Chapter 16

Just a month ago I hoped to achieve my dream of being with a special griffon I deeply cared for, and with a simple yes from her, I felt my dream had become a reality. In the month following, I was truly the happiest unicorn in all of New Saddle. I felt like there was a hole within me that was finally filled when Ruby had felt the same way about me. This was the feeling of a whole new me upon this world.

As expected, when I told Peach that she had said yes she was thrilled. So thrilled that she had taken me out to dinner to celebrate. I didn’t think it was something to really celebrate, but Peach insisted. Speaking of Peach, she had started taking some days off work for health reasons. When I asked her about it she had told me that it was just the time in spring where she tends to get the most allergies. Because of this, she had left multiple workers in charge for different days. For some reason, she left me in charge the most. It wasn’t really a problem with me, but it was strange to me and the others working there. Although I think PipSqueak was a little wound up about it. That was a cringy joke, I’m sorry.

Anyways, along with me getting this responsibility every once and a while at the bakery, I was happy to finally see that Angel was out of the hospital. He had been telling me about how everything had changed between him and both of his parents. They seem to listen to Angel now about what he wants to do with his life. Angel had told me that they had agreed to let him go to be a Wonderbolt, all he had to do was wait until they could soon get enough money help him travel to Ponyville. It was nice to see him doing well after a setback.

Speaking of friends, I was a stallion of my word by coming by to visit Caramel every once in a while when he was off of work. I had gotten to meet his wife and his small newborn filly, Sunflower. I am not one who particularly likes foals and colts, but Caramel’s filly was undeniably cute. She had cheeks that took after Caramel’s wife, Autumn Petal , who is very pretty. What did surprise me was how much Autumn had knew about me based on what Caramel had told her. I know it’s kind of an obligation to never keep anything private about your day with your wife or husband, but I think Caramel could have been a little less detailed about me in the carriage he was pulling. Despite that, I had a great time hanging out with Caramel and his family.

Now I know I have been evading the question that you have probably been wondering since hearing me mention it at the beginning of this paragraph; How does one date a significant other online in a long distance relationship? To answer your question, it depends on what you would consider a date with someone online. For some it is simply messaging the other, maybe watch a movie by trying to sync the movies together. For me and Ruby, us simply playing SF2 together, occasionally going on VRCinema to listen to music together, and simply just talking to each other in a Koas call was all we needed to feel like we were dating each other.

We had even come up with a little game that we play with each other. It was something Ruby called,”Ask Me Another”. (Or AMA for short). Essentially, we would ask whatever question we would want to within a 10 second period. The other one would have to answer that question before thinking of a new question. If one does not come up with a question within the limit, the other one gets a point. The game lasts till one of us gets to five points. Yes, I know it’s corny, but we were both happy with it. Some of the answers to questions did get a little bit crazier the further we got into it. Like for example, I found out that one time when she was with an old group of friends, she had pranked a Griffin by setting off firecrackers in their mailbox. It surprised me considering that was when she was younger.

We had some uncomfortable moments with the game though. One time, after she had asked me on a scale of one to ten how “pretty” my butt was, which was kind of weird for me to answer seriously, I had asked her about her past boyfriends and stuff. To which she had said that it was a sore subject to bring them up because of how some of them had treated her wrong and stuff. She wasn’t the only one though that felt the uncomfort. Everytime I played with her, I answered all of Ruby’s questions as honestly as I could. (Like me telling her about Peach, and about me having one bad experience at work with a cake and what I thought was Vanilla icing) All except one. When she had asked me about my most prized possession, I didn’t want to bring up my memory box of my parents to then have to take it out and probably break down crying embarrassing myself. So instead I mad a corny lie saying that she was my greatest possession. Amazingly, she bought it, as she told me how much she loved my caring self.

In that month, it was the happiest I have been in a while. After that month came the day that I was most excited for: My birthday. Just 25 days before Hearth's Warming Eve, is the day I was born. The day that most ponies would be excited for gifts and presents from their loved ones. I ,on the other hoof, was the opposite. Sure I liked to receive gifts, but I felt that it wasn’t as important as being with those who care about you. While I may not have had my parents on that day to share it with, I was always happy to share that day with Peach. Granted, she always did a little too for me in my birthday. While taking me out to a nice dinner, she would always get me these nice gifts for me that I felt was too much. I was rather satisfied with the nice dinner she would take me out to for my birthday than any gift she could get me. However, this years birthday was different from all the other years past.

I woke up bright and early like I usually did with my alarm clock blaring, albeit this time in a happier mood knowing that it was now my 18th birthday.

“Goooooooooood Morning New Saddle!”, I exclaimed out loud to myself in joy.

I stretched out my hooves to reach the alarm to shut it off. As I stood up from the bed, I felt right away that the day had welcomed me with a happy birthday sunrise from my window. I felt as if I should scream out loud again to everyone out my window, but I think I would come off as strange and kind of cringy.

Turning around, I walked over to my PC to log into Smoke and Kaos to meet with Ruby. Over the past couple of weeks of me mentioning my birthday, Ruby had been asking me over and over again what I would want for my birthday from her. Everytime she would ask, I would tell her that she didn’t have to get me anything. She was all the gift I needed from her. However, Ruby continued to insist on getting me a birthday gift. To which I had told her anything she would make for me I would be happy with as a gift. She had told me a week prior that she was “practicing” my gift. It made wonder what she had specifically been “practicing”.

As soon as all my accounts were online, I was instantly sent a call in Kaos from Ruby, who was now called,”Saluto”.

“I hope she keeps that name, I really like that one.”, I said to myself before clicking the accept button.

There was a startling moment of silence, like I was expecting Ruby to scream out happy birthday to me.

“H-Hello? Ruby are you-”,I asked before being interrupted by Ruby abruptly.

She then began to sing me happy birthday like it was nothing. It was beautiful as it always was. I kind of was in a state of joy and uneasiness from her appearing like that, but mostly joyful for her singing “Happy Birthday” to me.

“Well that’s a beautiful way to wake up on my birthday.”, I said to Ruby after hearing her wonderful voice.

“Was it good?”, Ruby asked me.

“Of course it was, it was one of the most lovely wakeups I have been given by you.” I said to Ruby.

“Good. How did you sleep last night?”, Ruby asked me.

“I sleep like a foal. I couldn’t wait to wake up for my birthday.”, I said to Ruby.

“And for all the right reasons not to wait, I have your gift.”, Ruby said to me.

“Sweet, I hope you are happy with what you made me.”, I said to Ruby.

“Actually, I have something to confess.”, Ruby admitted to me nervously.

“What?”, I asked confused.

“I uh, lied about making something. I instead got you something nice.”, Ruby said to me.

“What did you get me?”, I asked Ruby.

“How about I just show you instead.”, Ruby said sending me a trade invite in Smoke.

I wasn’t so sure exactly what she got me, which made me very skeptical. Ruby gave a small breath of nervousness before adding an item to a trade. This item wasn’t just any item, it was a Celestial Hat for StuntMerc . For those who don’t know, Celestial hats are hats that are uncrated with an effect of sunshine. These hats are rare to unbox, making them valuable. Not nearly as much as say the Golden Fork (Which rose up in price to about 20,000 dollars within a month after Ruby finding it), but still expensive. Either way, the hat was exactly like mine minus the changing colors instead with a solid team color. Only thing was now it had a Celestial effect on it.

“Oh sweet Celestia it’s-”, I say before being interrupted by Ruby.

“Yeah, I know its a Celestial hat, I saw it on sale by a user and really thought you would like it so.”, Ruby said to me.

“I-I can’t accept this, not from you.”, I said to Ruby feeling bad.

“Why?”, Ruby asked me.

“I just can’t. I imagined you spent too much for me on this.”, I explained to Ruby.

“No, no please. I want you to have it. You don’t have to worry about how much it cost. I didn’t have to sell the fork thankfully.”, Ruby reassured me that I had nothing to worry about.

“Well, Thank you so much for this. You really didn’t have to go this far for me.”, I say to Ruby with gratitude.

“Don’t mention it love. I don’t mind getting you nice things. Especially if it’s on your birthday. Plus, I got one more surprise for you.”, Ruby said temptingly.

“Oh, one more gift? What is it?”, I asked curiously.

“Well, you can’t know it that easily silly. It’s a surprise.”, Ruby says with a teasing tone.

“Oh come on, please?”, I begged Ruby.

“Sorry. But the birthday colt has to wait until it is time to receive his presents.”, Ruby said in a mocking fashion.

I partially hated her making me sound like a colt, but at the same time I realized I guess that she is one who likes to tease. It kind of made me feel special in a way.

“On another topic, you plan on doing anything special for your birthday today?”, Ruby asked me.

“Well, usually Peach will take me out to dinner to celebrate. I’m not so sure where though.”, I explained to Ruby.

“Oooh, that sounds fun. I assume she takes you after work right?”, Ruby asked me

“It tends to be like that for every year I have worked there. Are you gonna be alright with me being gone for most of the day?”, I asked Ruby.

“Yeah I’ll be fine. You don’t have to worry about me, I’ll just prepare your gift while I wait for you.”, Ruby said reassuring me.

“You still haven’t finished it?”, I asked Ruby. “

Well I couldn’t lie to you completely about making your gift. Well, part of your gift.”, Ruby said to me.

“Ah I see.”, I say to Ruby looking at the clock.

“Well, I hate to leave you, but it is time for me to go to work for today.”, I said to Ruby seeing the time.

“Awww, stay a little longer.”, Ruby begged me.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be back. I promise.”, I said to comfort Ruby.

“Oh alright. I’ll let you go my Velvet. Have a good birthday. I love you.”, Ruby said to me.

Saying “I love you” still felt awkward for me to say, but it was getting better.

“I l-love you too Ruby.”, I said leaving the call.

After gathering my things for work, I had trotted out the door on to the New Saddle street with a boost in my step. I felt that the day was giving me the best day possible for my birthday gift. The air was just right, there were no clouds in the sky, and the sun was not too bright. As the rapper Snow Sphere would say,” Today is a good day”. At least, that’s what I thought until I approached the market.

The market was full of ponies as it was back when I had to turn in the art submission. Thankfully, there is a slightly longer way around this path. It took longer, but it’s better than me having to deal with my fear of crowds.

I walked by a small area the had seemed familiar to me. It was a kind of grassy area with a few small houses nearby.

“Why the hell am I getting a sense of deja-”, I said to myself walking before seeing a small Griffon on the steps of a red house.

It all clicked together by this point. That Griffon was Stormbreaker, the one I helped out when he was being bullied by those colts. He was sitting on the stairs playing with some toy before getting up and noticing me. I had started to walk up to go say hi to him, but he went back inside. It was odd.

“Why would he go back inside seeing me? I was the one who helped him. Oh well, he probably forgot about me.”, I said to myself in my head before trotting on.

I walked for a little bit longer until I saw the bakery in the distance. At the same time as me walking up, I saw Peach had opened the door to the bakery and notice me.

“There’s the birthday colt I was looking for. Happy Birthday Velvet.”, Peach said to me closing the door behind her.

“Hi Peach, I might as well start working today before getting ready for our routine dinner for my birthday.”, I said to Peach.

She had turned around and locked up the door behind her before turning back to me.

“Actually, I figured we could do something a little different this year. Instead of work, would you like to come by my house this morning?”, Peach asked me.

“Wait, you are closing it just for today, on my birthday?”, I asked confused.

“Is that a problem?”, She asked me.

“N-No not at all. Just I think it’s, I don’t know, a waste of a good day's work for me and the others.”, I say before Peach began chuckling.

“Oh nonsense Sugar. It’s your birthday. You should be out celebrating instead of working in the back. Come on, Let’s go have breakfast together for your birthday. I even have your present there as well.”, Peach said before beginning to trot.

We walked further away from the bakery to a large house vaguely similar to mine, only it was older looking than mine. It looked rather cozy, like it could withstand a blizzard and still keep you warm. We both walked on the wood steps to Peach’s door which just spoke vintage. When Peach had opened up the door to her home, the vibe changed from a bright day outside to a nice and homey feeling.

“Well, come on in. Make yourself at home sugar.”, Peach said to me walking inside.

I glanced around her wonderful home for a little while, admiring some of the pictures she had on her wall of herself and her husband. Her home just screamed peaceful.

She began to cook breakfast in the kitchen, where she left me a chair on the other side of the table. I sat down before she turned around to face me.

“So, what would you like for breakfast? Whatever you want, I can make it.”, Peach asked me.

“Well, pancakes would be nice.”, I said to Peach.

“That’s it? I can make it a special kind of way for you if you want. It’s your birthday after all.” Peach questioned me.

“No thank you. I am really fine with regular old pancakes.”, I say with a nervous laugh.

“You are a simple one.”, Peach said to me jokingly.

“What can I say? I like stuff simple.”, I explained to Peach smiling.

One thing I have to say about Peach, she makes the best damn pancakes in all of New Saddle. Though she is known for her famous cobblers, she can also make a mean stack of pancakes. They were the perfect mix of fluffy and scrumptious. Top it with syrup, and you have got everything for the perfect breakfast.

As we were eating, Peach and I were having our ways with our pancakes until Peach had brought up something I was very shy about.

“So, how is it with your mare friend?”, Peach asked me.

“Um, it’s going good. Real good actually.”, I answered with slightly widened eyes.

“I’m happy for you. When do I get to meet her?”, Peach asked as I almost choke on my pancakes out of shock.

“Never!”, I panically exclaimed.

I didn’t want to tell her just yet that Ruby was a Griffin I was dating online with the fear of her judging me.

“What?”, Peach asked confused.

“I-I-I mean um, she is kind of shy and, yeah probably not too comfortable around other ponies.”, I said trying to cover up my outburst.

“Oh, well it’s a shame. I would like to one day meet her, whenever she is ready though.”, Peach said as I gave a sigh of relief in my mind.

As we both finished up breakfast, Peach had tried to grab my plate before almost missing the plate and dropping the one in her hooves unexpectedly.

“Here, let me help you out with that.”, I said grabbing both plates with my magic.

“How sweet of you. Helping out on your own birthday.”, Peach acknowledged me with a thankful tone.

“Well I saw you were having trouble carrying them in your hooves so I figured I could use my magic to not risk breaking them.”, I said to Peach putting the plates in the sink.

“Heh, I always end up saying it, but I wasn’t blessed with the ease of having a horn.”, Peach said walking up to me to wash both plates.

This moment we shared with next to each other felt special. I never knew what it felt like to really help out my mother or father with a chore like this, but when I was next to Peach helping her wash the dishes I felt a warm feeling in my heart. It made me feel like that was the feeling I was looking for with my parents, only this time it was with Peach. I felt truly appreciative to have her in my life.

After washing the dishes, Peach was walking towards the doorway to another room.

“Hey, do you mind waiting here for a minute sugar?”. Peach asked me.

“Of course Peach, but why?”, I asked.

“It’s got something to do with your present, I want to keep it a surprise.”, Peach said grinning slightly.

“Oh ok. I’ll just hang out here.”, I said before seeing Peach walk out the doorway.

I trotted around the kitchen a bit, looking at some pictures in the kitchen. As I was looking around at pictures of Peach, I noticed some vitamin bottles on her counter. Normally, it would seem regular to any pony to see some in a home. It seems that everypony takes them, I even take some from time to time if ever I feel sick. What I noticed on Peach’s bottles of vitamins that caught my attention was that they were significantly higher counts of vitamins per pill. A regular pill would be around 90 milligrams of vitamins, however Peach’s was around 175 milligrams. It was strange to see, but my assumption was that it became a necessity to take a lot more higher doses of vitamins the older you get as a pony.

I began to hear Peach come back from the room. I quickly sat down in a chair by the table right before Peach walked into the kitchen holding something behind her back.

“Are you ready for your gift?”, Peach said to me in a serious tone.

“Absolutely, I have a feeling I will really like it.”, I told her.

“This was something I have wanted to give to you for a while now. I didn’t want you to have it earlier because I didn’t think you were ready for it, but now that you are 18 and are showing me that you are a determined worker I think it is time.”, Peach said to me before showing me my gift from behind her hooves.

It was an older looking book that looked like it was beaten to all hell. I was confused by the book.

“Why would she wait till I was more mature for an older book?”, I thought to myself in my head.

“I know by the look on your face you are a little bit confused by this, but once you read the first couple of pages you will understand.”, Peach explained to me placing the book on the table for me to read.

To solve the mystery behind why the book is so important, I began to look through the first couple of pages like Peach had said. The first two pages were on berry selections for sweets, all looked like they were written with an old quilt with ink from how old the writing looked. Peach had sat down in front of me as I began to glance over the final page. Upon reading the title of the page, I let out an audible gasp to what I had just received from Peach. What was it I had just received? I had just gotten the full, completely written out recipe for the famous Cobbler family’s cobbler.

“Oh my fucking god! This is not what I think it is.”, I exclaimed with a shocked expression on my face.

Peach gave a reassuring nod letting me know what I was given was real.

“Peach, why are you giving this to me? This is far too important to give to me. Especially as a birthday gift.”, I said pushing the book away from me out of fear.

Peach then took the book with her hoof and pushed it back towards me.

“Because I know that I can trust you the most with something like this Velvet. I know for a fact you will keep this tradition going.”, she said to me putting her hoof on mine.

“But you said yourself that the recipe is meant to be seen by your family members.”, I said to Peach.

“You are right, it is meant for family members.”, Peach reminded me.

“So why are you giving it to me?”, I asked Peach.

She let out a sigh before looking back at me.

“Because I consider you to be the closest family I have.”, Peach said to me with a serious tone.

I sat back quietly from this.

“Me and Corn Flake were one day planning to have foals. It had been a dream of ours to spread our family. But of course when he died, I felt the dream had gone away since there was nopony out there in the world that could ever replace him. That was until I saw how much you have changed growing up after your parents passed away. I felt like a guardian watching over you for a while. But it was seeing how you have been acting that made me realize that you were the son that I never had.” Peach said with a slight tear in her eye.

She then looked back up at me.

“Which brings me to the other reason why I want to give this to you now. One day in the future I will be gone and will want to keep the family business going. More importantly, I want somepony to keep the famous family recipe alive and well in New Saddle. That pony is you Velvet.”, Peach explained.

Throughout her explaining her reasoning, I felt more and more obligated to take the recipe as her gift. From the look on her face as she was explaining her reasonings, she had planned this all from the very beginning.

“Will you do me the honor in me passing on this tradition to you Velvet.”, She said with a heartfelt tone.

I looked down at the book intently for a little while before looking back at Peach.

“Absolutely. I am ready for this responsibility.”, I said taking the book in my hooves.

Peach stood up from her chair to kiss me on my forehead before looking back into my eyes.

“Thank you Velvet. You won’t regret this.”, Peach said to me, looking like she was about to cry tears of joy.

“I won’t share this with anypony other than those I trust, I swear to you.”, I said to Peach.

“I know you won’t.”, She says to me.

We had talked more until about lunchtime when I had told Peach I was going to leave to visit Caramel. After taking the book and placing it in a satchel to keep it hidden, I hugged Peach before leaving to go visit Caramel and Autumn. When I told them my birthday was coming up, they had asked me to drop by and receive my gift from them. They both told me to try and come by soon so that way I can see them both before Caramel would leave to pull carriages.

I arrived at their home where it looked as though I made it just in time. I knocked on the door, only to be greeted with Autumn.

“Velvet! So good to see you. Happy Birthday.”, Autumn said to me with a happy tone.

“Hi Autumn. Did I make it in time?”, I asked Autumn.

“No, sadly Caramel left and I am about to go drop off our little Sunflower off with my mother. However, we did decide to get you something. It’s not much, but it’s something we figured you would like.”, Autumn said to me handing me a card.

The card was one of those cheesy happy birthday cards that had a pun. Inside was $20 dollars and a special note from them both.

“Oh, thank you so much for the card. I like it.”, I said to Autumn.

“You don’t have to lie, I know it’s a silly card.”, Autumn said to me.

“No, that’s what I like about it. It makes it quirky.”, I explained to Autumm.

I said my goodbyes to Autumn and Sunflower before starting to trot home. As I walked back, I was thankful to find out the crowd had cleared up from earlier this morning. As I was walking through the market, I noticed a griffin in a market stall that looked familiar. Not the familiar as I have seen them before, but more familiar that they looked like a griffin I had seen before. I tried to get a much better look, but sadly I didn’t want to risk getting in a stall to then be crowded by other ponies. I just kept on walking and tried my best to leave it alone for today.

I made it home with the hope that I made it in time to surprise Ruby before she left. I quickly opened the door to rush to my PC. I made sure to sign into Kaos under the offline mode to not give away that I am back. Thankfully she wasn’t offline on Kaos, but her Smoke gave me the sense that she was about to leave. As quick as I could I quickly sent her a call at random to see if she would pick up.

Upon my surprise she picked up.

“Hello?”, Ruby answered confused.

I sat quietly to see how she would react.

“Hello? Is anyone there?”, Ruby said more confused.

More silence.

She then let out a small chuckle.

“Velvet is that you?”, She asked me.

I finally broke out of it.

“Surprise.”, I say to Ruby.

“I figured it would be you. I thought you had work.”, Ruby assmed.

“I thought so too. But Peach decided to give me the day off and let me have breakfast with her at her house.”, I explained to Ruby.

“Oh, that’s really nice. Did you get a nice gift from her as well?”, Ruby asked me.

I was hesitant on answering, not wanting to mention the big responsibility I was given and not wanting to break my promise.

“It was nice. She got me a book I wanted to read.”, I say trying to avoid the recipe.

“Oh that’s really good. I um, figure you would like your gift from me before I leave for school do you.”, Ruby said to me nervously.

“You don’t sound confident with it, rest assured whatever you got me I will love it.”I said, trying to make her feel more confident sending me it.

“It’s not that I am worried about. It’s more, well… Ah fuck it. I’ll just send it to you.”, Ruby said to me me confirmingly.

I was a little nervous receiving this gift from Ruby. Mainly because she didn’t really tell me what she was nervous about sending me. After about 2 minutes of waiting she finally spoke.

”Alright, here it is. I did some last minute touches, I hope you like it”, Ruby explained.

Kaos had given me a notification that was a sent file from Ruby. As I clicked to see the file, I was met with the spoiler tag over a photo. The only real use of this in Kaos was to troll other users into getting “Rogered”. (You can figure out what that is by looking around for it.)

“What did you send that needed to be…”, I said before being caught off guard by Ruby’s gift.

I really can’t think of a way to describe it without it sounding weird, but here it goes: she sent me a picture of herself showing off her ass. I was both shocked and amazed by her gift. Amazed for how absolutely amazing it looked, but shocked because I felt wrong looking at it. This wasn’t just a butt pic, it had her spreading and everything. I almost gasped out of fear upon seeing her like this. I have seen stuff like this before in “videos” I had seen and not felt weird, but for some reason it made me feel particularly weird seeing it from someone who knows me. Overall, I did like it, although it came as a huge surprise. Not as big as Peach’s gift, but it came real close.

“Oh my Celestia!”, I said out loud.

“D-Do you not like it?”, Ruby said defensively.

“N-No that’s not it. I l-like it just that I-I wasn’t expecting you to s-send me something l-like this and...”, I rambled nervously before I hear Ruby start chuckling.

“You love it. You don’t need to explain.”, She said to me with a bashful tone.

“How do you know?”, I asked Ruby.

“It’s obvious when you stutter nervously around me. You can say what you want about it. I won’t judge you.”, Ruby said sympathetically.

I swallowed nervously trying to muster up some words.

“Um, i-its a c-cute butt y-you have.”, I said to Ruby.

“Heh, I love it when your nervous around me. It’s really cute.”, She claimed.

“Oh be quiet you.”, I said to Ruby who was now laughing at my joking remark.

“Well, I have to go to school now. I hope to see you tonight. I’ll let you have your fun with my ‘gift’.”, Ruby said in a joking tone.

“NO, I am not gonna do that.”, I said defensively.

Ruby let out a laugh.

“Sure you won’t. I’ll see you later my Velvet. I love you”, Ruby said in a mocking tone.

I felt embarrassed, but I couldn’t help but admire her understanding of my situation.

“I l-love you too.”, I said nervously to Ruby before she logged off.

“Sweet Luna! Today has been crazy”, I say to myself leaning back in my chair looking at the Cobbler family’s recipe.

” Real crazy”.

I figured I would mess around with the new hat that Ruby got for me this morning in SF2. Upon signing in to Smoke, I was greeted with a message from somepony I hadn’t gotten a message from in a while: Prophecy Jail.

Prophecy Jail (Offline) : Happy birthday Velvet! Sadly you weren’t on when I was so I hope this gets to you whenever you can. I couldn’t really get you anything this year since getting back from the hospital, so I just want to wish you a happy birthday. Also my mom and dad for some reason wish the same to you. Don’t know why, but they do. See you around.
P.S. You should come by and visit some time, No this isn’t me asking you out, I know you don’t swing that way ;)

I was perfectly happy with receiving something as basic as an acknowledgment of my birthday. Like I said earlier, I’m a simple stallion. After all, Angel is my friend and will always be my friend no matter what so I might as well appreciate his condolences.

This was definitely the most memorable birthday I had ever had. Who can say that they were given a rare SF2 item, a nice pancake breakfast, the sacred recipe from a family, a cheesy card, a butt pic, and an acknowledgment all in one day? Not many that’s for sure.

I spent all the rest of my birthday in SF2 waiting for Ruby to come back online. When she did, she and I played SF2 together like old times; me as a StuntMerc and Ruby as a Skorcher. We played for a very long time until we got bored and decided to hang out in VRCinema, with Ruby letting me pick all the videos and music for my birthday. I realized how amazing life is when it came to you getting older that day.

Simply put, I found out that you will sometimes become a more important part of one's life as you become older. Peach had trusted me with her entire family recipe that would be worth a fortune in New Saddle. She knew that I was ready to take her tradition and learn to use it when I turned 18. I made her a promise on that day that I planned to keep. No pony would tell me otherwise. Why? Because I could now stand for myself as an adult. That’s just how life is, and always will be.

Author's Note

Facts