Leach exited the small school shortly after the bell rang, walking out among the small number of fillies and colts that she shared a class with. None of them were too important to her. Aside from most of them being all over her at some point or another, it was all due to the fact that she was related to the three alien heroes that lived in this town. None of them really wanted to be her friend, they just wanted her to be their friend so they could hangout with her family and be popular.

This was a rather saddening revelation for the little filly, but she didn't need them. Her family was filled with many unique and diverse ponies that actually did care for her. That being said, having very few actual friends didn't bother her. Normally, after a school day, she would head straight home to continue her super hero training with her father.

However, they had decided to take a break after the last session. Her mother had almost caught them and was starting to get nosy. In her father's words, they needed to 'lay low' for a while. This wasn't all that pleasing either, as she truly did want to be like her father, but at least it gave her a break from the constant beatings that would follow.

With their training being put on hold, this gave her a lot more free time. Deciding to take full advantage of this, she made a B-line straight for Twilight's castle. Once there, she gave the large door a few small knocks and waited patiently for an answer.

A few seconds pass and then the door opens, revealing somepony that Leach had taken a liking to in the recent months. She beamed at the sight of her and smiled brightly. "Hi, Starlight!"

Starlight smiled back at the filly, being almost as happy to see her again as well. "Hi, Leach!" She replied, mentally cussing out the human who had given her such a name. She could respect the conduits for what they do and what they represent, but as people, she was less-than-fond of them. "How are things?"

"They're alright, but it's been getting kind of boring lately." She explained, not quite filling her in on the training cut-off. If she knew, she'd probably rat her out to her mother. "There's not a lot going on and I figured that I'd stop by and see how everypony was doing."

"Well-" Starlight began, only to be interrupted by the sound of an explosion coming from deeper within the castle.

"Mother! Fucker!" A voice echoed in the distance.

Starlight let out a sigh as her expression went deadpan at the sound of the screaming human. "Apparently, things could be better." She placed a hoof to her temple, rubbing it as she did so before stepping to the side. "Come on in. Let's go make sure your uncle didn't set anything on fire...again."

Leach trotted into the castle, making her way toward the sound they had heard with Starlight in tow. It didn't take too long to find the source, her uncle came walking out of a room that was literally spewing smoke from it. His body was covered in soot and ash as he exited, smoke also coming from his hair and his nose.

Jack was pissed right now, exiting the basement with an annoyed look on his face as he closed the door behind him. "Son of a bitch!"

Leach was about to go running at him, but waited as Twilight came in from the other direction. "Jack, what's going on!?" She asked in a slightly panicked tone. "I heard an explosion!"

"Calm down, it was just me." He explained, still mentally cursing himself. "This is why we should invest in fire-proof furniture. I sneeze one fucking time and suddenly, everything is a pile of ashes." He buried his face into his palms, wiping some of the soot from his face. "Great fucking Milenko!"

Starlight cleared her throat, catching both the alicorn and the human's attention. It didn't take too long for the to spot the little red filly standing by her side after that.

"Hey, short stuff. How's your hammer hangin'?" Jack asked, doing his best to distract himself from his recently destroyed man cave.

Leach took this opportunity to run over to her uncle, resting at his feet and hugging one of his legs. "Hi, Uncle Jack!" She all but yelled as she embraced his knee. She then moved over to Twilight wrapping her hooves around her alicorn aunts neck. "Hi, Aunt Twilight!"

Twilight giggled at the filly, always finding her behavior to be absolutely adorable. She couldn't but wonder if her niece, Flurry Heart, would be as cute as her when she was older. "Hi, Sweetie." She said, returning the hug. "What brings you here today?"

Leach broke the hug and took a step back from her aunt. "Boredom, mostly. There's nothing going on at home lately and I thought I'd stop by to see what you and Uncle Jack were up to."

"Well, I was going through some new spells I wanted to try out." Twilight explained before turning her attention to the steaming human. "But it looks like something else came up." Jack huffed out of spite, a small trail of black smoke shooting from his nostrils as he did so.

Leach couldn't help but to let out a small, but adorable, laugh at her uncle's displeasure. She wasn't sure why she did, maybe her father's sense of humor is rubbing off on her. "I can see that."

"Both of you can go right to hell." Jack commented, earning a reprimanding look from his alicorn lover. He responded by raising his middle finger at her, only lowering it when he turned his attention back to his niece. "So what's fuck-head been up to? I haven't heard shit from him in a good while."

Leach shrugged at this question. "Aside from what you already know, which has been put on hiatus for privacy reasons, he's just been helping out mom and trying to keep her happy. You know how much of a hot-head she can be."

"Trust me, I know." Jack said with a look of understanding. "So the...project you and your dad have been working on is on pause for now?" he asked, making sure he was understanding that part correctly.

"For now." Leach answered.

Jack nodded, looking even more annoyed for some reason. "Would have been nice to hear about it sooner; Would have been even nicer if he came over himself and told me."

Twilight and Starlight were looking back and forth between the human and the filly, trying to figure out what they were discussing, as they have yet to be informed about the brutal training sessions.

"What project?" Starlight asked, taking the burden of doing so from Twilight.

Leach looked over at the two, then to her uncle, then back to them. "Sorry, I can't tell you that yet. It's top secret."

"In short; Piss off!" Jack followed up, basically repeating his niece's answer in his own words. "Anyway, let's head out. I haven't seen the bastard in a hot minute and I'd like to have a chat with him."

"Oh?" Leach responded curiously. "Okay then, let's go!"

The walk to Carrot Top and Tumor's place didn't take too long and most of the time they spent waking they chatted about her training. Normally Leach would come by the castle at least Twice a week with Tumor to grab him so she could learn how to fight. However, it had been several months since she stopped by and he was starting to wonder what was up. After a quick explanation about how her mom almost figured them out, it was understandable why they had stopped. Still though, they could have at least let him know sooner. He hardly blamed his niece, it wasn't her place to be the messenger.

They came upon the house after a few short minutes, Leach being the first to enter with her uncle trailing close behind. Tumor was laying on the couch, his eyes calmly shut as he napped comfortably while Carrot Top could be heard in the kitchen.

Jack pushed passed his niece and stood at the edge of the couch, staring down at his brother with a look of 'What the fuck?' on his face. "Hardly looks like he's helping with anything. Since when does he take naps?"

Leach moved by his side, looking over her father. "Since we stopped doing what we were doing. Now that he has some free-time he likes to get some rest here and there."

"Lazy fuck..." Jack said disapprovingly before grabbing his brother by the nose and shaking his head around. "Hey! Wake up, you fucking bitch-lord!"

Tumor awoke with a less-than-pleased look on his face as his opened to see his brother standing above him. He makes quick work of slapping his hand from his face before shooting him an tired/angry glare. "What the hell do you want?"

"For starters; I'd like to know why it took four months for anyone to tell me that we were taking a break." Jack explained, being mostly pissed at his brother for leaving him in the dark. "Also..." With the swing of his arm, a loud smack was heard as his hand met with the other conduits face. "You could try to fucking visit me too, asshole! It's not like I'm that far away!"

Tumor sat up, rubbing the red spot on his cheek, which vanished rather quickly. "First off; Fuck you!" He yelled, "Secondly; I don't live that far either, you cock-bite! You could always come down here whenever the fuck you want."

"That's bullshit." Jack replied, "You and I both know that Carrot Top would rather kick me in the head than let me come over."

As if on cue, Carrot Top walked into the room, almost not noticing Jack at first. "Tumor, who are you yelling- Oh..." She paused, staring with wide eyes at the fire conduit and doing her best to keep her disdain from his view. "Hello, Jack. What brings you here?"

"Oh, nothing." Jack replied innocently, grabbing his brother by his shirt and pulling him off of the couch. "Just felt like stopping by to see how my family was doing." He said, almost sounding like he was accusing them of something.

Carrot Top had to force a smile at this. "Well, isn't that nice of you." She said through gritted teeth, clearly being uncomfortable with his presence. If she were being honest, she never like Tumor's brother. Sebastian was alright, but Jack was another story entirely. Given what she knew of his past, and his constant need to be the biggest and baddest around, she found him to be both annoying and terrifying. "It's been great and all, but we're actually about to have dinner so-"

"Really?" Jack asked in an odd tone. "What are we having?"

"Um..." Carrot Top was stumped on how to answer this and felt like things were about to escalate. "Leach, honey; Go upstairs and get washed up, please."

"Okay?" Leach responded, glancing around the room really quick before departing up the stairs.

Jack waited for Leach to be out of earshot before attacking Carrot Top again. "So, you gonna tell me what's for dinner or what?"

Carrot Top was going to try and find an excuse for him to leave. Luckily for her, she didn't have to. "Jack, you're doing this on purpose." Tumor cut in, earning his brother and marefriend's attention. "If you could just stop, right now, that would be fucking fantastic."

"No, I wanna have a nice dinner with my brother and my niece." Jack argued, taking a step toward the other conduit as the room suddenly started to heat up. "Is it so wrong for me to want to spend time with my family?"

"Jack, I am not playing around anymore." Tumor shot back with a hint of venom in his words. "Fuck off!"

The room only grew hotter as the tension rose, Jack's fists tightening as smoke started rolling off of his body. "Oh, so now I'm the bad guy for wanting to see you and my kin?" He asked, the face paint he usually wore bubbling from the intense heat coming from him. "Seriously, I want to know what's so wrong about me wanting to see you guys. Tell me, fucking tell me!"

Tumor reached his hand out just as his brother's entire body ignited. Grabbing onto his shirt, he started to siphon the energy out of him, killing off the flames in mere seconds and leaving his brother too weak to fight. "Not. Here." He uttered quietly, each word carrying a certain amount of weight to it. "Especially not with my daughter around."

Jack was panting by the time he slapped his brother's hand off of him and started stumbling to the door. "You know what; Fuck you, and fuck you!" He yelled, gesturing to his brother and Carrot Top. Opening the door, he turns back, leveling an angry finger toward the stairs. "You're lucky I love that kid. If it wasn't for her, then not even the mighty six would be able to stop me from fucking killing both of you." On that note, he left, slamming the door behind him as he departed from the small cottage.

Tumor let out a relived sigh, feeling as though he had been holding his breath that hold time. He placed a hand to his head, letting himself fall back onto the couch. "For fuck sake..."

Carrot Top approached him slowly, not taking her eyes off of the door. "What is wrong with him?"

"It's not his fault." Tumor defended, not wanting his brother to look as bad as he made himself out to be. "It's just...everything that's happened...I should have been going out to see him." His hand fell from his face, resting on his lap.

Carrot Top reach up and grabbed his now free hand in her hoof, holding it tightly. "Tumor, don't blame yourself for how he acts. It's not your fault that he's such an ass."

Tumor nodded defiantly. "It's not his fault either." He explained with a guilty look on his face. "He just gets so torn up when all of us are apart for so long. After what happened back in our world, how we got separated, how we all started to suspect the other was dead..." He paused, trying to find the right words to help her understand the situation. "He's a tough stone to crack, that's undeniable. But, even before the blast, he was the most family oriented out of all of us. And I think with us all going our own ways, he felt abandoned."

It took her a minute to process all of this. She found it hard to view Jack as anything more than what he showed off. "I really don't see Jack as the kind of guy to have abandonment issues."

"I don't know." Tumor said with a shrug. "Believe it or not though, that stupid clown religion he has, has a hell of a family code; They believe that family is one's loyalty and dedication to another person." He explained, actually feeling pretty envious of their perspective on this kind of thing. "The way he sees it, family is always there by your side and is willing to die for you. Honestly, I think that's what makes him so edgy when it comes to me and Sebastian."

"With us all doing our own thing, he probably feels like our loyalty is dying. Which, in his mind, would exclude us from family status, which he really doesn't want to happen." Tumor finished, looking at his marefriend, his eyes pleading for her to understand at least that much about his brother. "What more can I say? The guy cares about us and all he wants is a little bit of our time to show that we appreciate him and that we're still here by his side."

It's a hard concept to grasp, what with Carrot Top's opinion of him, but it would explain a lot about him; Why he constantly kept having Tumor at the castle with him, how he reacted when he thought Sebastian had died, then their first interaction when they were reunited. Granted, she wasn't there for a majority of that, so she couldn't make much of a judgement call. All she knew was what Tumor had told her, but her bias seemed to override most of these stories. However, if Tumor was vouching for him, she would give him the benefit of the doubt.

Carrot Top smiled lovingly at Tumor, giving him an understanding nod. "I guess I don't need you around all of the time." She said in a joking manner, earning a smile from her human lover. "Come on now, otherwise the soup will be cold."

That was all Tumor needed to get his ass out of that couch and walking to the dining room. "Leach, move your ass!" He yelled up the stairs real quick. "There is soup on the line down here!"

"Not the soup!" Leach yelled down, her little hooves beating across the floor as she sprinted down to join her mother and father.

Author's Notes:

Damn...it has been a fucking while, huh?

I don't know why, but out of nowhere I got the sudden urge to play with this story a bit. I can't say how long I'll hold interest in it, but I think I'll tinker with it here and there.

I wonder if anyone will actually read this damn thing after it's been dead for so long.