Rune Glare and Dust Glint raced inside the Facet and Trap Repair Shop and slammed the door behind them. They ran into the repair shop’s garage spaces, which had been transformed into the repair shop’s main repair area.

“He’s coming!” Rune hissed. “Is everything set?”

Olivine Facet, with a crooked, striped party hat seated atop her head, gestured around the repair shop. Banners hung from the walls and a few decorated the various toolboxes. Balloons dangled from any object that could hold them down—even wrenches and various other hoof tools. A large folding table with a cake and several plates sat in the middle of the garage floor.

“What do you think?” Olive said flatly.

“I’m so excited,” Creek Shine said, bouncing on her hooves. “Pile said he’s never really celebrated his birthday before. He’s going to be so surprised!”

“Hatching Day,” Snare Trap corrected. “That’s what the changelings call it. I guess there’s so many of them in the Hive that it’d be hard to plan that many parties.”

“Or maybe old Queen Chrysalis didn’t party much,” Olive groused with a shrug.

“I sure hope he will be surprised,” Dust pointed out. “Changelings are very apt at reading emotions, love or otherwise. I hope he didn’t catch on to us.”

“I’m sure he didn’t, Dusty,” Rune said, patting him on the shoulder. “We told him to pick up some cookies from Sugarcube Corner like you said, all the way on the other side of town.”

“Aaand, we told Pinkie Pie it was his birthday today,” Dust said proudly with a very knowing wink.

Olive smacked her forehead. “Good grief, we want him to be able to celebrate it today!” she remarked, before frowning at all the decorations. “Don’t you think you went a little overboard, Snare?”

“I followed the book,” Trap said with a shrug, producing a hardback book with a pink cover and an image of three balloons on the spine. The cover read: “How to Throw the ULTIMATE Surprise Party! By Pinkie D. Pie. Twenty-Fifth Edition.”

“’Twenty-Fifth?’” Dust remarked as he read the cover.

“Pinkie Pie comes out with one about every year,” Olive said with a sigh.

“And to answer your question, Olive, I underdid it according to the book. There were a lot of things I couldn’t find. I wanted to try and make a party cannon, but I couldn’t find ‘party-grade gunpowder’ anywhere,” Trap continued.

Creek walked over and peeked out the door, before racing back to the group. “He’s almost here!”

“The lights!” Rune hissed, her magic flaring up. There was a subtle click of a light switch, and the entire garage went dark.

The front door to the office creaked open. “Hello? Olive? Trap?” Pile called as he looked around. “I got the cookies—Pinkie said I should bring cupcakes too.”

As he stepped into the garage, the lights clicked on abruptly, startling him.

“SURPRISE!” the group cheered, with Rune and Dust tossing confetti on Pile.

“Happy birthday, Pile!” Creek cheered, using her magic to pull him to her into a warm hug.

“Oh! Wow,” Pile remarked as Olive carefully relieved him of the cookie and cupcake boxes. “Thanks everyone.”

“There’s presents upstairs, but Olive insisted we not get cake anywhere we couldn’t clean it,” Trap said. “Happy Hatching Day.”

“I don’t know what to say,” Pile said with a teary smile, buried in Creek’s chest floof. “Thank you all so much.”

“Anything for a friend,” Olive said with a smirk.

“Or lingfriend,” Creek said with a wink, giving Pile a peck on the snout.atc

Author's Note

Fun fact: Hard to keep a secret from a changeling, seeing how good they are with sensing emotions.