Chapter 4: An Unusual Gem

The group left Sugar Cube Corner with full stomachs and confused thoughts, but they knew where they were headed, and it was enough to keep most of them quiet. The two Pinkies were the exception, the two of them were happily chatting about things that were going to, or in this case, had happened in the last fifteen years. Among the things they talked about were how Pinkie and Braeburn go together, how it was to give birth to Surprise, and why the Cakes weren't at Sugar Cube Corner. From what everypony could hear, they met at a celebration that Pinkie planned, Surprises birth was rather eventful, and the Cakes had gone to Canterlot to open another Sugar Cube Corner, as they had to move anyways to accommodate their third child, which they had a few years back.

"So is Surprise a lot like us?" Pinkie asked, noticing Surprise's almost identical appearance, minus her tan coat and pink mane, which had a golden streak in it.

"Yes, actually, she loves to throw parties for her friends" future Pinkie said, smiling as Surprise bounced around Pound Cake, kissing him every five times she passed his face, making him turn almost as red as Big Mac. The two Pinkies laughed at the sight and then noticed a strange pony running towards Surprise, jumping into the air at the right moment so that he would land on her back.

"SURPRISE!" the strange pony shouted, getting a happy giggle out of her as the two of them rolled around on the ground. After some struggling Surprise was able to push the pony off, the two of them getting to their hooves.

"Gem, what are you doing here?!" Surprise asked happily before she jumped at the pony for a hug. The strange pony seemed to notice the members of the group and froze up, unable to return the hug that he had been given by Surprise. She pulled back and looked at his face, following his line of sight to two members of the group in particular.

"Mom? Dad?" the pony said slowly, his face twisting into a look of confusion. It was then that the rest of the group turned to look at the pony, his appearance making Twilight gasp.

"A Kirin?!" Twilight said excitedly, her eyes lighting up with a look that said, "I want to learn everything about this pony" Everypony looked at her in surprise, but their eyes quickly shifted over to the pony, a Kirin, as Twilight called him. His eyes stayed focused on Spike and Rarity however, and when they turned to look at him his eyes grew even wider. He tried to say something, but it came out as a garbled mess of words, none of it making any sense to anypony.

"Is everything okay dear?" Rarity asked, her words only managing to confuse the pony even more.

"Gem, are you okay?" Pound asked, putting his hoof on the pony's, which now everypony knew was called Gem, shoulder. Gem turned to face Pound and put his hooves onto his shoulders as well, his eyes barely managing to focus on him.

"Pound, why are my parents here?" Gem asked shakily, "And why do they look like they did in the old photographs?!" Everypony looked around to see who he was talking about, all of them eventually following Surprise's gaze to find her staring at Rarity and Spike, who had been standing next to each other.

"Why is everypony looking at us?" Spike asked nervously, his eyes slowly looking from side to side as he backed up slowly, eventually bumping against Rarity's side. Instead of giving him an earful like she usually would she began to back up with him, the two of them being watched closely by everypony.

"What has gotten into all of you, why are you looking at us like that?" Rarity asked, looking at everypony with fear in her eyes.

"Don't you get it, Gem is a Kirin!" Twilight said, making everypony turn to look at her in confusion, "A Kirin can only be born to a pony and a dragon!"

"What does that ha-" Rarity began to say until she noticed the little purple dragon that was currently pressed up against her side. When the realization hit her she froze, stiff as a board, and just stared at Gem, her eyes slowly looking over every aspect of his body. He had a pearly white coat, same as hers, and he had a purple mane that ran all the way down his long, dragon-like tail. On his head was a Unicorn's horn, and dragon scales, he even had a few fangs in his mouth. By accident their eyes met, and the two of them stood completely still, looking straight into each other's eyes.

"What's going on, what am I missing here?" Spike asked worriedly, watching as Rarity and Gem continued to stare into each other's eyes, neither of them moving an inch for the longest time. While they stared at each other two ponies ran up to the group, freezing when they saw who was there.

"What in Equestria?!" one of the shouted in a deep voice, making both Rarity and Gem snap out of their daze. The two of them, along with everypony else, quickly turned to look at the source of the deep voice, all of their mouths hanging open when they saw who it was. An older looking Rarity was standing next to what seemed to be an older dragon, probably in his teen years, and he looked eerily similar to...

"Spike, what is going on?" future Rarity asked nervously as she slowly moved towards Spike, who was moving to stand in front of her. The two Spikes slowly looked at each other, and when their eyes met they had contrasting looks on their faces. The younger Spike had a look of amazement on his face, while the older Spike seemed almost disgusted to be looking at his younger self.

"Rarity?" future Spike asked as he leaned back towards future Rarity, "Did I really look like that?"

"Of course, why do you ask?" she replied, the disgusted look on future Spike's face increasing.

"I looked so weak and cute, not fearsome or cool!" future Spike whined, making everypony laugh. The two Spikes started to stare each other down angrily, making them laugh even harder until future Rarity stepped forward, coughing to bring silence so that she could speak.

"So, would anypony like to explain to us what is going on here?" future Rarity asked, looking around until her eyes finally settled on Twilight, who let out a tired sigh. She didn't like having to constantly explain how she made a mistake, but she knew she had to, otherwise there would only be problems down the road.

"We were summoned to Canterlot by Celestia and-" Twilight began, only to be cut off by future Rainbow Dash's hoof in her mouth.

"She messed up, they all got sent into the future, they're from fifteen years ago" future Rainbow explained, pulling her hoof out of Twilight's mouth when she was done. Future Spike and Rarity seemed to understand what was going on, which made Twilight feel slightly insulted. It was as if they didn't see it as too impossible that she would manage to do something like that by accident.

"So, how do we get rid of them?" future Spike asked, still giving his former self a disgusted look. It did make sense that he wouldn't like how he used to look, especially with how he was now. He had grown quite a bit taller, his male features had really begun to appear, and over all, he looked fairly cool, and the old Spike was just short, a little chubby, and looked harmless.

"Well, we were going over to Twilight's to see if she would know how to fix this,  but your precious little Gem came by and disrupted us" future Rainbow said sarcastically, looking over at Gem out of the corner of her eye, making him squirm uncomfortably until he remembered why he had even showed up in the first place.

"Oh, yeah!" Gem said suddenly, making everypony look at him, "Surprise, I wanted to know if you'd help me plan for Orion's birthday, it's coming up soon and I'm not good at planning things like that..." Gem seemed to blush a little bit before Surprise started to smile at him, instantly cheering him up.

"Of course I'll help you!" Surprise said happily before she playfully trotted over to Pound Cake, "You'll help too, won't you?" She made a pouting face at Pound Cake until he nodded in agreement, which earned him a kiss on the lips.

"Thanks Poundy!" Surprise said, her face turning bright red when she realized what she had just said, "Um, I mean, honey... bun...?" There was an awkward silence until Surprise decided to grab both Gem and Pound Cake and make a break for it, heading back to the bakery so they could plan the party, as well as so Surprise could get out of the awkward situation she had created. Once they were gone future Rainbow was the first to speak up.

"Any idea why she called him 'Poundy'?" Rainbow asked, looking back at future Pinkie, who had an innocent smile on her face.

"I have no idea!" future Pinkie said happily, "But he better be wrapping it up!" Another awkward silence fell over the group as they thought about what future Pinkie had said, and how it related to the nickname Surprise had given to Pound Cake. Both Rarity's visibly shivered as they thought about it, and both Spike's quickly went to their respective Rarity's side, eager to help take their minds off it.

"So..." Twilight said slowly, getting everypony's attention once the shock had worn off from future Pinkie's statement, "Are we still going to the library to see future me?"

"I'd imagine so, otherwise we came out all this way for nothing" future Rainbow said sarcastically, rolling her eyes as she turned to make her way towards the library with the entire group in tow, with the addition of future Spike and Rarity. At the back of the group Spike walked beside his future self, wanting to know how he managed to get Rarity around his arm.

"So, what did you do?" Spike asked excitedly, his eagerness to learn how it all went down barely being contained within his small body.

"Nothing special, I just old her how I felt, then she accepted me" future Spike said, looking down at his past self with a bored expression on her face, "It was just an out of the blue moment, and look what happened"

"Really, that's it, you just told her?" Spike asked, having the feeling that the explanation he got wasn't entirely true.

"Yup, and after a while she came to me, and took up the offer I had given her of a date" future Spike said, a small smile coming across his face as he thought about it.

"Huh..." Spike said thoughtfully as he began to plan out how he was going to win over Rarity's heart when they got back to their own time. For the rest of the trip the entire group was silent, except for the occasional humming noise from Spike as he thought hard about what he would do. Next Chapter: Chapter 5: The Twilight Hours Estimated time remaining: 25 Minutes