"Ooh, I just know you two are gonna love meeting your Aunt Cloudy, Uncle Igneous, and your Aunts Marble, Maud, and Limestone!" Pinkie eagerly said to the twins. They were currently on a train bound for Ponypalooza, and already Pinkie was excited!
Pound and Pumpkin wished they could be as excited, but between only having their big sister Pinkie Pie's stories to go on for what her parents were like, and being put back into diapers for the train ride (Mr. and Mrs. Cake as well as Pinkie Pie agreed it would be best not to try and force the twins to use the bathrooms on the train, public potty training could wait). "Do you tink they'll even have a bathwoom?" Pound whispered to his sister. "I mean, they wive on a wock fawm and I heawd wumors that wock fawmers dun do diapees or toilets."
"Bu then how wouwd ouw big sistew wearn how to use the toilet?" Pumpkin asked her brother.
"Du, she twain hewsewf or Mommy and Daddy twain her," Pound replied. "Boy, you stupid sometimes sistew."
"I not stupid I just asking a question," Pumpkin snorted. "And somehow I dun tink eithew of those tings happened. I'm pwetty suwe the wock fawm will at weast have an outhouse wike the one at the pawk."
"Wets hope it's cwean." Pound gagged.
Pumpkin chuckled, but at the same time she found herself subconciously agreeing with her brother. Outhouses didn't exactly sound like a good alternative to a normal bathroom, especially when they didn't have a toilet or sink.
The train ride to Ponypalooza passed uneventfully for the twins and their big sister, though Pinkie did take the time to change them into pull-ups at the station. "Okay, does anypony have to go potty?" She asked the twins, as she prepared to place them in the foal pouch Mrs. Cake had provided for her. "It's gonna be a ways to the rock farm."
"I good." Pound replied, relieved that he'd already been changed.
"I good too." Pumpkin nodded.
Pinkie smiled and put the twins in the foal pouch, placing Pound in the left slot and Pumpkin in the right slot. "Okie dokie, just give me a second to pack up all your supplies and we'll get going. Ooh, I can't wait for Mom, Dad, and my sisters to meet you! They're going to lose their minds over how adorable you are! And I know they're going to have lots of embarrassing stories to tell, just as you've given Mr. and Mrs. Cake plenty of memories they'll remember if they ever have grandkids."
Quick as a flash, Pinkie rounded all the changing supplies and even the twins pacifiers and toys, and had placed them into their diaper bag which she flung onto her shoulder just beyond the foal pouch. The twins got more and more excited as Pinkie called out. "Welcome aboard the Pinkie Pie express! Next stop, the Pie family rock farm!"
It seemed like the blink of an eye for the twins (even though it had actually been several minutes) before they found themselves approaching a small farm with a huge boulder resting next to it, and a path leading down to a mine. And standing outside the front door of the rock farm was a stallion and four mares, one of which the twins could've sworn they'd seen before.
"Hi Mom, hi Dad, hi Maud, hi Limestone, hi Marble!" Pinkie greeted in one breath. "I'm glad everypony could be here today, I've got two adorable little foals I'd like you all to meet!"
"Oh, are they yours, Pinkie?" A mare with a light cobalt bluish gray coat, eyes a peaceful light arctic blue, a grayish opal mane and tail styled like a mop, a cutie mark depicting three rocks, yellow trim glasses with similarly colored bead chains, and a black scarf with white lines and a small gold locket underneath it asked, when her eyes fell upon the twins.
"If they are, then who is the lucky stallion?" A stallion with a moderate amber coat, a two tone gray mane and tail alternatively styled bushy (for the mane) and straight (for the tail), eyes the most brilliant shade of amber, a cutie mark depicting a pickax, a black stenson hat, and a gray collar with a black tie asked.
"I'll bet it's that Cheese Sandwich guy you mentioned in one of your letters," A mare with a bluish gray similar to the older mare that had spoken already, an opalish gray mane and tail styled like the two mares who hadn't spoken yet, eyes the same moderate amber as the stallion, and a cutie mark depicting a lime between two rocks claimed in a tone that sounded gravelly. "I mean, one of the foals looks kind of similar to how you described him."
"Your foals are so cute!" A mare with a turquoiseish gray coat, a dark gray mane with lighter gray streaks, grayish violet eyes (with the right eye hidden behind the mane), and a cutie mark depicting three purple marbles exclaimed in a soft voice. "You're so lucky to have them!"
"They're not mine! They belong to Mr. and Mrs. Cake!" Pinkie protested, blushing at the thought of her family thinking she and Cheese Sandwich had started a family (though she had to admit Cheese was a nice stallion).
"What are their names?" Asked a mare with a persian blueish gray coat, a grayish blue violet mane and tail that looked like Pinkie's whenever they went flat (which the twins had only seen once and it was not an experience they wished to repeat) that also matched the mare's eyeshadow, light turquoise colored eyes that reflected no emotion, and a a blueish-green vest or jacket of some kind with a dull brown stripe across the chest area.
"Pound and Pumpkin Cake," Pinkie answered, then to the twins she said. "Meet your Aunt Cloudy, your Uncle Igneous, and your Aunts Limestone, Maud, and Marble!" She proceeded to point to each of the ponies in the order they were named.
"Oh, you're foalsitting them?" Cloudy asked with a smile. "Well it was nice of you to bring them along, it's not too often I get a chance to see little ones."
Igneous stroked Pound Cake's mane with a hoof as he added. "How old are they, Pinkie?"
"They're about two and a half years old," Pinkie happily replied. "And they're in potty training, and doing pretty well I might add thanks to yours truly!" She decided to leave out the part about the twins tricking her into putting on a diaper and then babying her.
"Reminds me of your attempts at helping me potty train," Marble said with a smile. "It was better than Limestone telling me that scary story about a potty monster."
Limestone groaned and tried not to look too upset. "I only told that tale one time, I was just trying to have a little fun. Everypony knows there's no such thing as a potty monster."
"Yup, but the butt ghost is another story." Pinkie replied.
"What was that about a butt ghost?" Maud asked Pinkie.
"What? Oh, nothing, nothing at all," Pinkie nervously answered and quickly changed the subject. "So, Mom, Dad, I'll bet seeing the twins has brought back a lot of memories for you, right?"
Cloudy and Igneous smiled, then Cloudy spoke up. "It sure has, including some long repressed ones from when each of my daughters were just foals. Goodness, how the years fly by."
"It is a good thing we still have that scrap book," Igneous commented. "Let's go inside and let these delightful little foals have a chance to learn of some Pie family history."
"And I'll fix us all some lovely rock soup." Cloudy offered, and she and Igneous ushered everypony inside.
While Cloudy worked on preparing the rock soup (and Pinkie Pie took the liberty of setting up Pound and Pumpkin's training potties in the bathroom), Igneous sat in his favorite chair and watched happily as his daughters played with his unofficial nephew and niece (Pinkie considered The Cakes her family, and that was good enough for Igneous and Cloudy).
Marble and Maud especially seemed to take a shine to the twins, with Maud letting Pound interact with Boulder and Marble letting Pumpkin play with her snuggle buddy (a stuffed bear named Mr. Pebbles). Limestone seemed to largely just hang back and only occasionally making a cooing comment to either of the twins.
Igneous, for his part, was content to just watch the little ones crawl about. "How long has it been since Pinkamina and Marble stopped being foals?" He wondered to himself. "It feels like only yesterday I was rocking them in my arms while my wife heated up their bottles."
Igneous was snapped out of his pondering when he felt a tug on his legs. He looked down to see Pound playfully tugging at him, while making a motion that Igneous was all too familiar with. "Does thou want uppies?" Igneous asked, hints of his old way of speaking slipping out.
"Uppies! Uppies!" Pound cried.
Igneous smiled. "Very well, uppies it is!" He bent down to Pound's level and scooped the little pegasus up, lifting him up towards the ceiling. "High enough for you, little one?" He asked Pound.
Pound nodded and giggled, flapping his wings as he wiggled his way out of Igneous' grasp. "Can't catch me!" He teased.
"Why you little rascal!" Igneous playfully exclaimed, he shouldn't have been surprised considering his own children had pulled that sort of trick on him before. With a playful glint in his eyes, the stallion chased after Pound as best he could.
"He can fly?!" Limestone exclaimed, as she saw Pound fly past with her father in hot pursuit of him.
"He can fly?!" Marble exclaimed, as Pound flew past her.
"He can fly," Maud commented in her emotionless tone. "Somepony better stop him."
But just as soon as those words had escaped Maud's lips, Pumpkin (being the still somewhat cheeky little filly she was) lit up her horn and started to propel herself through the air too.
"I'll get the butterfly net," Limestone said with a sigh. "At least this time I don't have to worry about my target running away." She had only used a butterfly net once to catch a runaway Pinkie, something her parents had objected to (for good reason, they didn't like the idea of catching their children like wild animals).
But she had no need for that, for at that very moment Pinkie came on the scene. "What in the name of Celestia?!" She exclaimed, as she saw her father and her baby sister and second older sister chasing after the Cake Twins while the twins only taunted their chasers with cries of "Can't catch me!"
"You never told us they could fly, Pinkie!" Limestone groaned. "We're not as reality defying as you can be!"
"It's alright, just leave it to me," Pinkie replied with a wink, then as seriously as she could she shouted. "Pound Cake, Pumpkin Cake, no flying in the house! What would your parents say?!"
The twins urge to resist was completely drained away the moment their eyes fell upon the stern gaze of their big sister. She didn't normally get angry, but whenever she did she was quite scary. Feeling enormously guilty, the twins ceased their flying at once and instantly apologized. "We sowwy big sistew."
"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to," Pinkie said seriously. "You owe your Uncle Igneous, and your aunts Marble, Maud, and Limestone an apology. You know they're not used to flying foals like your parents and I are."
Pound and Pumpkin looked at Igneous, Limestone, Maud, and Marble. And with their best pair of puppy dog eyes they said sweetly. "We sowwy fow fwying. We pwomise not to do it again."
Limestone remained a bit grouchy, envious of the fact that she had now been outsmarted by foals for the first time in years. But the rest of the Pie family accepted the apologies whole heartedly, especially Igneous who said. "It is alright, little ones. Your Uncle Igneous needed the exercise."
Just then Cloudy called from the kitchen. "Rock soup is ready, come and get it before it gets cold!"
Pinkie smiled and scooped up the twins. "Rock soup is a pie family tradition, I'm sure you two will get to like it once you try it."