Rainbow fell on her bed with a loud flop. All her hooves ached, her mane was more of a mess than usual, and her eyes could not take the sight of another sliver of light.

“Too...many...gems…”, she uttered.

Before she slept though, she took one last look at the item that she had flopped on the bed with. She held it up in what little light there was in the moonlight coming from the window. It was a golden chain necklace, with a small adornment hanging down the bottom.

She strained her eyes to see the adornment as a brooch that hanged from the necklace. The brooch was in a flame shape, with several sections of the flame colored in a different gem, cut to fit in diagonal shapes down from the top of the flame. The top was a ruby, then a gem stained orange, then a gem stained yellow, then green, then blue, indigo, and violet.

~~~~

“It's… a rainbow flame?” asked Spike.

“Yeah! All of us in the family have some kind of rainbow to mark us, but you, uh… didn't have anything. So I worked at the jeweler’s for a couple weeks to get her to make the necklace. Now, you're an official member of the Rainbow family!” Rainbow grinned.

“Wasn't I already a part of the family?”

“Yeaaaah, but now you have a mark to show it to all the world! Think of it like it's your Cutie Mark! Although, I don't think that mom and dad would want to throw another cuteceñera…”

“Hey, it wasn't my fault for what happened! You and the others just decided to grab that roll of duct tape and cocoon poor Fortuna Light onto the ceiling!”

Rainbow put a hoof up to her chin. “Wait, didn't you also get wrapped up?”

“Don't… talk about it.” Spike replied hesitantly.

~~~~
Rainbow Blitz and Firefly looked up at the ceiling of their expansive house.

“Honey, there are two wiggling cocoons up there on our ceiling,” Firefly stated.

“I see that, dear,” Blitz replied.

“Honey, which one do you think is our son?”

“I do not know, dear.”

“Honey, I'm willing to bet ten bits it's the one on the right.”

“I'll keep you on it, dear.”

The front door violently opened. Two ponies of light silver and light blue burst in with worried looks on their faces.

“We got the call. What happened to Fortuna?!” the stallion of the two asked.

Firefly blankly pointed up.

“What the…” the mare of the two said. “Are those… cocoons?”

“Made out of duct tape, and unfortunately the only one that can cut duct tape that strong around here is also wrapped up there with your daughter,” Blitz stated.

“What?! This is horrible!” the mare replied.

“This is normal,” Firefly stated.

“Which one is our daughter?” the stallion asked.

“Firefly has ten on the one on the right being our son,” Blitz replied in a professional tone.

“Ten what? Ten bits?” the mare asked.

“Mom, is that you?” a voice asked.

“Fortuna Light? Is that you, dearie?! Which one are you?!” the mare flew up to the cocoons along with her husband.

“I'm over here, mom!” a filly’s voice on the right piped up.

On the ground, Firefly threw her pocketbook at Blitz smug face.

“Oh dearie, I should have never let you outside to go to this dangerous neighborhood!”

“Don't you live around here?” Firefly asked.

“Now come with us. We'll go home, cut you out of this cocoon, and we'll get you some vegan ice cream. How does that sound, dearie?”

“Yay!” the filly in the cocoon replied.

Blitz raised a hoof in worry. “But… but… you can't! That's industrial strength duct–”

“WE'LL FIND A WAY!” the mother screamed. Blitz flinched back wide-eyed, same as Firefly.

With a small hum from the filly in the cocoon, the family quickly flew out the door with smiles.

“Well… that was something…” Firefly hesitantly spoke.

“Mom? Dad? Can you help me out here?” a male voice was heard from the other cocoon.

“Don't you have claws to get yourself out?”

“Yeah, but I kinda… broke those…”
~~~~
“Oh right, that's why your fingers are bandaged,” Rainbow said.

“Hey, if you hadn't asked me before to dull them before the party, we could have avoided the worst of it!” Spike accused.

“Ugh, that wasn't even the worst of it! Dad had to go and growl at all of us in order to kick us out and call Fortuna’s parents…”

“It somehow worked though. I mean, did you see Surprise’s face? Completely scared. Poor girl…”

Rainbow looked up and wrapped her arm around Spike. “Hey, at least we still had something of a good time. At least Fluttershy and Gilda had fun, right?”

At the mention of Gilda, Spike flinched.

“She… hasn't told you yet, has she?” Spike asked ominously.

“Told me what?” Rainbow replied.

“She, uh, isn't going to be here for Flight School. Her parents told her they're leaving a few days after graduation to go back to Griffonstone…”

Rainbow visibly deflated. “Aww, and I wanted to have a race with her after graduation…”

Spike perked up. “Hey, she said a few days after graduating, so she'll still be here for a bit. We'll make sure to all hang out together to give her a proper goodbye from Cloudsdale!”

“OK… so, what now?” Rainbow asked.

“What now? What do you mean, ‘what now’?”’ Spike replied.

“C’mon, it's the weekend. We gotta do something, right?”

Spike held a claw up to his chin. “There's actually something I have to ask. Why did you work at the jeweler’s instead of just buying this?” Spike pointed to the necklace.

“I worked so I could raise enough money to buy a custom-made brooch for the necklace. Do I look like I have a million bits?” Rainbow sarcastically replied.

“Well, technically, yeah. We are Rainbows, you know. Dad could have probably given you the money if he knew it was going to be for me.”

Rainbow was as still as a stone as she stared forward.

All those weeks of work… setting gems in place, flying around the warehouse to deliver orders, dealing with stuck-up pegasi who wanted what was not sold anymore…

Rainbow screamed.

~~~~

“So, Gilda’s not going to be around anymore?” Fluttershy asked.

“Seems like it. Spike said she'll only be around a few days after graduating. We’re gonna hand out with for a couple more times before she has to go, do you wanna join?” Rainbow said.

Fluttershy took a couple seconds to respond before she hesitantly nodded her head.

“Great! And hey, think of it this way. Once Gilda’s gone, then you will have a chance with Spike!”

Fluttershy shook her head. “Oh no, I wouldn't want to betray Gilda’s friendship like that…”

“Meh, it's your call. Do whatever you want,” Rainbow replied.

Author's Notes:

Ugh. This has been one of the worst school years I've ever had. Sorry for making you all wait for this shitty chapter. I decided to just upload what I have and get this out so people know I'm not dead.

Also sorry if it's a bit rough around the edges. Gonna put the edits in later, once both of my editors chime in.

Hopefully this weekend I can actually be worry free so I can work on stuff here. Fingers crossed.