If You Hear Me, Let Me Know

Steel landed in front of Soarin' and Fluttershy's cottage. He wasn't sure what Soarin' expected to accomplish at this unholy hour of the day, but if it was going to help him out he figured he might as well give it a shot. It didn't take long for him to spot Soarin', Fluttershy, and Aerial watching the sunrise from the front porch. Soarin' gave Steel a wave as Steel approached the cottage.

"Hey there, bud! How's it going?"

"Tired. How about you, Soarin'?" Steel had never taken to calling Soarin' his uncle. It just didn't feel right to him, even though he knew that was his relation to the older stallion.

"The sun is shining and I'm with my family! I couldn't be better!" Soarin' exclaimed with cheer. Steel had no idea how Soarin' had that kind of energy in the morning. It seemed wrong to him.

"Cousin Steel!"

Steel smiled as Aerial got up and galloped to him. She hadn't learned to fly yet, but she managed to buzz in the air next to him long enough to wrap her forelegs around his neck.

"Hey, Aerial! What's up with you?" Steel asked.

"Daddy's gonna take me to school soon! Do you wanna come? Daddy, can cousin Steel come to school with me?"

Soarin' laughed.

"Aerial, you don't have school today, remember? It's Saturday."

"Aww..." Aerial lowered her head and her ears dropped. Soarin' laughed.

"Give her about two years and that will be her face on Monday morning."

Steel laughed with Soarin'. Fluttershy gave Aerial a comforting hug as the filly walked back to the porch.

"It's okay, Pumpkin. You'll get to go to school in a couple of days."

Aerial perked right back up.

"Really?!"

"Yes, Pumpkin."

Aerial gave a small squee and jumped back up. She flapped her wings and buzzed in the air for a little bit before falling down and landing hard on the porch. Fluttershy moved to help her up, but the energetic filly had already bounced back to her hooves and began trotting in circles in front of her parents. The three older ponies couldn't help but laugh at how adorable the filly was. Fluttershy got up and knelt in front of Aerial.

"Mommy has to take care of the animals now. Do you want to help?"

Aerial's face lit up.

"I can help?! Can I, can I, can I?!"

Fluttershy giggled and patted her daughter on the head.

"Of course you can, Pumpkin."

Aerial proceeded to jump up and began to trot circles around Fluttershy as the two headed towards the woods, leaving Steel and Soarin' alone together. Steel noticed Soarin's face turn to stone.

"Show me."

Steel sighed. He knew what Soarin' was talking about.

"Do I have to?"

"Yes."

Steel sighed again and unwrapped the bandages on his leg so the cuts were visible. Soarin' got up to take a close look at it. The then turned and pulled Steel in for a gentle hug. Steel initially tensed up, but it wasn't long before he found comfort in the gesture. Soarin' pulled away and looked Steel in the eye.

"Let's go inside. I want this to stay between you and me."

Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Jimmy and Applebloom sat on their haunches waiting for the train to arrive. They had decided to go and visit Kitty both to check up on her and to see why it was taking so long for Shepard and Mac to come home.

"So, what do you think we'll learn when we get there?" Jimmy asked.

"Hopefully that Kitty and Shepard are at least going to try getting together." Scootaloo responded.

"You say that as if you like the idea of in - band relationships." Sweetie countered.

"Says th' mare datin' her drummer." Applebloom added with a condescending tone of voice. Sweetie blushed and leaned against Jimmy.

"Good point. And he is quite the 'drummer', if you know what I mean."

Jimmy blushed hotly as the mares around him laughed.

"Sweets, we talked about that..."

"I know, I just like giving you a hard time."

Scootaloo thought she saw Sweetie Belle's eye twitch when she said that. She tapped her friend on the shoulder.

"Mind if we have a word in private?" Scootaloo asked. Sweetie Belle shrugged and followed Scootaloo to a safe distance. As soon as she knew she was out of earshot, she gave Scootaloo a pleading look.

"Scoot, you've gotta help me! I'm dying here!"

"Woah, Sweets. What's going on?" A look of genuine concern washed over Scootaloo's face.

"This 'no sex' thing! It's evil! For two years I almost never get anything while I'm sober, and now that I have a coltfriend I'm not getting anything at all! What do I do?!"

Scootaloo facehoofed.

"Really, Sweets? That's killing you?"

"YES! How in the the name of all things that are bucking holy did you manage to go seven years with Lightning without it?!" Sweetie Belle looked like she was about to fall apart. Scootaloo laughed.

"It wasn't hard when I didn't know what I was missing. Now that I do, I don't think I could go two weeks without getting something from him."

"What are you trying to say?!" Sweetie Belle pleaded. Scootaloo smirked.

"I'm saying good luck."

Sweetie Belle slumped over. It was then that Scootaloo noticed a dark patch of fur on the inside of her foreleg.

"Sweets, what's that on your leg?"

Sweetie Belle's look of despair washed away, replaced by an ear to ear grin. She turned her foreleg so Scootaloo could see the complete design.

"You like it? It's called a tattoo!"

Scootaloo's face contorted into a look of pure confusion.

"The buck is a 'tattoo'?" She asked. Somehow Sweetie Belle's grin grew even wider.

"It's a permanent coat die! I can have a design anywhere I want on my body! I can have all the badass cutie marks I want!"

Scootaloo examined Sweetie Belle's tattoo more closely.

"It looks like the head of a snake." She noted.

"That's because that's what it is! I'm going to have the body wrap around my whole foreleg! Isn't that awesome!?"

Scootaloo pondered the idea for a moment.

"Actually, yeah it is! I need to get some of those!" A grin formed on Scootaloo's face as she thought of all the body art possibilities she could think of.

"Great! We can visit the new tattoo parlor together when we get back to Ponyville!"

"Tattoo 'parlor'?" Scootaloo asked. Sweetie Belle shrugged.

"That's what Needles calls it."

"Needles? You mean the stallion that did your piercings when we were teenagers?" Scootaloo asked.

"Yeah! He does tattoos there now as well! I'm so glad I got rid of those piercings..." Sweetie Belle thought aloud, to which Scootaloo laughed. She pointed at Sweetie's gauges.

"Not all of them."

Sweetie Belle laughed and twitched her ears.

"Yeah, sadly there's no covering those up."

"You two gonna sit here and chat all day? The train's here." Jimmy had never been one to worry about interrupting a conversation. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo looked in the direction of the platform. Sure enough, the train had arrived and was currently boarding passengers to Canterlot.

"Wow...I figured I would hear a train pulling in." Sweetie Belle noted in disbelief.

"So would I." Jimmy responded. "What were you guys talking about?"

Sweetie Belle gave Jimmy a condescending look. Jimmy nodded in understanding.

"Right, mare stuff. A sexy hunk of stallion like me wouldn't understand."

"You're smarter than you let on." Sweetie Belle teased and kissed Jimmy.

"I do what I can." Jimmy replied nonchalantly after parting from Sweetie. Scootaloo suppressed the desire to squeal with joy.

"Y'all gettin' on the train er what? 'Cause Ah don't think it's gonna wait fer y'all ta finish."

"Always the impatient one, aren't you Applebloom?" Scootaloo asked with a smug grin.

"Ah prefer the term 'focused'. Somepony's gotta pay attention to the real world so y'all can get where yer goin'."

"Good point." Jimmy noted and lifted his saddlebags onto his back with his magic. Sweetie did the same, while Scootaloo grunted and for the thousandth time cursed her lack of a horn. The four ponies quickly boarded the train and settled into a car. They had a long ride ahead of them. Applebloom settled into the seat closest to the aisle next to Scootaloo, and Sweetie and Jimmy leaned into each other as the closed their eyes and tried to get some sleep. Applebloom made an effort not to look in their direction, and Scootaloo took notice.

"Applebloom? Something on your mind?"

Applebloom hesitated for a moment, then motioned for Scootaloo to follow her. Scootaloo and Applebloom stepped outside the train car and took in the sight of the busy train platform.

"What's wrong, Applebloom?" Scootaloo asked. Applebloom sighed.

"Ah guess Ah just wish Sweets and Jimmy weren't so snuggly around me. Don't get me wrong, Ah'm really happy fer them. It's just that everypony around me has somepony, and Ah don't. You got Lightning, those two have each other, and if Kitty doesn't have Shepard yet than Ah'll be kinda disappointed. Ah guess Ah'm just a little jealous is all."

Scootaloo wasn't sure what to say to that. She couldn't pretend like she understood. Scootaloo had always had somepony, even before she started dating Lightning. Applebloom hadn't had a date since her junior year of high school. Scootaloo wrapped her wing around Applebloom.

"There's somepony out there for you, Applebloom. You just gotta get out there and find him."

Applebloom sighed.

"Ah hope yer right."

Spitfire lay on the couch next to Rainbow. It was the first time in a long time that they were able to get home from work and not have to worry about taking care of one of their adopted foals, so they took full advantage of the moment to get some peaceful snuggling time. Oddly enough, Rainbow seemed to enjoy this as much as Spitfire.

"It's been too long since we've just relaxed like this." Spitfire said to break the silence.

"Yeah..." Rainbow responded. "I love our kids to death, but ever since we adopted them, it's been one rough day after another."

"It has...But they've been worth every hardship we've faced since we took them in." A warm smile spread across Spitfire's face. She noticed that Rainbow had a similar smile on hers.

"Yeah, it has." Rainbow paused. Concern was evident on her face. "You think Soarin' will get through to Steel?"

Spitfire sighed. She wasn't sure if Soarin' could help the poor colt. At the moment she didn't have any better ideas.

"I really hope so. For now I'm just going to count our family lucky to have a stallion like him in it."

"Yeah. It's weird to think that he actually is family."

"I know. I met him long after Aerial was moved out of the house, and he never mentioned her when we were growing up."

"Wait, you're telling me that he never told you he had a sister?" Rainbow asked.

"It never came up. When Soarin' and I hung out growing up, we usually only talked about flying. Neither one of us liked talking about our family lives, especially after we got into high school." Spitfire explained. Rainbow gave an understanding nod.

"Ahh, that makes sense I guess. I never really talked about my family with my friends growing up either. Or my friends here in Ponyville. I guess nopony ever asked."

"Speaking of, when are your parents coming to visit? I thought you said they were going to be dropping by sometime soon." Spitfire asked.

"They're going to be by in about a week. Scoot will be happy to see them." Rainbow answered.

"Yeah, she will. Anyway, I'm hungry. You want anything?" Spitfire asked as she kissed Rainbow and got off the couch.

"Naah, I'm not hungry. Right now is nap time, not food time." Rainbow responded as she flopped onto her back and and immediately drifted off to sleep. Spitfire laughed. She wasn't sure how Rainbow managed to fall asleep on a whim like that, but she had long ago ceased to be surprised by it. She made her way to the kitchen and began to fix herself something to eat. She made a simple salad, just enough to hold her over until dinner. She grunted when the doorbell rang, forcing her away from the delicious blend of lettuce and vegetables before her. She trotted to the front door fast enough to avoid keeping her company waiting, but slow enough that she could delay the experience for just a little bit longer. She looked through the spyhole and couldn't believe her eyes. She pushed open the door and leaned against the frame. She wore a blank expression on her face as she looked at the ponies in front of her. Two ponies she hadn't seen in a long time. The ponies shifted uncomfortably while waiting for Spitfire to say something. Spitfire noticed that they were waiting on her, and thus decided to start the conversation.

"Mom. Dad."