Author's Note

I really hope you enjoyed this story! It's bittersweet to say that this will be the last chapter for now. I'm thinking about writing a sequel, but I'm not quite sure yet. Your feedback means a lot to me, so please feel free to share any constructive criticism. Thank you for being a part of this journey!

Thank you for everyone who commented, and thank you to all of the people who disliked and liked this story, I know I don’t say it often enough, but I appreciate even the people who didn’t like the story.

Thank you for coming with me on this journey, I really do appreciate every single comment I’ve gotten so far.

Going to Ponyville

Since Auntie Pinkie lived in Fillydelphia, I didn’t get to see her much, and she didn’t come to Ponyville very much anymore, I remember Mom telling me when I was younger that Aunt Pinkie would make frequent trips out to Ponyville to get her party supplies from the local vendors.

I thought about this as I sat at the kitchen table, eating my oats and listening to my parents talk about what their plans were for when we got to Ponyville.

Suddenly, I got up from my chair because I remembered the picture I had drawn for my cousin was still in my bedroom. I didn’t want to leave it behind, so I retrieved it and came back to the table with it in my mouth.

“What have you got there, buddy?” Dad asked me, once I had sat back down.

I dropped the picture on the table and pointed to it, with a big grin on my face.

“Is picture for Cousin Bubble!” I triumphantly said, holding up the picture.

“Well, I’m sure he’s going to love it, now finish your oats the train leaves in 15 minutes,” Mom said as she got up from the table and began washing the dirty dishes that were in the sink.

“Rainbow, we only have 15 minutes before the train leaves, why in Celestia’s good name, do you think you can do the dishes now?” Dad asked Mom incredulously.

Mom simply shrugged and resumed doing the dishes, as I looked at this scene I was quite puzzled as to why Dad found it hard to believe that Mom was doing the dishes.

Dad looked at the wall-mounted clock impatiently as the hands ticked by slowly but he didn’t seem to show his anxiety, but I could feel him getting even more impatient as he watched Mom do the dishes, one by one.

“Come on, Rainbow, we don’t have time for this!” Dad cried, as he got up and started pacing back and forth.

“Will you relax, I’m almost done, we’ve got plenty of time before the train arrives, or we could just take the easy way and fly there ourselves, after all, Ponyville is not too far,” Mom said, trying to calm Dad down.

“Ok, so what you’re saying is we could either wait for the train or we could just fly there ourselves, why didn’t you mention that flying ourselves was an option?” Dad asked.

Mom just rolled her eyes and went back to cleaning the dishes with a dish towel. When she was done, she turned to me and asked, "What would you like to do, would you like to take the train or fly ourselves?”

I heated for only a moment before answering, “Fly.”

“Good choice, you see, even our son agrees that flying is better than taking the train,” Mom said, padding me on the head as she and Dad walked away to get the luggage.

I wondered how in the world were we going to fly with all our luggage.

I heard Daddy let out a scream from the next room. “You what?”

“I didn’t buy the ticket for the train, I didn’t think we would need them, I mean, we did just agree, we were going to fly there,” I heard Mom say to Dad.

The next thing I heard was Dad let out a very heavy sigh as he trudged back into the dining room with what I could only assume was disappointment in his eyes.

After a minute, Mom came into the dining room as well with the biggest grin on her face I had ever seen.

“Sky, we did it, we overruled Daddy,” Mom smiled. I didn’t know what the word “overruled” meant. I figured that this was a celebratory moment, so I began jumping up and down excitedly.

Mom and Dad led me outside onto our balcony, where we took to the sky to fly to Ponyville, flying over the city of Vancouver. I looked down at the ground to see the city's inhabitants bustling around and going shopping.

After a few hours of flying, we arrived in Ponyville and headed to Aunt Twilight’s castle.

Once we had touched down on the front steps of the castle, Mom knocked on the big door and waited for a few moments, after which Aunt Twilight opened the door and greeted us with an extremely warm smile on her lips.

“Come on in!” She smiled, as she guided us inside and closed the big crystal door behind her.

I couldn’t help but marvel at all of the crystal items that were present in the castle. I looked in awe at the crystal walls, but I stayed close to Mom while we walked through the castle to the throne room.

Aunt Twilight opened the door to the throne room, where Aunt Pinkie and Uncle Cheese were waiting. The moment I saw them I immediately ran up to them and hugged them.

“Wow, Sky, look how much you’ve grown!” Uncle Cheese smiled.

“I know, right, and he’s a really good flyer too, we could hardly even keep up with him on this trip,” Dad remarked.

I looked around the room for my cousin, Bubble, but I couldn’t see him, so I assumed he didn’t come with them. I wanted to ask why he didn’t accompany them on this trip, but I couldn’t ask.

I looked at Auntie Pinkie with a questioning look in my eyes, she looked back at me with a seemingly understanding look in her eyes.

“Bubble is at Sweet Apple Acres with Aunt Applejack, he will be by later this evening,” Aunt Pinkie explained.

I nodded contently and sat down on the crystal floor, feeling the cold crystal on my fur.

“So, what brings you here, the letter that I received only said that you would be staying the weekend,” Aunt Twilight said, smiling at Mom and Dad.

“We both thought that it would be beneficial for Sky to see his family,” Mom said, before continuing. “And I’m pregnant.”

Aunt Twilight’s face lit up like a Christmas tree and she began jumping up and down.

“Rainbow, that’s so exciting, do you know if it’s a boy or a girl?” Aunt Pinkie asked.

Mom shook her head, “We don’t know yet, we’re going to see the doctor next week to find out.”

“And you know what this calls for?” Uncle Cheese asked, grinning from ear to ear like a little school pony.

“A baby shower!!” Aunt Pinkie finished for him, bouncing up and down in excitement.

“So, I heard that you were at your school’s dance, how was it, did you have fun?” Aunt Twilight asked me.

“Yes, had fun,” I replied, looking down at the floor.

“Oh, well, I’m glad you had fun,” Aunt Twilight said, smiling.

I looked over to see Dad and Mom talking with Aunt Pinkie and Uncle Cheese. Mom had said something funny because Uncle Cheese was laughing hysterically as he held his stomach.

“That was a great joke, Rainbow,” Dad said.

“So, has anyone heard from Moonwalker?” Aunt Pinkie asked when she had stopped laughing.

“Last time I heard anything from him, he was living in Canterlot with Rarity, I think they got engaged,” Uncle Cheese remarked.

“Say what?” Aunt Pinkie almost shouted, bouncing up and down in excitement.

Uncle Cheese nodded, looking at Mom and Dad whose eyes had grown to the size of dinner plates.

“Wow, I’m so happy for them, did Moonwalker say when the wedding would be?” Mom asked when she had found her voice from the shock.

Uncle Cheese shook his head and smiled, “No not yet, but Rarity said that we should all get together sometime.”

Aunt Pinkie’s smile brightened as she turned to me and said, “Are you excited that Uncle Moonwalker and Aunt Rarity are getting married, because I sure am, and that also means I get to be in charge of the reception, isn’t that just exciting?”

I just looked at her blankly and didn’t say anything. I was excited that they would get married, but I didn’t know how to feel about the fact that Aunt Pinkie was going to throw the party at the reception.

It was always too loud for me at her parties, even though Mom and Dad had explained to her on several occasions that I did not like loud parties, she did not seem to get it.

Later that evening, Aunt Twilight invited us all to stay for dinner, Bubble had to come back to the castle and was sitting beside me on the floor. I showed him the picture I had drawn for him and he smiled at me.

“Wow,” He signed. That’s a nice picture, thank you.”

I repeated the sign for thank you. Mom had bought me a book on basic Equestrian sign language, and every evening after school, I would go to my room and study that book.

Aunt Pinkie came over to where we were sitting and tapped Bubble on the shoulder to get his attention, she pointed to her ear and made a circle with her other hoof letting it end in a drop.

Bubble seemed to understand and got up and retrieved something from his saddle bag, putting the object behind his ear.

“Bubble, can you hear me?” Aunt Pinkie asked.

Bubble nodded and turned to me. “Yes, I can hear everything, Mom.”

Aunt Pinkie grinned from ear to ear. “This is incredible, my baby can talk.”

For the rest of the evening Bubble and I played while the adults talked about various subjects, even though I wasn’t entirely sure what they were talking about, Bubble paid attention to all the sounds he heard from his mother laughing to Aunt Twilight talking about books.

The next morning, we went to see Aunt Applejack who wasn’t happy to see us, she explained that the night before Cousin Melody had gotten into trouble and was grounded for the weekend, I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t get to see Cousin Melody.

So we went back to the castle and stayed there the rest of the day, I was having fun when Bubble tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Let’s go to the Everfree?”

“No, no good idea, stay here, stay here,” I protested.

“Ok, it was just a suggestion, no need to worry,” He said, taking off the small object from behind his ear and putting it in its case, which was resting beside him. I pointed to it, as I wanted to know what it was.

“This, is hearing aid,” Bubble explained, but I couldn’t understand him, because of his speech, I assumed his speech was all slurred because of him not wearing his hearing aid. Auntie Twilight once explained to me that deaf ponies, like Bubble, sometimes needed hearing aids to make the normal ponies understand them better.

To me, it didn’t make sense, but if it helped, then I was happy for my cousin, I looked at the black case beside Bubble and picked it up, he seemed to notice and gesture for me to put it down again. I did as I was told, and then went over to Mom.

I was so thrilled to be a part of such a wonderful family, they understood me, my cousins were amazing, and my aunts and uncles were the greatest aunts and uncles in the world, they seemingly always knew what I wanted, even if I didn’t communicate in the same way other ponies did.

School was also the best, even though I didn’t really like my teacher, she still helped me when I was having a hard day or when I had had a meltdown the day before, sure school was hard, but I wouldn’t give it up for anything in Equestria, I certainly wouldn’t give up my family for anything in Equestria either. Even though I didn’t get to see most of them most of the time, when I did, it was a real treat.