horn pointed towards the ground. She would occasionally stop and mark off a spot, but other then that she diligently looked for gems without paying attention to anything else.

"I got back today. I asked to come along becuase I need a gem..."

"Oh, for Luna's ring? I was wondering why she didn't have one."

"Ring.............. FUCK!" I yell as I grab my head and pace around. How could I forget a wedding ring! I'm an idiot!

"Miles." Rarity says, taken back a bit as she glances back to me. "Please. You are in the presence of a lady." She says before going back to her search.

"Oh... sorry." I'm an idiot, I'm an idiot, I'm an idiot. "Anyway. Could I possibly use your help to find some gems for the ring as well as for my jeep?"

"Of course, but please help me get some gems for my business as well. I must restock for the upcoming season. I have a feeling that studded hats are going to make a comeback and I want to be prepared."

"Oh, of course." I say as I look around for a shovel. There aren't any. I look over to Spike to see that he's using his tail to dig..... OK then. Magic it is. I go to one of the marks and feel below. I can sens a small pocket of gems just below the surface. That's strange. When we mine them they usually fill large caverns or are in massive veins.

"So, tell me Miles, how was your honeymoon?" Rarity asks as she walks around me. I use my magic to open up the ground and start pulling out gems.

"It was very nice. I was just glad that Topaz was safe... and to have some alone time with Luna of course." I say as I deposit the gems into the wagon.

"What did you do in Topaz?" Spike asks.

"Uh.. well, we... went to some stores." I say as I head to the next mark and work on pulling out the gems.

"What kind of stores are left in a city that was sacked three thousand years ago?" Spike asks as he dumps some gems into the wagon.

"Well... the kind married people go to..."

BOOM

I look over to see that Rarity had, for some reason, blasted a hole into the ground and is now blushing like crazy. I laugh a bit as Spike runs over to check on her.

We spend the next few hours looking for gems, talking idly, and a little messing around with each other. Ends up unicorns have a universal form of wing boners... it's called popping. A little more dangerous, but twice as funny. I was able to walk off with three sapphires, two diamonds and some turquoise. Rarity still had some other errands to run, so I decided to help Spike bring the gems back to Carousel Boutique.

"You alright there little guy?" I ask as we walk through the woods.

"Please don't call me little." He says as he quickens his pace. Whoa... OK.

"Everything alright Spike? If you need to talk about something, you can talk to me." He stops in his tracks and looks over to me, pleading while trying to be strong.

"Its... just.... after the whole BlueBlood thing... I've been feeling... useless." He says as he looks away from me.

"Why would..."

"Cause I'm the baby dragon that can't do anything!" He snaps at me. OK, here comes the venting. "It's always I'm too little or just a slacky to Twilight. I don't like being viewed like that. It make me feel... inferior."

"Spike. None of us feel that way about you."

"I know, but sometimes that doesn't help. I want to be able to stand for myself. Defend my family with my own claws. Dad showed some self defense stuff, but..."

"Wait who?" I ask, making Spike realize what he said.

"I.... uh... just forget what I said." He says as he runs off. I run after him and get in his way, stopping him in his tracks. He tries to hide his blushing face from me, but I can see right through him.

"So... wanna talk about that?" I ask as I sit down.

"I would prefer not to."

"Hmm... I'll make you a deal, but first let me see your hand."

"Why do you need to see my claw?" Spike asks as he looks over his hands.

"Just trust me." I say as I hold out my hand. He hesitantly puts his hand out, so I grab it and look it over. "Well, good news, you have large hands."

"Uh... thank you?"

"So here's the deal. Open up a bit more, and I'll teach you magic." He yanks his hand back and stares at me in disbelief.

"Teach me... magic... but I'm a dragon. The only magic we can use is our fire..."

"Do you have a soul?" He nods." Then you can learn human magic. But I will warn you, gaining this power is risky. Do something wrong and you could lose your soul." I say, scaring him a bit. "But..."

"But what?" He asks as he leans in a bit.

"If you power through this, you gain access to the most powerful form of magic out there. Stronger then unicorn magic, more raw then any alchemy. So what do you say?" He looks down at his hands for a bit before he falls back and sits before me.

"OK. You have a deal." I stick out my hand and shake hands with him.

"So, who's you dad?"

"I don't know. Twilight hatched me from an egg, I don't know my actual parent. Twilight's always been the one watching out for me so that's why I sometimes think of her as my mom..."

"So who is this father figure of yours?" He twiddles his hands around a bit before he sighs and answers.

"Storm..."

"AWWW...."

"Dude, not cool." He says as he blushes a bit. "Ever since he's been here he's... well been there for me. He can be... direct sometimes, but he honestly cares about me. When he gave me the... 'talk', he answered all of my questions. He trying to teach me to be a better pony... and I look up to him a lot becuase of that."

"Have you told him any of this?"

"What? No. I mean... I think it's just a unspoken thing. I called Twilight mom once and she didn't drop it for a week. I like the way things are now, and I'd like for things to stay that way."

"You realize that Twilight and Storm are trying to have kids, right?"

"Oh... yeah...."

"But don't worry about that." I say as I stand back up and start walking off. He quickly stands up and follows after me, cart in tow.

"Why not? If they have a foal, they won't have any more room for me..."

"Don't think of it as competition but rather an addition."

"Huh?"

"Instead of them pushing you away from the family, you get to bring a kid in to it."

"Like PeeWee and me?!"

"Uh... sure." We walk a bit in silence, exiting the woods and heading straight for Rarity's.

"Hey Miles. If I have some questions later... can I come to you to answer them?"

"SSSSS.... maybe. Some of them may be up to your father to answer." I say getting him to smile.

"Alright. Thanks Miles. I'm glad we talked... especially since we're probably avoiding some drama later." He says, getting us both to laugh as Storm lands in front of me.

"Hey there, I've got everypony heading to your place." He reports as he looks over to Spike. "Everything alright?"

"Can I talk to you... in private?" Spike asks as he looks to me.

"I'll meet you back at my place, you don't really need to know whats going to be talked about." I say as I leave the two of them alone

I watch Miles walk off before looking back to Spike. He looks like he has a lot on his mind... I hope he doesn't have any more sex questions. Not that I mind answering them, they're just awkward.

"So... Miles and I were talking on our way back from Gem ridge..." He says as he look down and shuffles his feet around.

"Hey, what did I say? When you're talking to a stallion you look him in the eyes." He nods and looks up. "Alright, now what did you two talk about?"

"Well... two things actually... first one was that he wants to teach me human magic..."

"Magic? Can you learn that?"

"He says I should bee able to..."

"Well, as long as Twilight's OK with it I don't see why not." I say as I sit down. A dragon that can use magic... damn that's scary.

"And the other thing was... well you... and me." He says as he starts to look down again, but quickly looks back up.

"What about you and me?" I ask as I eye him a bit. What did you do Miles?

"It was about... how I... think of you." He says as he shies away a bit.

"Oh. And what would that be?"

"I... well, I really look up to you. Before it was just me and Twilight, and I didn't really see anypony else in our group. But then you came here, and we hung out a lot... you're a real father figure for me." He says the last part quickly and shuts his eyes, trying to escape his embarrassment. I feel my heart skip a beat as he says that. A... father figure. Dammit Miles, why do you have to ruin things.

"Well... uh... you know how next week is your birthday?" I ask as I look around.

"What? Yeah so what?" He asks as he looks at me confused.

"Well Twilight and I were going to give you some papers for your birthday..... adoption papers." I say as I look around to make sure Twilight isn't around to kick my flank for ruining the surprise.

"A..... adoption papers..."

"Yeah..."

"So... you guys..."

"Do you want me and Twilight to be your parents? Officially." Spike doesn't say anything. He just runs up to me and hugs me tightly, crying slightly. I swallow a few tears as I hug him back. "But lets keep this a secret until your birthday, so Twilight won't kill me."

"OK dad."

.................................................................................................................................................................................................

"AH... finished. Think that was fucked up?" I ask Cheesus. We're all in Squishy's room, just hanging out.

"Meh, Pinkie said it would be funny." Cheesus says from his top bunk. I look to Squishy as he lays on the floor, shirtless as usual.

"Burritos?"

"Burritos." He replies seriously. It's good to be back from vaca....

"Think they'll be mad about the short charter?" I ask as we all get ready to head over to Taqueria De Anda's.

"Naw, it was really touching." Pinkie says as she grabs my keys. "I'LL DRIVE!" She yells as she runs off.

"YOU CAN'T DRIVE STICK!" I yell as I chase after her.

Next Chapter: Chapter 107 Specialization Estimated time remaining: 61 Hours, 34 Minutes