Tale of Two Bronies

Tale of Two Bronies
A 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic' Self-Insert Fanfiction
by milesprower06 and FenixTheFox93

Chapter 5
A Birthday To Remember

SUGARCUBE CORNER
THAT AFTERNOON

“Rainbow's birthday is tomorrow? Talk about perfect timing for our visit here.” I said, as we began to clean up from the hours of pizza making. “We've been planning it for months. I have to get started on a super-colorful rainbow cake I found a recipe for! It's perfect!” Pinkie announced, getting out an entire new set of mixing bowls and spoons. Even after everything we had done today, Pinkie seemed as ready to go as ever. Where all that energy came from, we couldn't fathom.

“Gee, I wish I had a gift to give her. I can't find anything on this short notice.” I mused. “Oh don't be silly! You can make her a pizza for tomorrow's party!” Pinkie immediately rebutted.

“Well, given the time, I'd prefer something a little more...thought out. More meaningful.” I said, blushing just slightly. “Jake and Rainbow sitting in a tree...” Brady began.

My blushing increased threefold. Ah, the joys of payback. I shot him a glance, and he snickered.

“Well, you've got a few hours of the afternoon and evening left. Go enjoy yourselves, you two.”

I grabbed one of the many various shaped boxes on one of the kitchen shelves, and put the last remaining half of a cheese, grass, and hay pizza into it. I put it onto my back and headed out of the bakery, with Brady on my hooves.

“Where are you headed?” he asked, when we were out in Ponyville's town square. “I'm up to give Rainbow some pizza.” I answered. “So you're going to completely ignore Pinkie's suggestion?” he asked with a chuckle. I just shrugged. “Come on, let's go give some to Fluttershy. I didn't see her at all today. She was probably much to busy with her animals to wait in line.” Brady suggested.

Relinquishing to his idea, I remained on the ground, following Brady to the edge of Ponyville, where Fluttershy's tree home and animal habitat. Once again coming up the front walk, he gave the door a gentle knock, and moments later, Fluttershy answered the door.

“Oh, um, good evening you two. What brings you here?” she asked. “We baked a new dish today, and we thought you'd like to try some.” Brady offered. “That'd be nice. Come in, come in” the animal caretaker replied, ushering us in. The interior of the tree cabin had a very cozy and welcoming atmosphere. Bird cages hung by the kitchen doorway, and the occasional critter scampered by, and we assumed that most of them would be out back in the habitat she had set up. I walked up to the table outside the kitchen, and gave the box on my back a soft bump up to the table, opened it up, and peeked inside.

“It certainly looks, different.” Fluttershy commented, picking up a slice. “Ponyville went nuts for it. We must have made dozens of pizzas. That's what they're called.” I explained. Fluttershy gave the warm slice a light sniff, then tried a small bite.

“I can certainly see why they did. This is delicious!” Fluttershy gleefully claimed. Another satisfied customer. Brady and I each grabbed a slice and chowed down, having made ourselves quite hungry from the insanity today.

“So what are you gonna put on Rainbow's 'birthday pizza', hmm?” Brady asked. This question prompted a pause in my dinner. I had no idea. Even with Rainbow as my favorite pony, I had no idea what her favorite foods were. In fact, in the show, most of the time she was shown eating apples.

“You're making one of these for Rainbow's birthday tomorrow?” Fluttershy asked. I nodded in return. “I had no idea her birthday was tomorrow, so it's the only thing I can think of on such short notice.” I told her. “Actually, I might have something. Hold on.” Fluttershy said, and with that, she trotted upstairs, and returned a few moments later with a plain white unsealed envelope, and gave it to me.

“What's this?” I said, flipping the top flap open, and took out the contents. Two blue and gold patterned tickets emerged in my hooves. Each said:

The Wonderbolts Cloudsdale Airshow Spectacular
Admit One

My eyes widened.

“Where did you get these?” I said, astonished.

“I went up to Cloudsdale the first morning these tickets went on sale. Rainbow can't make it to a lot of the Wonderbolt events because she has to work. But I've arranged for a few Pegasus to cover for her next week, so we can go. Or rather, so you two can go. This was gonna be my birthday present to her, but it'd mean more coming from you, I think.”

“Fluttershy, I can't accept this. You should give this to her.” I argued, putting them back in the envelope. “No no, I insist. She told me how much she enjoyed flying with you yesterday. I've never been much of a flier, so if you give them to her, two people can go enjoy the show instead of just one. Besides, I'm already great friends with Rainbow. Coming from you, this would do wonders to build your new friendship.” I stared at the envelope again. “Are you sure?” I asked her again. She immediately nodded. “Absolutely. You two should go enjoy it.” she answered. “Well, if you insist, Fluttershy. Thank you.”

The Element of Kindness if I ever saw her. After we each had a couple slices of pizza, she took us out back and gave the two of us the grand tour of her animal habitat. She had all manner of creatures, and somehow, they all got along. It might as well have been a zoo in a back yard. Afterward, we thanked her for showing us around, and were on our way. Back on the outskirts of Ponyville, the sun was beginning to dip below the horizon.

“So where are you off to?” I asked Brady, as he turned to go towards the west side of town. “Back to Sweet Apple Acres. I'm gonna try and get some more work done on that bookshelf. It's not gonna finish itself. What about you?”

I honestly didn't know where I was going. I couldn't go and spend the night on Dash's couch again; with my luck she'd find out about the tickets early, and spoil the whole surprise. After a few minutes of walking back towards the town square, I figured a night in the library would be best. Heading in that direction, I came quietly through the front door. Night had fallen, and Twilight and Spike were already sound asleep. I quietly trotted up the stairs, and flopped down on the guest bed, exhausted from the cooking marathon we did today. Brady would just have to come shove me off the bed when he was good and ready.

SWEET APPLE ACRES
THE NEXT MORNING

Applejack got up and made her rounds around the house, like she did every morning. Once everyone was in the process of getting up, she went outside to the barn to tend to the animals. There, she was greeted with an unexpected, and most amusing sight.

Brady stood at the table on the right side of the barn, chin resting on the edge, fully asleep. Nails and a hammer surrounded a finished but unpainted bookshelf. The cows in the barn mooed as Applejack gave out a chuckle and approached the sleeping unicorn.

“Rise n' shine there, Brady. Trying to pull a late-nighter, are ya?” she said, tapping him on the back. With a snort, his snoring stopped and his eyes fluttered open. Looking around, he realized where he had fallen asleep.

“Huh? Oh, sorry Applejack. Uh, yeah, I wanted to try and get this bookshelf for Twilight finished. Guess I fell asleep on the job.” Brady said. “Well, ah'd be lyin' to ya if I said that ain't never happened to me. Why last year, during the Applebuck Season-”

“Big Macintosh had hurt himself, and you had to try to buck the entire orchard yourself, and for awhile, you didn't accept help from anypony.” Brady finished. “Saw that too, did ya? Just how much of us have ya seen?” Applejack asked. “Twenty-two minutes every Saturday.” Brady announced proudly. “Heh, so every Saturday, you and Jake just huddle around that...that magic box of yours and watch us?” the cowpony inquired. “Yep. And a whole lot of others too, believe me.”

“Well, come on inside and get some breakfast. Then we're headed into town to get the pavilion decorated for Rainbow's party.”

PONYVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY

When I woke up the next morning, I was rather surprised to find myself still in the guest bed. More than that, Brady was nowhere to be seen.

“Hey, sleeping beauty, wake up. Where's Brady?” I heard Twilight ask, as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes. I shrugged. “Last night he said he was going to Sweet Apple Acres to work on that bookshelf he was making you.” I answered. Twilight nodded. “Then we just have to assume he's still there. AJ'll bring him along when she shows up to help with the decorating. Come on! Let's get some breakfast and get going!” Twilight ushered. I grabbed the envelope containing the airshow tickets, and followed her down the stairs. Spike was already up and had gathered some party supplies in a cart. No doubt Pinkie had the majority of them. The three of us went to Pony Joe's for a quick breakfast, and then made our way to the pavilion.

Upon entering, indeed, we had been beaten. Pinkie and Rarity were already in the process of decorating the walls and ceiling with rainbow banners. There was multicolored confetti cannons in the corners, ready to go off, probably at Pinkie's insistence.

“Good morning sleepyheads! Ready to get started?” Pinkie asked excitedly. A few moments after that, Appejack and Brady came in. Applejack was towing a cart with a large wooden bucket, no doubt for apple bobbing. “Fluttershy should be along shortly.” Twilight informed us. AJ brought in the cart through the door, and with Brady's help, got it set down in the proper area, and then went to go get the hose to fill it.

“So what can I do to help?” I asked. Pinkie zoomed up to me and put her front leg around me. “Jakie-wakie, you have the most important job!” she exclaimed. “Uh, I do?” I asked, a tad nervous. “Yep! YOU get to go wake Rainbow up, and keep her distracted for about an hour while we finish the decorations. Yep, should be about an hour, and then Mr. and Mrs. Cake should have finished decorating the birthday cake and have it here.” she said. I smiled, and gave a hoof-salute. “I'm on it.” I replied, much akin to Rainbow's own acknowledgment. On my way out, I slipped the envelope to Twilight, and asked her to hang on to it for me, that it was Rainbow's present. She happily agreed, and then I was off.

I exited the pavilion, and made my way to the west side of Ponyville where Rainbow's cloud mansion hung low over the town. I flew up to the front door, and quietly made my way inside. I silently flew up to Rainbow's bedroom, where the owner was snoring away.

In hindsight, I was wondering why Pinkie wanted me to distract Rainbow for an hour or so. Right then, it didn't really look like she needed distracting. She'd probably just sleep in right up until her party. But I was going to do as I was told, so decided to have a little fun. Here I was, silently hovering beside her. I quietly landed on the cloud floor, and stretched out my left wing so the tip was just barely touching her nose, and I gave it a wiggle. Unfortunately, for my well-being, my brain didn't set off an alarm that would give me any kind of hint that it wouldn't be the best of ideas to prank a sleeping Rainbow Dash.

After a quick snort, her knee-jerk reaction was to quickly spring up, whip around, and give me a solid buck to the side, sending me flying across the room into one of the cloud pillars in the corner. When she was fully awake, and aware of what she did, she flew over to me.

“Oh jeez, sorry Jake. I thought somepony was tickling me. Must've been in my sleep.” she mistakenly apologized. I slipped down to the floor, where I was confident birds were now chirping and flying in a halo above my head. My shape was now indented onto the pillar I had been knocked into. Rainbow gave it a few light taps, and like foam, it popped right back out to it's original shape.

“So, what will you be doing to distract me this morning?” she playfully asked. Astonished at how she saw right through me, I just simply stared. “Um....”

Rainbow just laughed. “Don't sweat it Jake. They do this every year. Pinkie usually sends Fluttershy up to chat me out for an hour before taking me down to the pavilion. I'm not as gullible as Pinkie. But don't worry,” she began, doing a flying back flip, landing back on her bed. “I'll act real surprised.” she finished with a wink and a grin. I had a feeling the next few hours were going to be torture. Not because of trying to keep ourselves busy, but because I couldn't wait to see Dash's reaction to the present Fluttershy had given me to give to her.

“And...well, I suppose I should apologize to you for my little stunt yesterday. When I first started out flying, I wanted to move just as fast as you did. So sorry if I made you sick yesterday.” she said. “It's alright, don't worry about it. So, it's your birthday, so how do you want to kill the time?” I asked. “Well, I've enjoyed showing you the ropes of flying, so I guess I can show you some basic maneuvers.”

With that, Rainbow and I went out to the lake outside Ponyville where she had first taught me to use my wings, and then, tried to figure out the best way of showing me somersaults and barrel rolls.

“Um, by pressing Z twice?” I asked. All I got was a clueless “Huh?” in return. “Never mind.” I said, reminding myself to keep the human jokes and memes to myself. “So anyways, it's just a matter of tilting your wings in the direction you want to roll while still flapping them.” she told me. By those instructions, I was fairly certain I was going to end up with my head in the clouds the first few tries, and sure enough, that's what happened. She was able to stomach her giggles until the third time. She immediately apologized, and said I was coming along great.

“When you get to the top of your loop, don't let that disorient you. Realize that you're halfway there, and keep going.” she instructed. With that advice, I did it again, and successfully completed my first loop. It was a bit of a rush, the second half of it. “Awesome! You did it!” Rainbow congratulated me. I was on my way to being an aerial acrobat in no time.

Sooner than I was expecting, I heard the unmistakable voice of everypony's favorite party pony.

“Wwwwhere's the birthday pony?” she asked. Rainbow and I popped our heads out above the clouds to look down at the ground. “There you are! We've got a surprise for you at town hall, Rainbow Dash!” she announced, and raced off. Rainbow turned to me, and with a wink, spread her wings. “Race ya there.” she said, and took off like a bullet. I followed suit, but wasn't nearly as fast. She had managed to actually wait for me at the door of town hall, and waited for me to land before opening the doors.

“SURPRISE!” the six ponies in the hall yelled in unison. Then there was a bang, and confetti and streamers began showering the room. “Wow, I had no idea!” Rainbow said, with a very convincing surprised smile. At the center of the room, there was a rather impressive, six-layer, rainbow-colored cake. Next to the cake, was a table with a small handful of presents. There weren't a lot; the mane six took Pinkie's philosophy to heart; birthdays were for having fun with friends. And it seemed that one of Pinkie's parties was a present enough for anypony. My envelope sat on top of the few gifts there. Twilight had taken the liberty of writing 'From: Jake' on it.

With Pinkie racing over to the record player to start the party music, the festivities began. Immediately after starting the music, she began a conga line, Brady and Twilight began slicing up the cake, and Rainbow challenged me to apple bobbing. Of course, having bobbed for apples only once in my life, she was easily able to beat me. After games and dancing, everypony had cake and rainbow sherbet ice cream. And then, of course, came the presents.

At this point it was late afternoon, and there were only three presents, mine included. Rainbow was promptly told that it would be saved for last. First up, was a medium-sized box from Rarity. Dash tore through the gift wrap and opened the box top.

“Aw, awesome! It's just how I thought it'd be!” Rainbow exclaimed, removing her Winter Wrap Up Weather Team sweater. The navy blue garment had undergone a redesign at the Carousel Boutique, and Rainbow was undoubtedly happy with the result.

Next up was a slightly smaller box, and had a tag on it that noted it was from Twilight. Likewise tearing through the wrapping, Rainbow came up with a book. “Sweet! Thanks Twi!” she thanked her unicorn friend. She held up the book so we could all see the cover.

History of the Wonderbolts
With a Preface By Spitfire

I immediately knew she was going to enjoy reading that. Lastly, there was my envelope, courtesy of Fluttershy. “What did you manage to get me on such short notice?” she asked. “Well, I admit, somepony else gave this to me to give to you. They thought you'd enjoy it more with me. So, happy birthday!” I said, handing her the envelope. She opened the envelope, turned it upside down, and the two tickets fluttered down to her waiting hoof. Her eyes widened, and an open mouth smile, a mix of shock and joy, slowly showed itself on her face. “Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!”

The next thing I knew, I was on the floor, a victim of a Rainbow Dash glomp. “VIP tickets to the airshow next week??? How did you get these?! Who gave these to you???” she asked happily. “It's a present. You're not supposed to know.” I laughed, groaning from her tacklehug. “Oh, this is gonna be SO AWESOME! We'll have the time of our lives next week, just you wait! Oh thank you thank you thank you!!!” she exclaimed happily, squeezing me again. “No problem!” I managed to say, short of breath. After another minute, Rainbow managed to calm down, we all had a good laugh at her level of excitement, and then we finished off the rest of the cake before getting everything cleaned up. Once that was done, we all wished Rainbow a happy birthday one last time, and we went our separate ways. She zoomed off to her house to put her presents away, and when I was halfway back there, she returned, empty-hooved.

“Hey Jake. Have ya got a bit?” she asked, flying above me. “Sure, why not?” I asked in return. “Cool, follow me.” she said, and made for the clouds. Stretching my wings out, I took flight, and followed her into the sky. As the sun began it's final approach to the horizon, Cloudsdale quickly came into view. Groups of Pegasi flew here and there, and still, Rainbow ascended. She finally came to a stop at one of the top most clouds above the Cloudiseum, and sat towards the setting sun. I came down next to her, sitting on the cloud to her left.

“I used to come up here all the time as a kid. This is the best sunset view you'll find in Equestria.” she told me, as we looked on to the dusk. Dash was never one for being sentimental. “So, you're not gonna fess up who gave you those tickets?” she asked me. I smiled at her. “Does it matter?” I asked in return. “I guess not,” she began with a giggle. “Whoever did saw right through me. I've really enjoyed becoming friends with you. I know we're gonna have a great time next week at the airshow.”

I sat there, watching as Celestia slowly brought the sun below the horizon, the beams of light splitting the clouds, and giving the Equestrian skies a brilliant orange hue.

“Have you ever seen anything more beautiful?” she asked me. I looked over to her, and and her spectrum mane almost glowing in the setting sun. Her magenta eyes dazzling in the dusk. “Yeah. Yeah I have.” I said. Her sentimental face turned to one of annoyance. “Oh yeah, and where have you seen something that stunning?” she said, looking over to me, and then she must have seen the way I was looking at her, because her expression changed again to surprised as her eyes met mine.

“You.” I said, plainly and honestly, and I knew I wouldn't be able to hide the blush now on my cheeks. Dash didn't speak. She just kept staring at me, that bewildered look not leaving her face. The only place I saw her get sentimental was fanfiction, so I was hoping against hope that I would see that side of her here and now.

And as fate would have it, that was not happening tonight.

“Ugh, way to get all sappy on me!” she said, sticking her tongue out, giggling. As I just sat there smiling at her, she gave me another look. “But...thanks. No one's ever said something like that to me” she said. As the sun disappeared completely behind the mountains, giving way to the stars and moon, she spread her wings and took off. “Come on, let's get back to my place before it gets completely dark.”

With that, we flew back down to Ponyville, ready to sleep another night away.

PONYVILLE LIBRARY

Twilight was finishing up some last minute chores around the library as the crickets outside began chirping. Stacking quills and scrolls neatly on one of the end tables, she was about to ascend the stairs to her bedroom when Spike began coming down, looking like he was about to belch. That could only mean one thing.

“Twilight, I...I think...” Spike heaved, and let out a belch of green fire and smoke, a scroll materializing as the fire subsided. Twilight giggled. “You think we're getting a late night letter?” she said with a smile, levitating the scroll up and unfurling it. As her eyes read Celestia's correspondence, her expression went from intent interest, to worry and despair.

“Oh...oh no...”