"Okasan! Shô won't stop crying!"

Dove peeked her head from the kitchen and saw her two sons, Ruy and Shô, sitting on the living-room floor. The elder brother had been playing with the small foal when it had started crying all of the sudden. Ruy had tried everything, making funny faces, tickling, playing peek-a-boo, but the yellow earth-pony colt would not calm down.

"What do I do?" Ruy asked, almost panicking.

Dove giggled. "Babies just like to cry sometimes. Let him cry it all out." she said and went back to cooking.

Ruy looked down on the baby pony, crying it's eyes out for no reason. The colt could not understand why Shô had to cry so much. Dad would not be happy about it...

Suddenly Ruy got an idea! Shô's teddy bear seemed to always calm the baby whenever mom would sing him to sleep.

"Wait here you pesky lil Brimstone!" Ruy giggled and ruffled the small cyan-blue tuft of hair on the colt's head. "Onii-chan will be back soon!"

Ruy galloped to their room and found the bear laying on the side of the crib. Being too short to climb in himself, and the bear being too big to squeeze through the bars, Ruy had to use his magic to get it. But he was still learning, so it took him longer than what he would have liked. Once he finally did, he was excited! Not only would Shô calm down before dad came home, but he could also tell his parents how good his magic was getting! They would be so proud of him...

"Leave him alone!"

"Can't you even keep the damn abomination quiet for two minutes? What kind of mother are you?"

"Ruy cried just as much as he did, but that didn't seem to bother you!"

"I come home after a long and tired day with a headache and you think it's acceptable for you to scream at your husband!"

"It is when you hurt my babies!"

Oh no...

Ruy ran to the door only to witness his mother covering Shô with her body while his father was looming over them, looking furious.

While Ruy had been gone, Crowned Diamond had come back home, indeed after a long and tiring day, with a headache. And first thing he saw and heard was his younger son crying his eyes out. Diamond hated Shô. Ruy wasn't sure why, but he always had. So when the small pony started to crawl towards it's father in search of protection, Diamond had roughly pushed the colt away from him with detest. Dove had witnessed this and immediately jumped into protecting her young.

Now the bear Ruy had held in his magic fell on the floor. With horror he watched his parents yell at each other. Even Shô, who had started to cry again after being pushed, stopped, as if knowing that his crying would only make things worse.

"I tell you one more time; don't you dare to hurt my babies!" Dove snarled, her horn sparking with weakened magic.

"How dare you threaten me? When you know full well that this abomination is all your fault!" Diamond snarled back, his horn sparking in retaliation.

"OTOSAN! Stop!" Ruy yelled after throwing himself between his parents. He looked at his father with teary eyes. "Don't hurt my brother! Or mother! Please!"

Diamond took a step back after seeing his older son's face. Without saying anything, he simply turned and left. He would eat outside and sleep in his office. Again.

Ruy fought tears as Dove gave him a tight hug. "Thank you, Koibito." she whispered.

"Why does dad hate Shô so much?" Ruy sobbed.

Dove looked up and sighed.

"Take you brother and help him in the chair. I'll tell you over dinner..."

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