a couple of parents

Here we GO!!!!!!!!

This takes place a little after the Age of Beasts is being handled. Horses are all together and learning how to build a bigger better life now that they have the power of three races backing it, and the remaining monsters are being chased to the edges of Equestria.

Opal Essence and Tuff Rhyolite are the parents of...well, can you guess? (And if you do, whether you're right or wrong I might not tell you. Hehehehe.) They met in a strange situation, with Opal Essence coming in to Tuff Rhyodite's dreamcatcher shop on a whim to get rid of some nightmare troubles, although she didn't believe in dreamcatchers. Tuff told her that dreamcatchers aren't for catching nightmares, they're for remembering that you have dreams every time you wake up and to keep following them. She thought was cute, but also told him that running a dreamcatcher shop was a liiiittle ridiculous and a very niche market....perhaps they could make it something better together. She was going through a strange patch in her life for innovation, and so was he, so they agreed on it.

They never knew that fated day would lead to marriage, and eventually a kid.

Opal Essence
Female
Opal was raised in an esteemed estate of very proactive and detail oriented working parents. Most gems fresh from the cave dont come in the beautiful perfect shapes that everyone knows them as. They're typically actually quite unappealing and have to be extracted carefully, and then carved into something worth looking at. That was the work she knew well. Take something dirty and gross and make it into something that can be great, something sought after, something to adore. Opal never felt the pressure of becoming a gemsmith, she knew the pride that came with their work and wanted to do it well. She was always chipper and interested in what her parents had to say, and loved accompanying them to the jewelry store to put their creations up for sale. She would eventually become the manager of the store during her college years, and couldn't help but notice the Dreamcatcher store opening up across from it.

While with Tuff, she would learn all about the ways of the people who she got her gems from. How most of them were Frostbitten, how their magic was attuned to the gems and could differentiate which frequencies meant what gem. This resulted in her just needing, yearning to learn more about the caves in which the gems her family cleaned originated from, and they went on a very special trip together to some secret caves and caverns. It was gorgeous, beautiful, and as someone who was going to school to study gem craftmanship...she couldn't help but notice the way some formed differently from others, where they formed and how. They weren't millions of years old, she could tell. And it would be she who figured out the way gems grow from magic, how that magic is attuned to the earth and helps the earth which feeds the plants which makes them magical and in turn transforms what was once regular beasts into magical creatures through a trickle of magic over many years that eventually spread all across the continent and jUST--! It was an incredible discovery for both science and magic, and her whole life changed because of it, all thanks to Tuff, too. 

She got rich. Super rich, attended so many hearings, helped to teach and spread more about what could be learned about gems, what this meant for the gem market if they could just be grown, re-evaluating the whole entire rarity tree of gems...there was so much more to do, so much work, even with her loving husband beside her. But he always felt out of place at the meetings, which was fine. He was a big furry unicorn mix after all, but she wouldn't have it any other way. He was charismatic, loved talking about gems as much as he loved finding them. He adored cuddling up to her in bed after a long day at the antique shop and cooking her breakfast in the morning. But those were the good days. If left alone too long, she would come home to a drunk or hugh husband, upset beyond words that he could explain to her, and he would forget by the time he was sober. She loved him so much and tried to help....but the surprise pregnancy almost ruined everything. After giving birth, she was hardened more than before to scheduling and trying to balance home and work. But she was grateful that he decided to be a stay at home dad for them and make everything more tolerable. She was gone longer, didn't know if he was drinking more or drugging less...but she trusted him with their child. For a time.

Tuff Rhyolite 
Male
Raised in the pine covered wilderness of the tundras, Rhyo could never get used to the heat from the south where they delivered their goods. Since he was a foal, his parents and a large part of the Frostbitten populated town they were in did what they did best: find rocks and gems. Often what would happen was they would get messages from all over Equestria telling them what kind of rock they needed, they would go into separate groups and dive into the tunnels that every Frostbitten knew like the back of their manes, and emerge with pounds of the stuff. Coal was the primary mineral towns asked for, so they were happy to deliver. Unfortunately, Rhyolite was a bit of an outcast because he was mixed.

His father, a Frostbitten, and his mother, a unicorn, lived together with him and his many siblings so they could learn how to be great miners like everyone else. But he was the one who was clearly the most unicorn-y, so other Frostbitten didn't treat him as seriously, or didn't think he had the traditional abilities or understood the weight of carrying the tradition of being a coal master. Up until his teens, he tried. He tried so hard to be as good as the others, trying to hone his gem differentiation skills and digging abilities. They told him how to do this or that, and he tried to listen, and he executed as best as he could, but... He wanted to pursue his true dreams of getting out of this town and staring up a cute little dreamcatcher shop at the side of the road, helping lost people like him get back on their track.

However, one night he finally told his parents his true dream. They laughed, very hard in fact. His siblings did as well. That night, he packed up and left. He would show them, dammit...he would!

And then be married to the most beautiful unicorn he had ever seen, who would turn his dreamcatcher shop into a cuter more profitable antique/knick knack shop, aforementioned unicorn would also become an amazing head scientist and discover a revolutionary shitload about gems, and become super duper rich in the process so they could both live in luxury and comfort! AKA....he didn't do anything. He showed up, the love of his life took pity on him, and fixed everything. He didn't so anything on his own, and was merely living in her shadow. What if his parents were right? Back then he needed the town to carry him, and now even his wife was doing it. It scared him, thinking he was mooching off of her or being a burden. When she left for work, she left for WORK. All this important work while he just ran a dumb shop. It scared him, being alone like that. So much he couldn't help himself to the expensive alcohol in the cabinet some days...and well, maybe some days blurred into others... He couldn't figure out what to do, or how to tell her how he felt, so it was better just to not think about it. Some shady people came into his shop sometimes, and if he found the right one he'd get a nice couple of grams to help him forget his crippling failure as a husband.... but then it hit him. 

What if he was a father? He couldn't fail at that. It would be a baby, it would be his, it would depend on him, it would need him. And no matter what, it would love him. Everything could turn around, everything could change. Sure, Opal's life was extremely busy and she couldn't find time, but...she didn't have to. That's what he was for. Work was her thing, taking care of the baby would be his. And when they were together, they could finally have moments of bliss and family time, a family that actually cared for their child and whatever they would want. Perfect. Just perfect.

But how was he going to convince her to have a baby in a time like this? Well... maybe he didn't have to... accidents do happen after all, right?

About the Frostbitten: www.deviantart.com/mylittlegam…

Art (c) stimpower