Spike woke up that morning feeling a mixture of both excitement and dread. Today was his birthday. On his birthday last year, he ended up letting his greed get the best of him to the point he was taking everything that he could. He hoped that wouldn't happen again this year. Surely this year's birthday would be better.
He went downstairs to see that Twilight Sparkle and her friends had already set up his party for him. All of the decorations looked amazing. He saw a slight glimpse of a cake, but it was mostly being blocked by all of his friends at the moment. They were all very cheerful when they saw him. "Happy birthday, Spike!" they shouted together in unison.
Spike was finally able to get a good glimpse of the cake and saw that it had every kind of gem known to the pony folk inside it. He had tried to make a gem cake for himself once, but he couldn't resist eating the gems long enough to put it inside the mix. Apparently his friends decided to help out by making him one for his birthday. His eyes welled up in appreciation. "Thank you so much guys! This is so amazing!"
They all took turns giving him their gifts. Twilight gave him a book entitled "The Origin of Dragons." Finally a book that Spike was actually willing to read! Pinkie Pie explained that she had helped Mr. and Mrs. Cake make his birthday cake and also put up the decorations for his party, which technically counted as two gifts and totally freed her from having to give him another one. Fluttershy gave him a daisy she had picked out of her garden and quiety explained that she didn't know what else to get him. Applejack gave him an apple pie that she had whipped up to go along with that gem cake of his. Rainbow Dash gave him sunglasses so that he could be twenty percent cooler than other dragons, but told him that only she got to be twenty percent cooler than other ponies so he had better not get a big head about this.
Rarity was the last one to come up to him. She told him that her birthday gift to him would be to go on a date with her that night. Spike blushed furiously at the thought and just nodded. The party that his friends had all helped prepare for him was amazing, but Spike could not wait until he would get to be alone with Rarity, the very special somepony in his life.
