It was times like this that made Doctor Hooves happy that Dinky wasn't a pegasus, because if she was, she would be climbing on the walls and ceilings in her excitement.

As it was, the filly was bouncing around the waiting room, repeating one question over and over again.

"Is the baby here yet?" she asked her "sister" and her father once again.

Sparkler sighed. While she did love her little cousin…sister (she always had a hard time remembering that Dinky was now legally her sister, even though it had been over a year since her aunt and uncle had adopted her), she had to admit the filly could be annoying on occasion.

This was one of those occasions, due to Dinky's almost constant questioning and the fact that a few of the other ponies in the room kept glaring at her and Doctor Hooves, silently demanding that they control Dinky.

"Dinky, calm down" Doctor Hooves said, placing one of his hooves on his daughter's shoulder.

The young unicorn filly blushed slightly and apologized.

"Sorry, Daddy. I'm just so excited" she told her father, who smiled a bit and ruffled the blonde hair on her head.

"I know you are. We all are" he said, glancing at Sparkler for a moment as though to confirm that he was including her in the statement. "But we're just going to have to wait".

The pale-purple unicorn sighed. She was clearly not pleased with the fact that her father didn't know when the new baby was going to come. Thankfully, the filly seemed to have called down exponentially. Rather than jump around the room, she seemed to be more or less entertained by a "find-the-picture" puzzle in one of the foals' magazines available in the hospital waiting room.

She even got the little colt from Trottingham to help her.

Once the two of them finished the puzzle, they began to chat in order to pass the time. Mostly, they just asked questions about each other, namely why they were at the hospital.

Dinky told Pipsqueak that she, Sparkler, and her daddy were waiting for her new little brother or sister to be born.

"What about you?" she asked the colt with the pinto coat.

Pipsqueak beamed.

"Me, Mummy, and Daddy are picking up my baby brother" he told Dinky, pointing at a mare and stallion with a similar coat pattern to his own as he mentioned his parents.

Dinky looked confused.

"But…if you're getting a baby brother, how are your Mama and Daddy both out here?" she questioned.

Pipsqueak mirrored her confused expression and asked what she was talking about.

"Well, my Mama had to go with one of the doctors to get my little brother or sister out of her belly" the filly explained. "So doesn't your Mama need to go and get your brother out of her belly?"

The earth pony colt shook his head and smiled again.

"My brother's birth Mummy can't take care of him, so we're going to take him home and make him a part of our family" he told his best friend with a grin.

Dinky also smiled, happy because her friend was so happy.

The filly and colt continued to talk, the subject going back and forth between different subjects.

And while Dinky conversed with Pipsqueak, Doctor Hooves and Sparkler talked with Pipsqueak's parents, Small Fry and Munchkin. Mostly, they talked about the little brother Pipsqueak was expecting, namely how Small Fry and Munchkin had come to the idea of adoption. After all, they were both still young enough to have a foal of their own.

Small Fry walked away from the two foals, motioning for the other earth pony stallion and the unicorn mare to come over to him once he decided he was far enough away from them. His wife watched Dinky and Pipsqueak while Sparkler and Doctor Hooves went to speak with Small Fry.

"I'm adopted" Small Fry told the unicorn and the stallion, his voice lowered to almost a whisper.

The other ponies waited in silence for a few moments. Finally, Sparkler broke the silence.

"Yeah, and?" she prompted, causing Small Fry to respond with confusion.

"Is that all you wanted to tell us? That's not much of a secret" Sparkler told the pinto stallion, who flushed with embarrassment.

Doctor Hooves gave his niece/adopted daughter a glare, silently reproaching her for her tactless remark. However, before he could actually say anything, the doors to the waiting room opened and he heard someone call his name.

The nurse ushered Doctor Hooves over and told him that Ditzy had just delivered a healthy unicorn filly.

Dinky, of course, heard this and squealed in delight over the fact that she now had a little sister.

"I'm going to assume either you or your wife has a relative who is a unicorn?" the nurse asked almost apprehensively, as though she was worried that she was about to ruin a marriage.

Thankfully, Doctor Hooves just nodded and told her that Ditzy's grandmother had been a unicorn.

"Well, apparently her genes are going strong for you to have two unicorn foals" the nurse said with a chuckle before inviting Doctor Hooves and Sparkler to see Ditzy and the new filly. Dinky went to follow them as they went through the double doors, but was stopped by the nurse.

"I'm sorry, dear, but you can't come in. Because babies can get sick very easily, we don't allow young fillies and colts into the room" the nurse explained kindly.

Tears began to form in the pale-purple unicorn's golden eyes.

"But…I wanna see my new sister. I won't get her sick, I promise" she pleaded with the nurse with the candy-cane colored mane.

The nurse apologized, but told Dinky that she couldn't break the rules and let her into the room to see her new sister. Her eyes seemed to brighten for a moment and Dinky felt her heart lift; maybe the nurse was going to change her mind and let Dinky see the new baby. However, the nurse turned her attention to Pipsqueak's parents, making the little unicorn realize that she wasn't going to get her wish.

"Do the two of you want to meet your new son?" the nurse asked Small Fry and Munchkin.

The mare nodded and passed through the double doors. Small Fry, however, declined.

"I'll just wait until they put the foals in the nursery" he said, looking at both his son and Dinky. "Then we can look at them together."

Both foals grinned, happy at the idea. The nurse simply nodded and followed Munchkin through the double doors, obviously going back to work.

For nearly three hours, Small Fry did whatever he could think of to entertain Pipsqueak and Dinky. He played cards with them, using a pack of cards he had brought from home; he gave them paper and crayons to draw with; he found books for them to read. And while they seemed to be enjoying themselves, Small Fry knew that they were getting anxious to see the new babies.

Thankfully, just when it seemed like the foals were going to start complaining about not being able to see their new siblings, the nurse from earlier came through the door and asked them if they would like to see the newborn foals.

Of course, both Dinky and Pipsqueak were quick to say they wanted to see the babies and they ran through the door, pausing only when they realized they didn't know where the nursery was.

Small Fry led the two of them to the large window that allowed them to look into the room full of newborn babies, lifting them up so they could see.

Almost immediately, Dinky exclaimed, "That's her! That's my little sister!"

And it was hard to imagine that she could be wrong. The newborn unicorn had the same mane and coat color as Ditzy had, and the same eye color as Doctor Hooves, so it made sense that she would be their daughter and thus, Dinky's sister.

"Where's Squirt, Daddy?" Pipsqueak asked his father, who scanned the room for a few moments.

"I think that's him" he said, pointing to a light blue colt with a dark blue mane, who was currently asleep. The foal he was pointing at yawned and opened his eyes, revealing dark brown eyes.

Pipsqueak pointed out that Squirt (his brother) and Dinky's sister had cradles that her next to each other. He told her that it probably meant that the two of them would be best friends just like him and Dinky.

The filly giggled and was about to respond when the nurse came up to her and cleared her throat to get Dinky's attention. Dinky frowned, sure that she was going to be told that she had to go outside to the waiting room again.

However, the nurse only smiled gently and told Dinky to follow her; her mother wanted to see her "muffin".

The blonde smiled and followed the nurse into the room where her mother, father, and Sparkler were waiting. Her mother looked really tired, but happy, and Dinky was quick to run over and wrap her forelegs around her neck.

"Hi, Muffin" Ditzy said, using her special nickname for her daughter. "You saw Tick-Tock?"

The little unicorn looked confused, wondering who Tick-Tock was. Her mother had said it the same way she said "Muffin" when talking to Dinky, so it was a nickname.

"Who is that?" she asked her mother, who said that it was what she was going to call the new baby.

"You're going to be a good big sister, right? Muffin?" Ditzy asked Dinky.

The pale purple unicorn looked into her mother's eyes (she had never been bothered by the fact that her mother's eyes pointed in different directions, or the fact that she was usually cross-eyed) and nodded once.

"I'll be the bestest big sister ever" she told her mother, who hugged her tight.

(A/N: Tick-Tock's real name is Clockwork, since she's been sleeping and kicking like she was on a strict schedule since before she was born)