//------------------------------//
// Family is Forever 
// Story: A Dinky Love Story 
// by Cryptid-Kid 
//------------------------------//

Two ponies, two colorful specks from a bird's eye view, growing near the heart of the forest were strolling together just like old times. Even from far away they could faintly hear the rushing water of the familiar rapids that only they visited. Dinky had never been happier since they had started talking.
They laughed and chatted about random things ranging from school to siblings, from cross-eyed mothers to work and slow drivers. Stuff they usually talked about. But it didn't feel the same to Dinky-- not like it was before she dated Pipsqueak. This was a new feeling, something she wasn't extremely experienced with. She didn't even know what that feeling was and was hoping to find out today as he fulfilled her company.
They came to rest at the stone bridge that shaded the white rapids. Such scary, strong waves of terror that would sweep a pony up in its ever-flowing currents should they fall to their doom would have frightened a pony if they didn't have their best friend with them. Dinky felt invincible around him, she felt like all her insecurities would melt away like a popsicle on a hot day. But strangely, she didn't know why she had suddenly felt different, and couldn't get the nagging question of love out of her mind every time he glanced at her.
They sat in silence for awhile until strangely, his voice reached over the rapids without him even trying. In fact it sounded like a whisper through the air that somehow managed to overpower the sound of rushing rapids with its gentle power.
"Dinky, I love you." 
Without even thinking, the unicorn responded. She wasn't even sure why she did this, but she cried out: "I love you too!" 
They leaned in to kiss, and it wasn't until his face was centimeters from hers when she realized something.
Wait a minute, this wouldn't happen!
As if it had hit her like a brick falling out of the sky, a sudden alarming ringing noise burst through her hearing, destroying everything around her with its powerful sound waves. She tried to open her eyes but she couldn't... Rumble and the forest became nothing but unrecognizable blurs. The sound of the rapids died down and surrendered under the new ear-piercing screech of a cell phone cutting into her dreams.
Because there were no rapids. There was no Rumble that she was about to kiss. She wasn't in a forest; she was in her bed, and she had been sleeping.
Groaning as a ray of sunlight made her cringe as it chased after her through the window, the pony opened a tired eye and sat up, trying to shake off her sleepy state. The annoying ring of her cell phone on her nightstand was what urged her to pick it up. Who was calling was what urged her not to answer.
A certain pegasus was calling her. Almost immediately she cowered in fear. She couldn't talk to him after what had happened!
	But then she remembered that the kiss was in a dream, and that he hadn't actually confessed his love for her and vice versa. Dinky didn't think she had ever been more grateful that everything turned out to be just a dream.
Reluctantly, she answered the call, sitting up and letting the covers fall off her. In a sleepy voice, she muttered, "Hello?"
"Hey Dinky, it's Rumble."
His voice made her anxious. Even though everything had been a dream, she couldn't suppress a shudder that continued to chill her spine. She answered anyway. "Oh hey Rumble... What's going on?"
There was a brief pause. "Nothing, I just wanted to know if you wanted to see a movie with me later?"
Suddenly after everything she had been through, visions of last night started replaying themselves over and over again until she felt vulnerable. She coughed before responding, "Sorry... My mom really needs help with her muffin baking... Don't want her to burn down the house again, right?" She made a pathetic attempt at a fake, forced laugh.
Rumble's voice deepened and she could tell he was disappointed without even being able to look at him. "Oh, okay. Maybe some other time?"
After what had happened last night, she didn't know why, but the thought of being around him made her as nervous and anxious as could be. It was like she didn't want anything to have to do with him anymore, but it wasn't because she disliked him. It was this weird feeling of shyness she couldn't get over-- She decided she needed some time away from him for awhile to figure things out on her own. "Yeah, sure. Sounds great. Okay see you bye!" She said the last sentence quickly so that it was rather mashed together and sighed after she hung up.
It was a strange relief to be out of his company for awhile. After that dream, she didn't know what to think. 
That was another thing. Why did Dinky suddenly have that weird romantic dream about him? It's not like they had any actual chemistry between them.
Then she remembered the before night and cringed with the memory. It had sparked strange, complicated feelings that she had never felt for Rumble before. And now she didn't even know if there was a friendship between them. It was like some kind of awkward unspoken relationship she didn't necessarily want to be a part of.
Great. First I thought Rumble was kind of cute, now I had some dumb romantic dream about him. I'm not supposed to feel this way about my best friend! I... don't want to have feelings for him! The thoughts spun around and around in her mind until they drove her crazy and she let herself fall back onto her bed with a defeated huff.
There was one part of her that didn't want to be in love with Rumble. But there was another part of her that couldn't help thinking he was attractive or kind or funny-- she couldn't control it. And that scared her.
Her tense thoughts were interrupted.
"Dinky! Come down for breakfast!"
It wasn't until that sentence was called to her that she realized how hungry she was. Her stomach felt like an empty abyss. An empty, rumbling abyss.
Just the thought of that word sent her sprawling down the stairs at top speed as if Rumble were right behind her. She didn't want to think of him. Or even that word. 
She burst through the halls down to the kitchen in a fit of enthusiasm for breakfast. Unfortunately she was going so fast, however, that her eyes widened a moment before she noticed the kitchen table was growing larger very fast.
A loud crash made Amethyst cringe as Dinky was unable to prevent herself from stopping before she slammed a leg of the table. The whole thing screeched across the wood floor very briefly as her force impacted its leg. The vase of flowers trembled before being ultimately thrown back and falling over on the table, a loud clatter responding to its landing on the silverware, which was scattered messily over the table as it shook. Water from the vase leaked out and dampened the tablecloth before trickling down like a slow waterfall and meeting the floor, a puddle forming beneath it until all the water had spilled. A perfectly clean and polished plate teetered over the edge of the table for a second before falling to its doom and smashing against the hard floors. 
Pain immediately rushed to Dinky's dizzy head and she lifted herself, her eyes as crooked as her mother's usually were right about then. When her vision adjusted itself and the three ponies in front of her became one-- her sister-- she noticed that Amethyst's eyes were narrowed, her eyebrow lifted and her face spelled out the fact that she was not amused.
Ignoring the ringing in her ears and the agonizing pain she felt before it subsided, Dinky shook her head rapidly and said: "Umm, my bad?"
"Dinky, are you okay?" Amethyst's words were gentle but she seemed generally more annoyed than concerned. 
"Yeah?" Dinky rubbed her forehead, giving a guilty smile as Amethyst rolled her eyes.
"Dinky! I'm glad you're okay and all, but I had just finished setting up the silverware! And look, now all the flowers spilled out and the tablecloth's damp, not to mention there's a whole mess of water on the floor and a broken plate for me to clean up!" She turned her back on Dinky as she trotted over to the living room and returned with a broom being levitated using her magic, floating in a shade of brilliant raspberry.
Dinky felt discouraged as a pang of anger was detected under her pain.
"Well, sorry," she hissed in a deep, exaggerated and insincere way, "it was an accident! I was running and couldn't stop!"
"Well, you shouldn't have been running in the house," Amethyst retorted. 
Dinky sighed, letting much of her tense emotions built up inside of her relax. "Sorry, Amy. I've been through a lot. I guess I'm just extra grumpy today." A funny thing the two ponies shared was that they even called each other by their special nicknames when they weren't in the happiest of moods.
"Why?" Amethyst raised an eyebrow, but didn't seem to display a passionate emotion of concern for her little sister. She did seem curious, though, and stopped cleaning up the mess momentarily to give Dinky her undivided attention for the moment.
Amethyst's subtly impatient expression narrowed to a sympathetic one as her little sister took a deep breath and told her everything that happened at the dance that night.... Well, except the part about when she danced with Rumble. She didn't feel like talking about that then. She suppressed a sigh at the very memory and forced a slight half smile.
"I had no idea," Amethyst wrapped a cold arm around her younger sister who shivered at the touch. "Sorry. I didn't know."
Dinky shrugged it off and her horn lit up, using her magic to carry the delicate broken pieces of the plate to the trash can across the room. She did so without a word and didn't bother trying to make eye contact. 
After the mess had been cleaned up they were about to sit down for breakfast when Dinky realized she wasn't hungry anymore.
"You're not going to eat?" Amethyst raised an eyebrow, her face narrowed in surprise and confusion. She looked down at the plate of pancakes before her sister with disappointment and a burden. "Oh, you don't like it... I knew I used too much cinnamon."
"No, it's not that," the younger mare reassured her. "I guess I'm just not hungry anymore. I can't get my mind off the dance. I think I just need some time alone. Thanks for breakfast anyways, Amy."
The harsh, short creek of her chair being pushed back echoed through the kitchen as Dinky slid out of it. Soft, sensitive lavender hooves met the cold hard floors and the sound of it died away the further the unicorn progressed until she got to her room and the door closed behind her.
She nearly threw herself onto her bed, which seemed like it was getting more uncomfortable and lumpy each night and groaned loudly.  
She didn't want to talk to anyone right then. Her mother was probably at work at this hour, but she had a bad feeling her sister would follow her up here anyway sooner or later to try to shake a sentence or two out of her.
Suddenly the annoying ringing sound of a familiar object was accompanied by a vibration that echoed through her rooms. Sitting up sharply to pick up her phone, she realized with great relief that Rumble wasn't calling; it was her mother.
Quickly answering to get her mind off of things, her phone went to the side of her face as she muttered, "Hi Mom."
"Hi Muffin! It's Mom," a voice sounded out of the other end of the line. 
"I know it's you Mom, I said 'Hi Mom,' remember?" She rolled her eyes but smiled still. 
"Oh. Well I accidentally locked myself out of the house again so I'm gonna need you to open the door for me."
Dinky fought a feeling of impatience, but she managed to say in a normal tone, "Can't you just have Amy do it?"
"Amy doesn't know where the spare house key is." 
She let out a groan of frustration as she shifted from her position. She wasn't actually angry but she felt like she wanted something else to be mad about. The soft sound of hooves traveled with her till she stopped on the soft rug of her mother's room. Before her was a bed, which sheets were crooked and draping loosely over the side, despite her mother's best efforts to make it herself with her eyesight. Dinky knelt down and peeped her head under the blankets that hung over the edge, staring flatly into the dark abyss of the dusty wooden floors under the bed. Using her magic to strike a faint glow to the shadows, everything in front of her became clearer. 
Her gaze drifted through the area, scanning the area for the key object her mind had envisioned. After shoving aside a stack of dusty books a cardboard box caught her eye. Her face displaying a glow of triumph, she made it float over to her with her magic and pulled her head out of the shadows of her mother's bed. 
She gave a soft grunt as she fell backwards clumsily and toppled over. Her leg had gotten caught under the covers that made their way to the floor, and she sighed in aggravation. Prying herself loose, the pony stumbled to her hooves and quickly made her way out of the room down the stairs with the box.
If their mother had not lost the house key a week ago that they used to get out of the house when she wasn't home, Dinky would not have had to venture out into the dusty land of under her mother's bed. She didn't quite like dark places, even a small one in the light of day. They just gave her the chills. And she didn't appreciate the amount of excessive sneezing she had started to do when the dust entered her breathing system.
The lavender pony quickly trotted over to the door where through the foggy glass window that hung above she could see a blurry light gray figure waiting patiently outside on the porch. Dinky sighed as she opened the old cardboard box only to have to sift through old family relics and other personal items of her mother's. She finally saw the silver twinkle of a shiny metal key and fit it into the keyhole, letting the door open back for her mother to step through.
The gray pegasus smiled sincerely, her left eye focused on her daughter and her lazy eye falling to rest on the placemat she was standing on. She ruffled Dinky's hair and said cheerily, "Thanks, Muffin." Her own golden hair was lying under a dark blue hat typically worn by Ponyville's mail ponies. In addition to the hat she wore her usual work uniform for when she had to deliver mail. 
"Hey Mom. How come you're home so early?" Dinky was speaking to her mom, but her attention was divided and fixed on the box she carried.
"Well there was some mysterious disaster at the main office and apparently all of Ponyville's mail caught on fire. Strange, it happened just as I appeared. Weird, huh?" She giggled. 
Dinky's face instantly fell into that of concern. "A fire? Is everypony okay?"
	
"Yeah, my boss just decided to send everyone home for the day till he handles the angry mob of ponies that were mad at him for their mail being burned up. No biggie."
"But what about the fire?"
"Oh, well, around the time I started working there a few years ago, the place had been mysteriously catching on fire pretty frequently. Sometimes three or four times a month. They never found out what caused it, but the firefighters always took care of it. Eventually they just decided to move to a new location that was across the street from a firefighter station. That's why they moved last year."
"Oh." 
It made sense to Dinky, but she never knew about the many fires her mother described. She guessed they had never been too severe or had been happening too frequently for it to be anything new. It still made her shiver at the thought. Was working at a post office really that dangerous? What could they possibly have there that causes things to be set on fire?
Her confused emotions evaporated as her sister came trotting into the room, not even bothering to ask why she had come home so early. Clearly their mother's sense of curiosity was inherited by Dinky and left behind by Amethyst. "Hey Mom. Hey Dinky. What's that box for?"
Dinky peered inside of it, setting the key carefully atop a couple of old family scrapbooks. "Oh, nothing. It's just where Mom keeps the spare house key."
A gold ribbon of magic quickly changed color to a deep shade of magenta as the box was hauled out of Dinky's command and into her sister's as the older unicorn used her own magical abilities to set it on the floor in front of them so she could begin to search through the old box. Perhaps not every ounce of curiosity had been absorbed by Amethyst, but there was still definitely a trace of it, Dinky realized.
"What're you looking for?" 
"Nothing. I'm just looking." Amethyst concentrated on her search till an old scrapbook was lifted up by her into the air. "What's this?"
An old, thick leathery red book covered in light splotches of dust was set next to the box on the floor. As Amethyst used her hoof to wipe away some of the dust a faint script appeared in the center, reading: Derpy + Ponet.
"Oh, that was me and your father's old album," their mother whispered, looking lost in thought as if she was reminiscing with a slight half smile on her face. 
Dinky sat next to her sister as the album opened. Her eyes caught sight of a light purple stallion with a short, wavy two-toned golden mane seen sitting close to her mother, who looked a surprising amount of years younger, thought her eyes were about as crooked as they are now. His own emerald green eyes were fixed on the camera in an affectionate fashion and Dinky just then noticed that the pony had his hoof around their mother, and she was leaning into his embrace.
"Is that Dad?" Amethyst's eyes were fixed on the pony, and Dinky couldn't help but notice her voice was hoarse, filled with a faint amount of pain. 
Their mom nodded. Dinky stared at the stallion as if she had never seen him before in her life.
Because she hadn't. She had only seen him in photos. Amethyst only had been around to see him for a few years till she was four. Dinky never got to meet him. He left the world too soon, just days before Dinky's birth. So of course he was a foreign pony to her. She didn't know how to feel about him; she didn't know if she should have been sad because she never met him. She couldn't remember what he was like because she wasn't around to see. 
But for Amethyst, it was different. Dinky could clearly see the amount of pain that stirred in her violet eyes, dotted with crystal tears the more she flipped through the photos.
Dinky herself felt a pang of sadness every time a picture came around where her father and mother were together. They looked so happy. So involved in each other's company. Like their life couldn't be better. A sense of dread wasn't allowed to escape when she realized how devastated her mother must have been when he... left. 
The more she looked at him, the more and more Dinky began to realize she looked like him. Same golden mane, same light coat color. They were both unicorns. If he were alive and with them then anyone could clearly see the family resemblance. She could also see a bit of this in her sister, but not as much. She had a pinkish purple coat like his, and was a unicorn, but her violet tail and eyes were inherited from neither of her parents, but their grandmother.
Their mother pointed with her hoof to a picture of two ponies, herself and her husband, standing outside landscape decorated with pretty decor. They were standing side by side, and on a podium featuring marble columns adorned by blue bows and ribbons. Dinky's father was wearing a suit and tie, and parallel to him their mother wore a beautiful long white gown. 
"Our wedding photo," she explained as eyes pinned on her. Her own crooked eyes were clouded with tears but a smile still stretched across her face. 
"Wow," Dinky remarked, hardly able to recognize her mother with her mane done up in a beautiful blue ribbon. She looked so amazing that if Dinky didn't know any better, she'd say she was a princess or something like that.
A few more pages followed up with the years of their marriage, including pictures that featured their honeymoon in Rainbow Falls, them at parties and with friends, and them with Amethyst Star as a foal.
Dinky stared confusedly at the tiny little lump of a pony that was her sister as a foal. She looked so much different now. For one thing, she wasn't nearly as fat as she was as a baby. For another, her mane was a lot longer now than when she was a kid. It seemed strange seeing her grown-up older sister as a baby.
When that photo album had been looked through, Amethyst sifted through the box to find an old letter written in ink on dull paper yellowing with age.
"What's this?" Dinky asked, peering over and trying to read the neat cursive writing.
"This was the last letter your father sent me," their mom explained, appearing to have an emotionless state wash over her at the sight of it.
"Dad has great handwriting," Dinky remarked, barely being able to believe the amount of time and effort it must have taken to get to the point he did with his handwriting.
As she read it a chill of sadness swept through her heart.

Dear Derpy,
I know you've been mad at me lately for being away for too long and coming home too sharply to witness the birth of our child. But I can assure you I wouldn't miss it for the world. I quit my job and I wanted to tell you that I'm heading to Ponyville from Manehattan right now! I promise I'll be home in time to be there for our second foal. 
I love you, Derpy. I love you and our daughter more than anything else in this entire universe. You both are so precious to me, as is our future daughter/son. I also promise that I won't make the mistake of traveling away while expecting a foal again, if we ever have another. I've been so anxious to see you and Amethyst Star lately, it's really been stressing me out. That's why I'm headed straight for Ponyville right now. 

Please don't be mad at me. I know I made a bad decision but I'm coming home now to see the birth of my precious child. Tell Amethyst that I love her and that I can't wait to see her again.

I love you, 
Ponet

Dinky teared up at the sight. "Mom?"
"Yes?" Her mother's eyes were fixed on the letter.
"Was that...?"
"The last thing I heard from him? Yes, it was." She sighed as she let the old piece of paper slide off her hoof back into the box like a broken memory she had struggled to forget. 
"Mom?" Dinky's throat was closing up on her now. "Was that the day of the train crash?"
Her mother shrugged and nodded at the memory. She had a seemingly neutral expression plastered on her face but Dinky could tell that the pony was busy revisiting old fond memories that became more and more bittersweet as time went on.
Dinky couldn't control the tears that flowed down her face. Amethyst pulled her into a hug as she sniffled and whimpered.
This continued for a few seconds before their mom joined them in the hug. "Hey, Muffin. Don't cry."
"I never got to meet him!"
"It's okay, Muffin. He loved you."
"But he never met me!" Dinky could almost feel her heart break.
Her own father! She didn't even know her own father! She never got to experience the joys of scrambling to the doorstep every evening when he came home from work for him to swing her up in the air while she let out squeals of delight, nor afternoons spent playing softball with her him out in the backyard before getting ice cream together. There were no pictures of them making silly faces at the camera together. There were no memories where he had picked her up an hour before school ended to take her out for a game of laser tag. He had never taken Dinky out on a smelly boat on the lake with a can of worms and tried to teach her how to fish, only to drop the fishing rod in the water and call it a night. 
It broke her heart to not know him. How could she not know one of the most important ponies that would have been in her life?! Her own biological father never spoke one word to her. He never even got to see her face, nor did she see his. It's like there was a part of her that she would never be able to access, or a missing link to her that she would never find. And that hurt her. Especially when ponies all around knew their dads. Why couldn't she know hers? 
She broke the hug. Her emotions were making her grow cold and upset at that moment. The only thing she wanted to do at the moment was to see him. To find him after all those years where he wasn't there and to hear him say he loved her and for her to say it back. And she would never be able to do that, ever. She didn't even get to say goodbye.
The pony galloped up the stairs in a fit of tears. She didn't care about anything else at the moment. She hated the cold world for taking her own dad away from her. Sure, other ponies got to know their dads, but of course she couldn't! The world would come to an end if Dinky had one single ray of happiness in her life!
A slam of her door echoed through the house. She wished she had never seen those stupid pictures that had sparked a sensitive flame inside of her. She wished that he had been there, he hadn't been on that stupid train on the day it crashed, and that the stupid conductor had enough brains to prevent the stupid crash from happening. And she wished her father never went on that stupid business trip months before her birth! 
In a fit of rage the pony let out a shrill shout of sadness and fury. Kicking the trash can that lay by her desk, the pony didn't care as she watched the contents pour out onto her floors in front of her, something that would normally drive her insane. She continued to throw things across the room and beat at her pillow until she got too tired to care about it anymore. She eventually just lay in the advancing darkness of her room listening to the sound of the fan that hung on her ceiling spin around and around in an endless cycle while lying on the cold hard floor waiting for something interesting to happen in her life.
Her heart felt like an empty abyss. Like nothing was inside. Just a hollow, empty shell of depression. Something that looked a lot like the box of memories she had inside of her mind that involved her father. 
She glared at the tear that she watched drip into the small puddle that dampened the side of her face. She was facing her bed, staring into the darkness of the underside that she expected to someday expand on her or reveal a threatening creature that would lunge at her. Maybe it had a portal that led to an alternate world concealed inside its shadowy depths. 
But right then she didn't care. Her mind was fixed on the thought of her father that she couldn't get over. She could hear the faint muttering of her mother and Amethyst downstairs, but was too tired to try to eavesdrop on their conversation. 
Then she heard the sound of a doorbell. Too upset to wonder who it was, the pony's hoof danced over the wooden panels beneath her, moving around in soft complete circles that brushed the floor. 
She listened as a different, deeper voice accompanied the two mares downstairs, yet she still couldn't make out the exact words. The pony let out a sigh as the soft mumbling continued steadily till she heard the sound of hooves creak through the old house.
Footsteps obviously were leading up the stairs, retaining the movement of stepping up higher and higher getting closer and closer. Dinky grumbled as she hoped whoever it was didn't go straight for her room. She didn't want to talk to anyone right then. She wanted to be alone. 
And her suspicions were confirmed with a knock on the door. Her body tensed up and she let out a weird sound, sort of like a groan, that signified all her anger that was seeping through her.
A familiar, masculine voice nearly startled her to Tartarus and back. 
"Dinky, it's Rumble. Can I come in?"
Dinky felt like she wanted to hide under her bed. She actually considered this for a split second before she remembered that she was too big to fit under it. Instead she let out a defeated sigh before granting permission to the pony on the very bottom of her list of ponies she wanted to see just then to enter.
The door creaked open and she rolled over to face him. Her muscles ached as she got to her tired hooves, worn out and upset as she was.
Her heart flipped when she saw him. Celestia, why is he making me nervous? She gritted her teeth with annoyance as the pony neared her.
Dark gray hair was smoothened by his hoof over and over as if it were a nervous habit he had. The ponies stared at each other for a few seconds before he spoke. 
"So.... What's wrong?"
Dinky shook her head and sat on the cold floors of her lonely bedroom. She witnessed a tear slide down her cheek and splatter onto the wooden panels beneath her. Her stomach felt sick and her head was ringing. 
"Dinky..." Rumble trailed off, but he connected the gap between them with a few steps forward. She felt his hooves wrap around her but she didn't care at the moment. The only thing she could think of at the moment was how awful she felt. "Tell me what's wrong."
She stayed silent for a long time, almost ignoring his attempts to coax words out of her. Narrowed golden eyes traced the floor, and her expression remained unwilling to show signs of happiness or any emotion other than pity and grief.
She sat there cradled in his arms for a few more minutes before she spoke. "Rumble, did you know your parents?"
He pulled away only to look her in the eyes, which were clouded with pain themselves. He attempted to make it look like it didn't bother him, though his voice was hoarse and frail: "Nah. They, uh... y'know, left when I was a baby so..." His purple eyes glanced down to the floor, the subject obviously sensitive to him.
"Does that ever bother you?"
"Sometimes. But not really." 
"Why?" Dinky looked at him with genuine curiosity.
"'Cause, y'know, I always had Thunderlane, I guess... He was sorta like my big brother and my parent at the same time, you know? I was upset, sure, but I guess that whenever I had him around, it didn't matter, because the past is in the past." Rumble shrugged.
"What do you mean by that?" Dinky narrowed her eyes.
"Well there really is no use in crying over something that's done, is there?" Rumble gave her a deep, thoughtful glance.
She frowned at him, tears returning to her already-damp eyes. "But I never knew my own dad! He doesn't even know I exist anymore! He doesn't even know my name." Her eyesight fell gloomily back to the floorboards that distracted her from reality somehow.
"Yeah, and that sucks, I'm not gonna lie," Rumble told her, causing her to glare back at him. He continued, "There's nothing you can really do about it, though, right?"
"Yeah, but--"
"Exactly. There's no use in fretting over something that's out of your control." Rumble sighed deeply as thoughts of his parents were probably drifting through his own mind, Dinky realized. "Anyway, you've still got your family. There's your mom, and Amethyst Star, and your grandparents..."
"But not my dad!" She wailed, tears streaming down her face, which had reddened with all the crying. 
"See, that's where you're wrong." Rumble forced her to look up at him by lifting her face up with his hoof, a gesture that made her heart skip a beat when her eyes found his. "Your dad might not be with you now, but he'll always be family. He'll always be in your heart, right?"
"How can he be in my heart if I never met him?" Dinky growled, pain clotting her frozen heart.
"Dinky, the reason you're alive is because of him. He'll always be a part of you, inside. Even if you never met him, he still loves you. You're his daughter, and you wouldn't be here if it weren't for him," Rumble explained, letting out an angry sigh at the end of his last sentence.
She sighed herself and returned the sentimental and frustrated hug that was thrown at her. Just being pressed up against Rumble as her hooves wrapped around him made her wounded heart jump-- but she ignored it and sat there, hugging her best friend she had struggled to gain back. 
"Thanks, Rumble," she muttered sharply, sniffling and wiping away a tear. 
Two ponies appeared in the doorway: her sister and mother. They broke the hug when they noticed the ponies, which took a longer time than it should have. They had been hugging for so long in silence that they didn't even hear them approaching through the involvement they had in each other. So it was quite embarrassing when they finally did notice the two ponies watching them in complete awkward silence. This had been going on for a while. Great.
"Hi Muffin," her mom told her, giving a warm smile that did nothing to improve Dinky's mood. "Amy and I were looking through the box, and-"
"I don't want to hear about it," Dinky growled sharply, not interested in having her heart broken anymore.
"...And we found something I think you should keep," her mother continued. 
Dinky scowled and poked at the ground with her hoof. "I don't want anything."
Amethyst Star's magic brought over a silver chain necklace with a heart attached to it. There was a small jagged ledge on the right-hand side of the heart, and when tugged, it would reveal the opening: which contained a blurry picture.
"What's this supposed to be?" Dinky muttered gloomily, squinting to try and make out the picture exactly. 
Two ponies stood together in what appeared to be a lit, decorated living room. One of the ponies was wearing a red hat with a fluffy white rim and a ball of the same material hanging loosely to one side. The other wore a red-and-green striped scarf. The more and more Dinky stared at it, the more she realized they looked like her parents, only foals. They both smiled at each other in the hug that they were involved in.
"Is this you and Dad?" she rasped, her voice strained and hoarse from all the crying.
Her mother nodded and smiled. "He gave it to me as a Hearth's Warming Eve present when we were about your age. It's too small for me or Amy to wear now, but it should fit you." 
"You knew Dad when you were a teenager?"
"Sure, he was my best friend as a foal," her mom explained, smiling back as she reflected on her golden childhood memories. She made a motion with her hoof that connected a line in between Rumble and Dinky. "Kinda like how you two are."
Dinky couldn't help the fact of her face going red. There was, as she liked to think, no romantic future between them whatsoever. If her mother was implying there was one, then she was wrong. Instead she looked away from him and muttered agreement.
"Anyway, I think you should keep it," her mom told her, and Amethyst nodded as if to agree. "You know, so he'll always be in your heart."
Dinky flung her arms around her mother and tried to strain the painful tears that were making a waterfall down her face. She made some weird noise as a result of attempting to swallow her sorrows. "Thank you!" Just the sight of a photo of her biological father made her sad, however, it was special to her. Being able to have something that was a part of him, it made her feel as if he was there with her wherever she went. Like he was still a burning light there to guide her and that he would always be in her heart, like her mother had said. 
She felt more hooves wrap around her. She opened her golden eyes, dampened with meaningful crystalized tears, to smile and approve of her best friend, mother and sister all around her, showering her with compassion and affection.
"Thank you all," she whispered in a voice reflecting on bittersweet memories that never happened to her. "It means a lot to me."
After they broke the warm hug, her mother went behind Dinky to put the necklace on over her neck. It was rather small, but that didn't matter, not to Dinky, as she didn't care if it were a million times smaller. She had something to remember her father by and to keep with her at all times. 
Holding the necklace in her hoof, she smiled down with tears blurring her vision. Just faintly she could see the warm glow of her parents' faces beaming back at her through the watery cloak that captured her vision. 
"Don't cry, sis," Amethyst told her, wiping away a straying tear from Dinky's reddened face. "He's a part of you. He always will be."
"I know," Dinky sniffed, trying to hold back the rest of her emotional outbursts of tears and a broken heart, yet at the same time beneath all the hurt she suffered from she could see a warm ray of sunlight that brought happiness to her crestfallen, shadowy heart.
"Come on, Dinky," Rumble said, and the unicorn felt another smile creak its way up her face as his wing unfolded and spread itself over her shoulders. She relished in the soft feathery touch of her friend's comforting sign of affection. "Your mom got us tickets to the carnival!"
	She giggled softly and wiped a last runt of a tear out of her eye. Her crying had stopped. No more sorrowful tears would make their way down her face anymore.

Squeals of laughter cut through the air as they were pulled higher and higher into the atmosphere of the blossoming sunset. Eyes were wet with tears again, but not from depression this time. No, these were genuine tears of joy and laughter.
"Stop! Haha-- Rumble, I said-- haha, stop!" Dinky pushed her offender off of her, though a strong arm was draped over her shoulders, holding her in a grasp while her stomach was being gently assaulted with feathers.
"Stop-- tickling me-- haha-- Rumble, stop!" She burst out, growling and trying to squirm out of his reach to no avail. She sighed through a giggle and finally gave up. "Okay, okay! You win."
Rumble laughed as well and released her from his playful restraint. He had a proud smirk on his face that signified victory. She rolled her eyes and made a simple "hmmph" noise as she straightened her hair, though she was stupidly grinning every time he looked up at her. Both ponies' faces were two shades of a strawberry, Dinky's most likely from the result of being tickled half to death by Rumble's light feathery instruments of torture.
She tried her best to pretend she wasn't amused as the ferris wheel seat creaked up and up into the open sky. A cool breeze ruffled her thin fur, making her shiver with the desire of having a blanket or something warm to wrap around herself. The sun was going down, which meant cold weather till it returned and graced all of Ponyville with its warm presence again.
"You cold?" Rumble gazed affectionately down at her, making blood rush to her face and she immediately snapped her neck away from him.
"Nah," Dinky lied, not wanting to let him think she was weak. She also secretly didn't want him to see the only warm part of her body-- her face, that was about as red as a tomato. Yet again tiring thoughts flowed through her mind. Get it together, Dinky, you stupid featherbrain! You're tougher than that! Don't let him know you're weak! And stop blushing! There's no reason for you to--
Her thoughts burst into thin air when she felt another feathery touch, this time snaking its way across her shoulders. Despite her blushing, the pony whipped her head around, revealing a cherry-red face of anger. "Hey! I said no more tickling, do you hear me?"
"Whoa, calm down, feisty. I'm not tickling you. I'm putting my wing around you." He held up his arms in mock surrender and raised an eyebrow while smirking at the sight of her blushing.
"Why?" Dinky was becoming flustered now, not happy with the fact that he could somehow leak into her system, making her develop weird girly feelings about him that she had felt for Pipsqueak.
"Because you're cold, stupid," Rumble growled playfully, the ends of his wing making their way to her hips only to pull her closer to him. 
She could say she enjoyed the light and soft touch of his feathers against her, and they did keep her rather warm-- well, warmish-- and she let out a frustrated sigh that released most of her withheld emotions. 
Allowing herself to take deep breaths, the unicorn heavily sighed again before resting her head on his shoulder when their cart began moving again, dragging them forward and revealing a lit carnival beneath them bustling with ponies running back and forth, foals carrying cotton candy and parents screaming after their straying children to come back. 
She found herself keeping the moment of their strange and romantic embrace dear to her. It felt good to have a friend, whether there was a future between them or not, to literally lean on. His soft fur brushed against hers, his feathers spread over her keeping her closely pressed to his side, and for once in a long while Dinky actually felt relaxed when his head nuzzled into her golden mane.
They sat in silence for awhile-- not awkward silence, but a calm and comforting kind of silence, as the cart screeched to a halt in the crisp air, allowing them to look down upon the joyous and sunset-adorned carnival, the ponies on its ground looking like colorful ants to them. Enjoying the view of the sunset peeking through the blackening trees, Dinky's heart fluttered as he spoke her name so delicately.
"Dinky." 
"Hm?" 
"Look at the sunset."
"It's pretty," she yawned, acknowledging his sudden movement of his wing's strength dragging her across the seat closer to him by pushing her face back into his furry shoulder, "isn't it?"
"Mmhm," he sounded equally drowsy, nuzzling into her cuddly grasp on him.
They turned to face each other over time, each of their necks bent at an acute angle so they could see each other's faces, featured by the sunset's glowing effect. Blush spread over both of their faces as they realized the gap between them was slowly but surely being filled.
What am I doing? She scolded herself for leaning closer to him without even thinking about it. Are we gonna kiss? 
But when his violet glance caught hers, her nagging questions melted away along with her heart. Right now, nothing mattered except the beat of her heart, which was growing in speed. No questions ensnared her mind right then anymore. The only thing she could think about was how gorgeous-- err, endearing he was.
Now their faces were centimeters away. Nothing was separating them. Nothing but the the imaginary line that would connect their lips. Only one question remained for the unicorn mare. Should I do it? Should I kiss my best friend? ...You know what? Screw everything. Why the hay not? 
And with that, a pair of advancing pale gray lips brushed her own so lightly that she wasn't even she if they had or not. She wanted to kiss him. She wanted to lean into the kiss and share a passionate moment of love for once. But for some reason her shyness got the best of her and she froze up, her lips still brushing his barely. 
Come on, Dinky! You're so close! Kiss him, for Celestia's sake!
And then a sharp shout broke the moment. 
"Hey, lovebirds! Are you gonna kiss or what?!"
A surprising amount of embarrassment struck Dinky as she instantly backed off, ditching their almost-kiss and snapping her neck back to see an angry-looking Amethyst Star sitting next to her mother in the cart behind them. She glared back at her sister, not only flustered but upset with her for ruining the moment.
Not that it mattered to her. She wasn't even going to kiss him anyway.
"Heheh, siblings, huh?" She said, turning her attention back to a startled Rumble that seconds ago had almost shared a kiss with her, a thought that made her shiver. She moved her hoof next to her face in a clockwise motion, signalizing her sister's kookiness. "They're crazy... Hahahaha........ sorry." She turned back, sheepishly. 
"Sorry for what?" She felt his wing retreat from the embrace back to his side.
"Sorry for... uh..." Dinky was trying to explain without mentioning their almost-kiss or making it awkward, though it inevitably was already. "You know, uh... the, uh... the thing."
"Oh... yeah, me too."
"It would be weird, y'know, if we were, uh... you know..." She gulped, sweat dripping down her face as she motioned in between the two of them signaling them as a couple.
"Yeah..." Rumble laughed nervously before coughing and turning his head away from her. 
Neither of them said anything after that, and awkwardness ensued as their ride down began. Trying to ignore the creaking noises of the cart and the advancing uncomfortableness of sharing a ride down with him after almost making out with the colt, Dinky found herself studying the clouds that scraped the sunset intensely.  

She swore she could make out a fluffy white cloud pony in the sky smiling down at her, a curly whipped cream mane running down his neck. For the first time in her life, she smiled back at the figure, inanimate as it may be.
I love you, Dad.