It had been a good peaceful night's sleep for Zodiac since his mother and aunt had convinced him that no matter what anypony said, it wouldn't change what he was to them and that made him just as happy as Pinkie Pie was always, anyway, he was opening his eyes fully to see that he was still wrapped underneath the blanket that Celestia had made for him last night.
"Good morning M-" he was soon cut off to the sudden surprise that she wasn't even in the room at all, so he undid himself from his blanket and started looking around for her.
"Mom, mom, where are you?" he said looking around the entire room, but no luck, so he exited the room and walked all over the corridors of the castle hoping that he would have some slack that she would be in any of the rooms throughout the hallways.
"Mom, are you in here?" he asked looking inside one of the rooms, but no matter where he looked, no matter how far into the castle he reached, Celestia was nowhere to be found.
"Mommy, where are you?!" he screamed with tears forming in his eyes, he was crying so hard he didn't even hear hoofsteps approaching behind him.
"Zodi, what's wrong?" said a familiar voice, Zodiac soon turned and saw Celestia standing there with a worried look on her face, he soon ran up to her and nuzzled her leg.
"Mommy, I couldn't find you." he said, "Where were you?"
"I had to go raise the sun, I'm so sorry, I should've told you." she said, pretty soon he was calmed down.
"It's okay Mom, so what's happening today?" he asked looking up at her now smiling face.
"Well I came up here to get you, because we have company coming over today, so you need to come with me downstairs and eat your breakfast." Celestia answered wrapping Zodiac in her aura and placing him on her back.
"Company, what kind of company?" Zodiac asked.
"You'll see soon enough." Celestia answered as they soon approached the stairs that led down into the lower levels of the castle for that's where the kitchen and eating area would always be located, as soon as they reached the bottom of the stairs, they soon approached the door that led into the kitchen/eating area room. Celestia opened the door with her aura and saw that Luna was there waiting for them with a greeting smile of her own.
"Hi Zodi." Luna said.
"Morning, Aunt Luna." Zodiac said, that's when she opened a hoof.
"Well, are you going to come and give your aunt a big hug?" she asked, caving in, Zodiac reached out to her, Celestia soon released him off her back with her magic and floated him over to her waiting hug.
"And did my Zodi sleep well last night?" she asked still hugging him.
"Yes." he answered.
"That's good to hear, because our chefs are making pretty yummy breakfast items for us this morning."
Zodiac then smelled the scents of everything good coming from the kitchen right next door to them, so he sat down right next to Luna while Celestia sat at the corner right end of the table, and in a matter of minutes, the chef with the cooks came out with about every single kind of breakfast food you could ever think of: omelets, pancakes, French toast, etc.
"Breakfast is served." said the chef who had his cooks place the breakfast items on the table.
"Bone appetite." he said as they walked back into the kitchen, Celestia placed an omelet on her plate while Luna put some scrambled eggs and cinnamon sprinkled toast and butter on hers. Zodiac wanted the pancakes on the center, so he tried to reach them, but they were too far out of his reach, Celestia quickly took notice of this and smiled as she put her utensils own with her aura that she was using to help her eat and then wrapped four pancakes around her magic over to Zodiac's plate.
Once she had set them on his plate, she then poured syrup on them and then cut them to pieces to make it easier for him to eat since they were big, then lastly, she poured milk into a cup for him.
Finally, Zodiac dug in.
"Aunt Luna, Mom said we have company coming over today, who is it?" he asked with mushed pancakes in his mouth, Celestia smirked at hearing this.
"Zodi, don't talk with your mouth full." Luna said.
"Alright sweetie, we're having Twilight Sparkle and her friends coming over to meet you, plus my niece and her husband and kids."
"Twilight Sparkle?"
"Yes, she's my former student who is now the Princess of Friendship."
"Wow, I thought you and Aunt Luna were the only princesses, I didn't know there was another one."
"Actually, Zodi, there's four princesses." Luna interrupted before taking a bite of her toast.
"Whoa." Zodiac said surprised.
"The fourth is our niece, Mi Amore Cadenza, but she goes by Cadance for short, she's the princess of love and married to Twilight's brother who is the captain of the royal guard, Shining Armor. They have three kids, but one is not a pony, but rather a human, and they rule the Crystal Empire up north of here."
"A human, I heard at school yesterday morning about a human in Equestria, but Time Bandit said they were just legends."
"Well, it's very true, there is a human here in Equestria, but he's about your age, and I think you two will get along with ease because he's very nice."
"Really?"
"Yes dear." Celestia said, "now finish your breakfast dear they'll be here any minute."
"Yes, mommy." Zodiac answered resuming to eating the pancakes that Celestia had cut up for him.
As soon as Zodiac was just about to finish though, two guards approached the kitchen door.
"Princess, they all have arrived." one guard said.
"Let them in guards." Luna ordered.
"Yes your majesty." the other guard said bowing.
About not even a second later the sound of the doors outside the dining and kitchen rooms opened up and the sounds of hoofsteps and chatter soon came into full audio, the first pony Zodiac saw was a purple alicorn with a mane and tail that had a pink stripe on both and a cutie mark of a pink spark with six white stars and a white star behind it, he gasped at how she looked.
"Princess Twilight, welcome." Celestia said.
"Thank you, Celestia." she answered back with politeness.
"Come on in everypony." she said, pretty soon there was a multitude of five other new faces and colors of ponies Zodiac had never met throughout his first five years of his life, the first was a cyan blue Pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail and a cutie mark of a rainbow lightning bolt shooting out of a cloud.
The second was an orange earth pony with a blonde mane and tail that were both pulled back, wore a brown Stetson cowboy hat and ahad a cutie mark of three apples.
Third was a white unicorn with a swirled dark blue mane and tail, had sky blue mascara surrounding her eyes and had a cutie mark of three diamonds.
Fourth was a pink earth pony with a puffy mane and tail and had a cutie mark of three balloons.
And lastly was a yellow Pegasus with a long pink curly mane and tail with a cutie mark of three pink butterflies, and they were all showing greeting smiles as they were welcomed by Celestia and Luna, as well as a purple dragon named Spike.
"It sure is a good morning to come here to Canterlot and join you all for breakfast." said Twilight.
"Yeah, it sure looks like you've made enough for all of us." said Fluttershy.
"Well everypony sit down and dig in." Luna said, that's when she felt Zodiac wrap himself around her, Luna could tell he was a bit nervous about meeting ponies he had never met before.
"Aunt Luna, I'm scared." he said, Luna smiled at him and petted his mane with one hoof while rubbing his back.
"It's okay Zodi, they won't do anything to you." she said, but right on cue, as Twilight took a bit out of an omelet she had gotten off a platter, she quickly took notice of Zodiac trying to hide his face from them.
"Say, Luna, is that your nephew and Celestia's son we've been hearing about?" she asked as she walked up slowly towards them.
"Yeah," said Applejack as she too approached cautiously to him, this made Zodiac bury himself even deeper into Luna's chest. "We did hear about you two adopting for the past five years, but I'd never thought we'd meet him."
Knowing that Zodiac was becoming more nervous about these new ponies, Luna looked at them with a frown, "Yes he is, and I suggest you all step back, I really don't want you all scaring him, he's a bit shy."
Applejack did what she said and went back, but Twilight was not so sure, so she stayed to try and reason with Zodiac.
"Hey, what's your name?" she asked, Zodiac looked at her with a small portion of his face and saw she was smiling at him. Slowly, but shyly, he unburied himself and fully showed himself to her and the rest of the gang.
"uh...um..well...." Zodiac stuttered, but Twilight gently stroked him with her hoof.
"It's okay sweetie, don't be shy." she said sweetly.
"M-My name's Z-Zodiac." he stuttered, Twilight giggled.
"It's nice to meet you Zodiac." she said sweetly with a smile, Zodiac quickly perked up and gave a small smile of his own.
"Well, you can just call me Zodi, because that's what I like to go by." he said.
"Well, Zodi, my name is Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship." Twilight said, Zodiac was actually starting to take a bit of a liking to her affections towards him.
"Twilight, um, can I ask you something?" he asked softly.
"Sure." Twilight answered.
"Can I um..Can I...hug you?"
Twilight giggled, "Of course you can." she said opening a forehoof, Zodiac fully smiled, let go of his grasp from Luna and went over to Twilight and hugged her, Celestia and Luna smiled at this.
"I knew we'd meet soon, let alone get along." Twilight said picking him up and holding him.
"Yeah, I figured we'd get to meet you little buddy." Rainbow Dash said biting into her breakfast.
"Who are you all?" Zodiac asked.
"Well sugarcube ah'm Applejack."
"My name's Rarity."
"Rainbow Dash, best flyer in Equestria."
"I'm Fluttershy."
And right in front of Zodiac's face popped..."Pinkie Pie, BEST PARTY PLANNER!!!!!!!!!!!" she screamed causing Zodiac to bury his face in Twilight's chest, Twilight stared at Pinkie with an angered look.
"Pinkie, don't do that!" Twilight scolded.
"Precisely Pinkie Pie, you really need to control your greetings." Celestia said.
"Sorry, I didn't realize." Pinkie Pie said disappointed over her little hyper greeting.
"I..It's okay Pinkie, it's sure is a pleasure to meet you all." Zodiac said now smiling fully as he kept his grasp on Twilight.