The Best Birthaversary Ever
It had been Ponyville’s biggest birthaversary bash ever. In fact, it was the only birthaversary bash ever. Had ponies been given the gift to run entirely without sleep it probably would’ve gone forever, but as eyes became heavy and dances slowed, so too did the party wind down to a stop.
The birthday mare herself even found it hard to keep her eyes open, and the rounds of cider wasn’t making anything better. Applejack had brought her world-renowned beverages to the party, and Rainbow Dash made sure to get a few drinks before her pink friend could. A drinking contest was entirely out of the question though, since somehow Pinkie was still bouncing around, as perky as she was when the party started.
“So, Dashie, whaddya think?” Pinkie asked, grinning expectantly.
“Best party EVER, that’s what I think!” Dash grinned, leaning on a large oak tree. “I still don’t know how you and Cheese managed to build an entire roller coaster in a matter of hours, but I sure am happy you did.” Dash looked up at her friend “And I don’t know how you are managing to keep dancing either, the sun’s going to come up in a hour or two.”
“The host always has to be the last one standing. It’s one of the ultimate party rules,” Pinkie explained, nodding as it were mere common sense.
“Yeah but—” The athlete paused. Now was not the time to question logic with Pinkie Pie. “Anyways, this was a great party if I’ve ever seen one. Had some cool lights, sweet rides, great music, and of course, it was celebrating my own Birthaversary! It couldn’t be any better than this!”
“Well, it could…” Pinkie looked down, scraping her hoof on the grass. For a few seconds, she was completely silent. Then, she slowly raised her head. “Next year that is! I gotta pull out all the stops then!”
Rainbow Dash smirked, that was Pinkie all right. No matter how many parties she pulled off, she always found a way to make it better the next year. “Anyways Pinks, I think I better be heading back to my pad. Got a day off tomorrow, but if I show up late to the academy on Thursday I think Spitfire will kill me.” She chuckled, stumbling up to her hooves. “Ugh…” She moaned, putting a hoof to her forehead. “I… Wow, Applejack really knows how to make cider, doesn’t she Pinks?”
“I’ll say!” Pinkie nudged Dash a few angles to the right in order to keep her standing straight. “That’s gonna keep you grounded all day.”
“Heh… Yeah, can you take me up in one of your flying doohickeys you take everywhere?” She paused. “You know, the one with the pedals on it? I really need to get to bed soon.”
“The candycopter?” The party pony shook her head. “Used some of the parts for that to build the Super Dashcoaster. And taking that apart again safely would take a while…” She suddenly gasped and stood alert, hit by inspiration. “I got it! Emergency sleepover!”
“What?” Dash raised her eyebrow. “Like that thing when Nightmare Moon returned? My Sleeping Bag is back at my house, I can’t do that.”
“Don’t worry, I gotcha covered,” Pinkie replied, already urging Dash forward by lightly shoving her with her head.
“What, you got Emergency Sleeping Bags hidden somewhere?” She chuckled, only half joking.
“Nah, something even better,” Pinkie assured. “Trust me, you’ll like it.”
“You invited The Wonderbolts?”
“In your dreams, most likely!” she answered, utter optimism in her voice.
“So… What is it?” Rainbow Dash beamed, anxious for more information.
“Hush,” Pinkie ordered. “You’ll see. Now let’s get going.”
“Ugh, fine.” Dash grunted. She took a few steps and then paused. “Come on, give me a hint?”
“No,” Pinkie said, with a Pinkie Pout. She did her best to urge Dash forward by lightly pushing against her.
“Fine, fine. Lets go.” She stumbled forwards into the sunset in a drunken stupor.
The journey was mostly quiet, save from the occasional grunt from Dash when she stumbled. But Pinkie was always there to keep her from falling onto the rough soil below. Eventually they reached Sugarcube Corner, although steps proved to be a bit of challenge for the duo.
“Whoa! I really thought we were gonna fall all the way back down on that last one,” Pinkie exclaimed, opening up the door to her room. She skipped along, taking Gummy off her bed. He blinked and waddled away, unfazed as always.
“So what’s the surprise, Pinks?” Dash yawned, leaning against the doorframe.
Pinkie turned around and simply pointed at her bed. “You get to sleep in here tonight!” She paused, blinking. “Well that’s kinda today since Celestia’s probably gonna wake up soon and do her thang…”
“What!?!” Dash was rather taken aback. “But… It’s your bed! Where will you sleep?”
“I dunno… the floor,” Pinkie poked the floorboards. “Maybe the balcony if I wanna see the sunrise before I go to sleep. Or maaaybe…” She leaped into the air, landing safely on a big bean bag. “Here!”
“I don’t know Pinks, this is your bed. I can’t sleep in your bed!” Rainbow Dash still seemed rather shocked by the proposal.
“Yes you can, silly!” Pinkie ‘helped’ Dash along by pulling her towards the bed.
“But… It’s so…” Rainbow Dash seemed repulsed to touch it. “Frilly.”
Pinkie seemed unaffected by the comment, still smiling. “Wow Dashie, you must be really drunk to think we’re in Rarity’s house!”
The humor was lost on Dash, as she reluctantly climbed into the bed. “Hmm… This is more comfortable than I thought!” Dash paused, before adding in. “It’s still super-girly though.”
“The secret is in the springyness,” Pinkie said. She then winced. “Just don’t go bouncing on it though…” Gazing up at the ceiling, she instinctively started rubbing her head.
“Well, thanks for letting me crash at your place, Pinkie.” She closed her eyes, but still felt Pinkie’s unrelenting stare focused on her. She opened one eye, and lo and behold, Pinkie was still standing over the bed and smiling at her. “What,” Dash deadpanned. “You gonna tell me a bedtime story or something?”
“Okay! If ya wanna!” Pinkie sat down, taking in a huge gasp of air. Then came the onslaught. “Once upon a time there was a cow named Maisy, who really liked a type of flower called a daisy, but Maisy was lazy, and didn’t want to get the daisy herself. That’s when this mean ol’ fox came along and—”
“I was only joking Pinkie.” Rainbow Dash stopped her friend instinctively by putting a hoof to her mouth.
Pinkie lowered herself very slightly so Dash’s hoof touched her nose. “Boop! And okay then, ya wanna just talk?”
“Yeah, that’d be nice I guess,” Dash replied, retracting her hoof so she wasn’t squishing her friend’s nose.
“Okey dokey lokey. So, why did you come to Ponyville anyways?” Pinkie asked, without pause.
“Funny story about that,” Rainbow reminisced. “No, not a literal funny story, but it’s a strange one. See, back in my days of flight camp, we would sneak off campus to different towns and the like. Well, one day Gilda and I found ourselves down in Ponyville, where we caught some Z’s on a branch.” She winced at the memory. “We didn’t know we were on Apple Family land until the whole thing shook, waking us from our naps and giving Big Mac the fright of his life.”
Dash spiralled out onto a bit of a tangent, “By the way, he still owes me for that lunch. Mom put in a triple horseradish and tomato panini in that, that was going to be delicious!”
Shaking her hoof, she got back on topic. “Anyways, Granny Smith ended up chasing us away with a broomstick, probably would have hit us hard with it too if Applejack hadn’t convinced her that maybe I didn’t deserve to be smacked for napping on a tree. Gilda ended up taking off, but I went to thank AJ for her help there. Ever since then, we were friends and I would visit the farm in my free time. You know, weekends, free periods, Ms. Hoarsewhinny’s lectures on the history of stormclouds, things like that. We hung out a bunch, became awesome friends, and I figured this is where I wanted to be. When I finally dropped out and got my own house, I decided to make the move to Ponyville, after all, I had more friends that lived down there than I did up in Cloudsdale.” Dash sounded a bit down mentioning her past home, but she continued regardless.
“So yeah, I got a job on the weather team and floated my house over here. That way I could hang out with Applejack, Fluttershy, and then I met you.” She smirked. “And I think you know the rest.”
“Huh, that is a funny story. Shame you never got your lunch back. Maybe I should make it for you sometime!” Pinkie happily suggested.
“You could try, but I doubt anypony could bake a panini quite like mom could…” Rainbow Dash trailed off, before returning focus to her friend. “Anyways, why did you even come here? You never really mentioned it before.”
“Well… it’s not really important how I got here, ‘cause I’m here now, right?” Pinkie puffed out her chest proudly. “That’s what matters.”
“Oh come on,” Rainbow Dash pleaded. “As a last birthaversary present?”
Pinkie reluctantly huffed. “Okaaaay, just for you.” She waited a moment to make sure that Dash was listening, then started to recite her epic tale. “So after my first every party—I told you about that story, right? The one about my cutie mark?” Dash nodded. “Goodie! So yeah, after that life was really good! I threw party after party after party… but then my parents got kinda grumpy, ‘cause they wanted to work. And my sisters were getting real tired with it all.”
Pinkie cleared her throat, then continued, slowing down her pace, “We talked about it a bit. Mama and Papa really had to do their work, and they wanted me and my sisters to do it too. But I didn’t want to do that because it wasn’t really me. My cutie mark is balloons, not a big fat rock.”
She looked down, her ears flattening against her head. “Then Mama and Papa got kinda sad. Not because they wanted me to work on the farm though. It was actually the opposite. They knew I wasn’t cut out for the rock farm, and they didn’t want me to be unhappy. I guess they just never expected one of their kids to leave the nest so soon…”
Pinkie rose her head, smiling softly at Dash. “But they had a plan, ‘cause a Pie never does anything half-baked. They knew a town nearby which was pretty perfect for me, and they knew someponies there who would take me in and teach me the tricks of the confectionery trade, ‘cause that’s a real profession right there! You guessed it: Mr. and Mrs. Cake! They were really nice—still are—and I was really happy, even if I did get homesick sometimes.” Pinkie’s gaze went past Dash, towards a picture on the wall behind her.
“So it actually wasn’t my choice to live here, it was my parents’. But they’re smart, since they made the right choice, and I’ve always been thankful for that,” Pinkie finished, waiting expectantly for Dash’s response to her story.
“Wow,” Dash spoke with genuine sympathy. “That’s kind of a bummer… I mean, I’m glad you’re here, but not seeing your parents again? You at least go to visit sometimes right?” She squirmed in the bed, trying to get more comfortable. As much as she would hate to admit she loved a girly bed, it was pretty comfy.
“Well duh, I visit sometimes. I mean, they can’t visit me a lot ‘cause they’re busy, but I always make time for them,” Pinkie explained. “It’s the least they deserve.”
“That’s nice.” Dash yawned, her eyelids drooping. “Hey, Pinks? Why did you invite me over in the first place? I mean, I know I gotta sleep somewhere, but why did you want me to crash here so much.” She yawned again. “Not that I’m complaining…” She snuggled in.
“Because you’re my friend, and that’s what friends do.” Pinkie leaned over, gently nuzzling Dash. “Plus, it’s your special day, so it should end just as great.”
“Aww…” Dash grinned. “Erm, I mean, that’s pretty cool.” She tried to shoot a cocky grin, but being wrapped in pink blankets didn’t make her look any cooler. “Well…” She flexed her wings one last time before somehow wiggling even deeper into the cocoon of sheets she built herself. “Imma get some shut eye. Night Pinkie.”
“Night, Dashie.” From seemingly no where, she passed along a single blue balloon. “Happy Birthaversary.”
Rainbow Dash began to thank her friend, but she fell into a deep sleep before she could even finish the word. Pinkie Pie warmly smiled at her friend, as she bounced back onto her beanbag. She could entertain herself for a bit before crashing herself. Patting the floor beside, she summoned Gummy to her side, picking him up as he waddled by.
“Well Gummy,” she began, cuddling her pet gator. “I think we did Dashie justice. What do you think?”
Gummy blinked.
“Aaaw, you didn’t?” She stroked the reptile’s back soothingly. “Well maybe you can ride the hippo tomorrow.”
Pinkie curled up on the beanbag, resting her head next to Gummy’s. She gave him a sleepy little nuzzle, then closed her eyes. It had been a super long day and her body was starting to feel it. She dozed off, a tired smile on her features.
She wasn’t sure when it was, but after a while she was woken up by the sound of low mumbling. It sounded almost like somepony was actually talking. Blinking a few times, coupled with a yawn, she slowly got up and silently creeped over to the bed, where she heard the source of the voice. Rainbow Dash?
“Come on… Just a bit faster… You’ve done it before…” She smiled, seemingly encouraging herself through sleeptalking. Pinkie didn’t know exactly what she was talking about, but she could assume it had something to do with the Wonderbolts or a Sonic Rainboom. Probably both. “Yeah… I am pretty awesome, Spitfire… Nah, I can do them all the time… Wanna see me do it again?” Yep, it was both alright.
Pinkie stifled a giggle, looking at Gummy, who was gumming and hanging from her mane. “C’mon Gummy, we should let her dream,” she whispered, sneaking across the room to her door. “Besides, I could really use a snack. Can you believe I didn’t eat almost the whole time at the party? Crazy, I know!”
Opening the door just ajar, she slipped through the small gap, poking her head out just to make sure Dash was okay. Smiling contently, she quietly closed the door and went where her stomach directed her: the fridge for an early morning snack.
