//------------------------------//
// Chapter 17 - Unintentional Betrayal (Party Of One) 
// Story: On The Wings of Wind 
// by Chazonic 
//------------------------------//





???





"Sounds like the back-up plan became the primary plan."

"Already?"

"He and the Element of Loyalty forgave each other a while back and have apparently restarted their 'friendship' anew."

"Does he know she's the Element of Loyalty?"

"No. He doesn't even know any of them are Elements of Harmony. Ironic, considering he shares a type of 'connection' with them."

"Could the plan still work even if he knew?"

"That, I cannot say. As such, I hope he remains ignorant of such facts."

"You certainly hope for a lot of things, sir."

"That's all we can really do until our boys arrive. Even his vulnerability after his grandfather's death couldn't of been taken advantage of. We are stuck with nothing but to observe and make modifications to the plan."








It's been a full week since my friends came over to my house to see what was wrong with me. I had only started to recover after I finally let my sorrow spill out in front of somepony over what happened to my grandfather.

I was still slightly embarrassed over crying in front of my friends like that.

"My friends..."

I smile. I liked the way it sounded now. I've changed a lot for the better during my stay here at Ponyville. Past me would be horrified.

I was brought out of my thoughts by a knock at the door. I was cleaning up my house in small intervals during the day ever since I internally destroyed it during random fits of rage.

Didn't help my case that I was restricted from flying for three days after due to me plucking off too many primary feathers. I had to drink some kind of feather growing agent made by a "Zecora" to get my wings back up to par. This also meant removal of all the blood-stained feathers.

The fact that I still had a few scars from when I was biting myself was the only thing to show for it now, outside of the minor pain from flying.

I shook my head and answered the door. Standing there was a very worn out Pinkie Pie. She looked like she was wearing two cakes.

"Hey Pinkie, what's wrong?" She tried rasping something to me in response before falling over. I quickly brought her to the couch and gave her a glass of cold water, which she drained almost instantly.

"Oh my gosh, thank you Zephy. I wanted to sing an invitation to you for Gummy's birthday party tonight, but I accidentally thought of you last and I had already sang to all my other friends' invitations and I never thought to pass out written invitations--"

"Slow down there. What is this about, a birthday party?"

"Yup! I figured you needed something to help cheer you up, and this birthday party may just be what the doctor ordered!"

I shook my head in amusement. "Nopony said anything about needing to cheer me up, but I accept the invitation."

She gave a loud squee and gave me a bone-crushing hug. "Oh thankyou thankyou thankyou, it's at seven. I have to go prepare for it!" She rushes out the door I forgot to close.

Come to think of it, my own birthday is tomorrow. Meh, nothing important, not right now anyways. I got a party to prepare for.





Seems even at a Pinkie Pie party, I get a few looks of concern. At least they quickly shifted focus after the first minute... I think

"You're telling us that you never bobbed for apples or anything like that before?"  Both Rainbow Dash and Applejack were giving me surprised looks. The three of us were standing by the tub full of apples and water. Pinkie Pie and Twilight were dancing while Fluttershy and Rarity were conversing by the cake.

I give a nervous shrug. "It's... probably due to how I perceived parties before moving here."

Rainbow cocked her head. "How so?"

"Back when I lived in Manehatten, all the parties my mother went to apparently served only alcohol, meaning minors couldn't join. She always stated I wasn't missing out on much and I guess that perception got carried through my life up till I met Pinkie Pie.

"Well then sugahcube', let us show ya' how it's done!" Applejack dunks her head into the tub, coming up a few seconds later with an apple. "Ya learn by watching the best," she stated through the apple before eating it whole.

Rainbow looks at her. "Riiiiiiight... 'watching the best'..." This earned her a glare from the farmer.

"hmm, alright then." I move in-between them and peer into the tub. Spotting an apple that was slightly green, I hold my breath and plunged my head in.

Worst. Decision. EVER.

I immediately bring my head back up, sputtering and coughing. "Water up the nose!"

I think Rainbow died right there. Applejack put her hat in front of her face in an attempt to try hiding her laughter.

"Be... beginner's trap. Oh Celestia, that was Hilarious!" Rainbow choked between laughs. When she calmed down enough she stated, "now watch how it's actually done!"

"Hey everypony!" Pinkie Pie walks over to us.

"Hey."

"Howdy."

"Sup?"

Pinkie gives a happy hum. "Just wanted to tell you how happy I am that you could make it to Gummy's party."

I grin. "Hey, your parties are always worth going to, no matter the occasion." She flashed a very brief worried look at me before smiling again.

"That's right. Wind, rain, or shine; if Pinkie Pie throws a party, I am THERE." Rainbow dunks her head into the tub and comes up with the apple I eye-balled before. The "ta-da" she made sounded somewhat directed at me, much to my annoyance.

Pinkie made a disappointed click. "Just a boring old apple? There's other surprises in there as well, you know?

Oh this is going to be golden...

Rainbow spits out the apple at Applejack, which I promptly ate while it was still in the air. "What kind of surprises?"

I roll my eyes. "Surprises are supposed to be just that, RD. Ruins the point if you know what's coming." I was still chewing on the apple, so it came out somewhat blocked.

Pinkie gave a large smile. "Couldn't of said it any better, Zephy." This made the two mares look back into the tub, looking for said surprises.

"I'll let the pros get the surprises. Last time I tried, all I got was water up the nose." Pinkie giggled as two splashes were heard.

Applejack came back up with an apple with strings attached. Rather, it had a spring which dragged her head back into the tub, much to my amusement. What took the cake for me was Rainbow coming back up with the guest of honor attached to her face. I fell down laughing. "Karma get to you two?"

Applejack looked a bit disgruntled before laughing a bit herself. "Ah guess we got what was comin' for us."

Rainbow threw Gummy off her muzzle. "Y-you didn't see anything!"

"Oh, I saw everything." I give a mischievous smile, earning a glare from the pegasus.

"I SAID, you. Saw. Nothing."

Applejack rolls her eyes. "Don't get yer' feathers in a bunch over it."

Rainbow was about to retort when we all heard a spitting sound. Looking over, we see Pinkie Pie standing in front of Rarity, face covered in punch.

I grimace. "Wonder what happened to warrant that?"

"Probably that." Applejack points at the punch bowl that Gummy was sitting in.

"That would be enough to whet my appetite too." I made a disgusted face.

"Oh really?" Rainbow shot a conniving look at me. "Then I dare you to drink that punch and not spit it out."

"Seriously?" I shot her a flat look.

Applejack gives a half-smile. "Ah hate to take sides, but ah wanna see this as well."

"Traitor... fine I'll do it." I walked up to the bowl as Rarity was trying to save face. "Hey Pinkie, mind if I have the punch?"

"Sure, knock yourself out!" came the excitable response.

Twilight looked curious. "Did you say 'have THE punch' instead of 'have SOME punch'?"

I smile at her. "Sounds like somepony is paying attention to sentence structure."

Now Rainbow looked confused. "What the hay do you mean by that?"

"Exactly what I mean." Grabbing the punch bowl with Gummy still in it, I started draining the contents. The alligator managed to scramble out of the bowl and I heard a collective gasp from everypony except Pinkie, who was cheering me on. When I was finished I somewhat slammed the bowl down, wiped my muzzle off, then pointed at an awestruck Rainbow. "Where's your dare now, huh?"

Pinkie Pie jumped towards me. "Whee, I never seen anypony drain an entire bowl of punch like that!"

"Um, aren't you going to...well feel stuffed?" Fluttershy looked at me with mild concern.

"If you mean bloated, then yes. Totally worth it though," I exclaimed, pumping a hoof into the air in victory, inciting a mild growl from Rainbow.

Rarity huffed. "Can't say I approve of such boorish acts, but I suppose if Pinkie allows it, I can overlook it."

Who died and made you controller of the sun?

"It's fine, Rarity." The music changes. "Oh, this is my jam!" I shook my head as Twilight and Fluttershy started dancing again, with Pinkie joining them shortly after, talking to them mid-dance. While it did look kind of cute for a bit, Pinkie wound up hitting her dance partners with her flank.

I hope she's covered for dancing accidents...

"C'mon, everypony! Gummy wants to dance!" Pinkie cries out. I got Fluttershy pried off the wall and after a smile of thanks, the both of us went into the incomplete circle to dance around Gummy.





"... See ya later, birthday alligator!" All of us were just leaving the party after a full night of dancing and cake.

"Rainbow, that doesn't roll of the tongue very well." At least not for me...

"Don't care." she flies off back to her house.

I heard Twilight say something off-hoof about doing something like this again soon. I had a slightly bad feeling about it, but I brushed it off and headed home.

When I got to my room, I remembered my wind harp that I brought with me when I first came here. I strummed it a few times in the past, but it was mostly just collecting dust. I made a mental note to play it one of these days, either privately or for my friends. For now, I needed rest for work in the morning.

For some reason, I couldn't get any hot water for my shower.





After coming home from wind duties and apple bucking, I cleaned up what remained of the mess I made. The only difficult part was breaking up shattered glass and ceramic ware. Right as I finally finished, there was a knock on the door and answering revealed Pinkie Pie as the perpetrator.

"Deja vu... sort of. What brings you this time around?"

"Well... uh." That's odd, Pinkie's usually a bit more... enthusiastic. "I was... uh, wondering if you wanted to come to Gummy's after-birthday party."

I snorted in laughter. "An after-birthday party? No offence, but only you would come up with that kind of thing." Remembering something, I asked, "did you think of this because Twilight said something about 'doing it again soon'?"

"Y-yeah."

I shake my head in amusement. "You know how that old saying goes? 'Whatever you do, do it in moderation'."

"Yeah, but I figured it would be a fun idea..." She pouted a bit.

"I wasn't jabbing at you Pinkie. Besides, I need to get caught up on your parties anyways."

This immediately perked her up as she gave me yet another bone-crushing hug. "Oh Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou, I thought you were going to turn me down as well!"

she let me go as I gave her an exasperated look. "Wait... *cough* what?"

She sighs unhappily. "I could tell you at my place." Not knowing what else to do, I agreed.





I groan. "...So let me get this straight; Rainbow and Fluttershy have to... 'house sit' for a bear."

"Yup." Pinkie was looking out the window.

"Rarity has to 'wash her mane'." Celestia forbid a speck of dirt gets in it.

"Yeah..."

"Applejack has to harvest apples, even though I CLEARLY thought she was done for the day."

"Seems that way..."

"And finally, Twilight is behind on studies and has to hit the books. Dunno why she wants to hit them when they're meant for reading."

"That's what I told her."

"Rather... 'convenient' that everypony decided to mark themselves as too busy to attend."

She gasped. "They actually all sound like... EXCUSES!"

I'm going to settle for her either being naive or innocent.

She suddenly gasped again and lowered herself onto the window still. When I opened my mouth to ask, she somehow filled it with her hoof halfway across the room. Oddly, it tasted like cupcakes and I had to resist the urge to start licking it. "That doesn't look like studying... OR hitting."

She removed her hoof from my mouth. "Let me guess... Twilight?" A nod from Pinkie and I was tempted to look outside myself.

"She entered the store, trying to be sneaky or something."

"Want me to confront her downstairs?" I got ready to launch myself outside.

"No!" she whispered loudly somehow. "We need to be tactical about this." She pulls out two tin cans both attached by a string. She uncovered a hole in the floor and stuck one can in it.

"Now what--"

"Shh, she's hear you." She beckons me over while putting the other can to her ear. Humoring her, I stuck my ear near it as well.

"Oh, You must be here for--"

"Shh... is Pinkie Pie or Zephyr around?"

Hmm it seems Pinkie does have some foresight. How she knew Twilight was avoiding me as well, I will never know.

"Good. Neither of them need to know anything about this." That actually hurt a bit.

Pinkie let out a small whimper. "I... I thought we were friends. What is it that Twilight doesn't want us to know?"

This infuriated me a bit, although I didn't show it. "I thought she trusted me... trusted US--"

"Oh, she's coming back!" I put my ear back by the can.

"Here you go."

"Thanks and remember: not a word to either of them." Both of us look at each other with immense worry. "Hey, what's with the tin can?" The can in Pinkie's grasp suddenly went into the hole with her foreleg. She quickly jerked it out, snapping the string and making Twilight yelp.

After a little bit, Pinkie spoke up, "we have to follow her!"

"Why follow her when we can just confront her?"

"Twilight's smart, she will find a way to get away from us if we confront her directly. We need to be tactical about this!"

"Ugh... fine, I'll follow your lead."





As we stalked Twilight as secretly as we could, Pinkie had donned a goofy pair of glasses, thinking that it would fool her. Sadly when Twilight looked behind her when I accidentally kicked a rock, both of us hid as fast as we could. Stealth was not my thing.

"Our cover's blown," Pinkie hissed to me. "We need a new disguise..."

"Please something better than just donning those things."

She looked around and dove into a bale of hay before hopping off after Twilight. I groaned and decided to make a decently sized bush as my cover, uprooting it in a way that would allow me to carry it in a wing. Satisfied, I followed after Pinkie, heart pounding and body slightly shaking from the excitement and fear of getting caught again prematurely.

When I caught up with the hay that contained Pinkie, I crouched so that I looked like a normal bush. I observed Twilight passing a package to Rarity, who cleverly picked it up with her tail. She then walked right past us both without so much as a glance and I gave myself a mental hoof pump in victory.

Pinkie kept adding things to her 'disguise', making it LESS effective than if she left it alone. I didn't dare speak up about it, as it might blow our cover. We've come too far to fail now.

Finally, Rarity met up with Fluttershy in one of the alleyways.

"Have you seen either of them?"

"Haven't seen Pinkie Pie since this morning. Zephyr I'm not so sure about..."

"Me neither, and I'm a bit worried about that. Still, can you believe that she wanted to throw an 'after-birthday party today?"

What's so special about today again?

"I'm just thankful to come up with an excuse for Pinkie Pie. I don't know what I would of done if I had to deal with Zephyr."

That WAS an excuse... uh oh. I look over to see Pinkie's sad eyes, like she was going to cry.

"I worried about the same thing. Besides, this is going to be so much better."

"As long as neither of them find out about it." That statement felt like a knife to the heart. I had thought they liked doing things with us but now they are outright AVOIDING us like the feather flu. The statement from Rarity was probably a massive blow to Pinkie as well.

Rarity dropped the package next to Fluttershy and whispered something before walking off. Fluttershy picked it up and kept going straight. I managed to move far enough away, but Pinkie accidentally bumped into a wall while trying to move away. This caused her to bump into the buttery mare, blowing our cover and sending said buttery mare packing towards the hills.

"I thought everypony liked my parties..." Pinkie whimpered. This added another knife to my heart as I walked out of the bush and rubbed her as best as I could on her head. This only served to fuel the rage that was smoldering since I heard from Twilight they were trying to hide something from us... from ME.

"Hey Pinkie, hey Zephyr." There goes Rainbow. I guess she wasn't--

"Uh-oh..." Spoke too soon. She dashes off like she had seen a demon from Tartarus.

"Rainbow Dash... wait!" Pinkie tried hopping after her.

"I'll run her down." I immediately took flight after the prismatic pegasus. When I realized I lost her, I flew higher to get a better view.

"Where are you going?!" I looked where Pinkie's voice was coming and saw Rainbow streaking towards the school. I started following her, only to hear Pinkie shriek again and the pegasus fleeing the bell.

At this point, I was feeling kind of useless.

"WHAT'S IN THAT BAG?!" Seeing the rainbow trail coming off the side of a hill towards the farm, I streaked after her.

"RAINBOW! ANSWER US CELESTIA DAMNIT!" I practically screamed at her. I could see her flapping her wings faster in desperation, dodging between trees. I barely caught up with her, probably because of her being weighted down by the bags. But when I tried grabbing her tail, my wing nicked a tree, sending me careening back into ponyville and crashing muzzle first.

The first thing I noticed after regaining consciousness was my bleeding nose. The pain caught up a few seconds later. After that came the rage.

The only thing I could think of at that point was screaming my frustrations out.

"RRRRRR AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" 

Not only did it worsen the pain in my nose, but I coughed up additional blood from screaming at my loudest. From what my grandad told me, I could yell louder than Celestia, which is an accomplishment. Only problem is that I cough up blood, like I just did, and I also temporarily reduce my voice to a rasp.

"There you are Zephyr," came the disgruntled voice of Pinkie Pie. "And how are YOU doing?"

"YOU try crashing muzzle first into a stone street and see how well YOU fare!" I snapped a rasp back at her.

"You try getting your head slammed in a barn door!"

"You try-- oh..." I deadpan. "Shall we just call it square then?"

"That's just fine... besides, I know they're up to something!"

"Gee what tipped you off? The fact that they are no longer acting like half-flanked decent friends and are avoiding us like the blue flu?!" I was holding my nose, trying to quell the bleeding.

"Quit the sass! We still need to know the 'why', and I know who's going to tell us."

I grunted. "They better tell us big time, or there will be Tartarus to pay."

"Oh trust me, I know..."





Why did Spike get picked to be the victim? Oh right, closeness to Twilight and Rarity.

While Pinkie was off getting an interrogation victim, I went to the hospital to get my nose patched up. Nurse Redheart made the off-hoof joke about my visits becoming more regular than Rainbow Dash's. I was still ticked off over her, but I didn't say anything.

However, when I went back to Pinkie's place, a sense of dread grew in my stomach.

"They are all yours, Spike!" Pinkie motioned towards the heap of gems on a plate. Before he could reach them, she had Gummy grip his tail to keep him in place and shone a light on him for effect. "All you have to do is talk."

I really hope this gut feeling is wrong. I don't want--

"That's it? Oh, you got it. Okay... uh, beautiful weather we're having..."

Not only did he fake me out, he completely missed the point...

Pinkie huffed in anger. "I mean talk about our friends!"

At this point, I was more scared of Pinkie than anything else. "Uh, shouldn't you--"

"Quiet!" I backpedaled a bit. Seems Spike was losing his cool as well. "Never mind that last question. I want you to confess!"

"Uh...uhm... I-I'm the one who spilled juice all over Twilight's copy of 'Magical Mysteries and Practical Potions'!" He braces himself.

The Irony.

"And?"

"And I'm the one who used up all the hot water in Ponyville yesterday when I took a seven-hour bubble bath!" Braces again.

"THAT'S why I couldn't have a hot shower last night." He shot me an apologetic look.

"No, no, no, NO." Pinkie's really going over the edge here...

"W-what do you want me to tell you?"

"Tell me that my friends are all lying to me and avoiding me because they don't like my parties and they DON'T WANT TO BE MY FRIENDS ANYMORE!" She starts breathing heavily.

If Spike takes that literally--

"Your friends are all lying to you and avoiding you 'cause they don't like your parties and they don't want to be your friends anymore!" he quickly replied.

Of course...

Pinkie celebrated for a second, only for her mane to 'deflate' to show her depression.

I walked over to Spike. "I guess you're still young that way, taking things too literally."

"D-did I say something wrong?"

"Never mind that for now. Let me ask a few questions before you get your plate." He nods nervously. "First of all, and I need you to be honest with me, did Twilight tell you ANYTHING about her plans for today?"

He shook his head. "Sorry, left before she got out of bed for once to go to Rarity's."

"Did SHE say anything about today?"

"Uh... not that I know of."

Great, back to square--

"Wait, hold on. I think I overheard her saying about... 'avoiding a few ponies by any means necessary'..."

No...

"...That 'everything should go swimmingly well if they aren't around her and everypony else'..."

No...no...

"...And finally; 'I hope to never see them'. She might of said something else, but I had to go outside at that moment."

"..."

"Uh... Zephyr?"

"W-wha? Oh... h-here you go." I tried not to sound broken as I slid the plate of gems to Spike and stared at a spot on the floor. He took the plate with glee and started chomping down on gems as he left the building.

"Z... Zephy?"

My heart felt like it was bleeding out, my mind was hazy, and I was trembling as I continued to stare at the floor. There was only one thing that kept repeating in my mind:

"Betrayed...betrayed..."








Pinkamena could only watch as Zephyr started twitching out, eyes constantly staring forward in a pinprick state. When she caught him as he fell over, she could feel him trembling with every twitch. He kept repeating one word: betrayed.

This broke her heart and drove her into a further depression. Putting him on her back, she carried him to her bed that was next door. When he was put down, he curled up into a fetal position, still saying the same thing like a broken record.

"I'm so sorry..."

This was exactly what I wanted to avoid, she thought to herself. Being a pony who threw plenty of parties and wanted to be friends with everypony, she knew about his initial distrust of strangers. He had tried to make a point of avoiding friendship because of past experiences, something she guessed at when she overheard his conversation with his teacher at his welcoming party. She didn't want to tell her friends; at the time it would of only fueled their distrust of him due to whatever secret he was hiding. As such, she went along with Twilight's restriction of not throwing any parties FOR him; putting him on the spot would only antagonize him further.

They had managed to get him out of his shell. They made him feel like he mattered to somepony. Now all of it was undone within a span of a day, and he was probably feeling the greatest shock of betrayal of his life.

Pinkamena snarled. None of them were HER friends anymore either.

"I don't need them! I'm going to have a wonderful party with my REAL friends!"





It had been a while since Pinkie had fully snapped into Pinkamena mode. She started treating a bucket of turnips, a pile of rocks, a piece of lint, and a bag of flour as her real friends and party guests. At this point, she once again renounced the other ponies statuses as her friends. "Not after the way they acted, not after the way they treated me, not after the way they treated ZEPHYR!"

*knock**knock**knock*

She immediately forgot her rage. "Who could that be?"

The door opened to reveal Rainbow Dash. "Hey there Pinkie Pie." This immediately soured Pinkiamena's mood again, seeing her former friend. "Sorry I didn't stop to say hi. I was in a rush and--"

"Save it." Came the harsh reply. "Do you honestly believe I'm actually THAT stupid?"

"W-what are you--"

"You know full well what I mean, Rainbow Dash." Pinkie usually used nicknames like Dashie, which told the pegasus something was wrong immediately. "Now why don't you make like a bird and flock off?"

"O-or you could.. you know, come with me to Sweet Apple Acres?"

"Why don't you MAKE me?" Pinkamena slams her hooves into the table. "I'm having a wonderful enough time with my REAL friends. All I'm missing is one, and he'll most likely be joining a while later. Isn't that right Madame le Flour?"

Changing her accent and pitch, she said, "Oui! Zat iz correct, madame." Rainbow could only watch with a shocked expression.

"Another slice of cake, Sir Lintsalot?"

She changed her pitch and tone again. "I'd love one!"

Rainbow shook her head, back into the 'weirded out' zone of discomfort. "Right, I still think you should--"

"Still not convinced? Fine." Grabbing Rainbow by the mane, she drags her into another room. "Look and see what you have brought about!"

Rainbow gave a shocked stare. Laying on the bed curled up, twitching like mad, and muttering to himself, was the pegasus Fluttershy was sent to gather.

"Wh... what--"

"You broke him, Rainbow Dash. You and your four friends broke his heart."

"But we didn't mean to!" Zephyr was still twitching, but he stopped muttering to himself and started listening at that point. Pinkamena and Rainbow didn't notice.

"Didn't mean to what? Abandon and avoid us? You know how much it hurts being avoided Rainbow Dash. So why did you do it?"

"Because..." She hesitated. All she wanted was to surprise her friends on their birthdays, not drive them away.

Sorry everypony, but I don't want it to end like this. "We were trying to surprise you two."

Pinkamena deadpanned and Zephyr stopped twitching altogether. "S-surprise us?"

Rainbow nodded. "Could you come with me to the farm? I'll explain more there." She gave Pinkamena a pleading look.

The pink mare looked at Zephyr, well aware he had stopped acting caustically. "I don't know if he's--"

"...This had better not be an elaborate trick." He sat up and turned to the mares at the doorway with a glare. His iris' regained some of their original size, though his eyes were slightly bloodshot. Rainbow gasped at the nose splint

"It's not! Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." Rainbow went through the motions. Zephyr raised an eyebrow in confusion and suspicion.

"Let's just go with it, Zephy..." Pinkamena was still unconvinced, but the pinkie promise was pretty sure-fire. She usually treated promise breakers a lot worse than how she just treated Rainbow.

Still not fully convinced himself, Zephyr shot another smoldering glare at Rainbow before following, much to the mare's discomfort.








As we walked down towards the farm, Fluttershy joined us. She looked like she was going to hug us, but the look Pinkie and I gave her quickly changed her mind.

My mind was still screaming that I should just ditch the mares, get packed, and never come back to this place. Besides Pinkie, what these mares had done to me was even worse than what the colts and fillies back in school did to me.

When we reached the barn, Rainbow pushed the barn door open with a rather weak "we're here". Pinkie and I looked into the barn.

"Surprise!" Rarity, Twilight, and Applejack were all wearing party hats, much to my confusion. We walked up to them, a rather unamused.

"W-we thought you would be more excited about this..." Fluttershy said quietly as she joined them.

I huffed. "Like I would get excited after I had thought I had been betrayed." The four of them looked shocked while, in the corner of my eye, Rainbow grimaced.

"Why would either of us want to attend our farewell party?" Pinkie spoke up.

Now they looked confused. "Farewell party?" Twilight asked.

"None of you wanted to see us, so you decided to abandon us. A 'farewell Pinkie Pie and Zephyr Earthwing' party..." Pinkie elaborated.

"Now why did ya'll think we're abandonin' you?" Applejack trotted over to us.

I shot an "are you serious" look at her. "Why don't you think about it for a second?"

"Because not only were you avoiding and lying to us, none of you wanted to see us anymore!" Pinkie elaborated anyways.

Rainbow gave a nervous grin. "Because we wanted your guys' birthday party to be a surprise." This got my attention. I didn't tell anypony about my birthday.

Rarity walked forward. "We'd been planning this party for such a long time, we had to make excuses for why we couldn't attend Gummy's party, or why we didn't want to see either of you so that we could get everything ready." Neither of us were convinced, though Pinkie was shooting me a sideways glance at this point.

"If this is a farewell party for the both of you, then why are there two cakes, one saying 'happy birthday Pinkie Pie, and the other saying 'happy birthday Zephyr'?" Twilight showed the respective cakes. Now I'm starting to wonder...

"Because it's my birthday! Oh, how could I have forgotten my own birthday?" Pinkie's mane had re-fluffed. "Why didn't you tell me today's YOUR birthday as well, Zephy?!" Now she was looking at me intensely.

"What I wanna know is: how did you guys know about my birthday?" I motioned towards the other five mares.

Twilight giggled. "Your mother told me."

"Wut?" was my intelligent response.

Twilight elaborated, "when she saw Princess Celestia at your grandfather's funeral, she wanted my mailing address as an emergency contact in-case she couldn't contact you. After we helped you recover, I got a letter from her telling me that your birthday was today. Since you and Pinkie shared a birthday, we wanted to make the party extra special."

I'm going to have a very stern word with my mom one of these days...

"That still doesn't answer my question!" Pinkie got in my face with a wide grin, making me jump back.

"I didn't think it was important, that's all!"

"What do you mean it's not important?!" came the response from everypony, especially Pinkie.

I facehoof. "Never mind."

While the party activities were dandy and all, I exclude myself from the final group hug. I don't think I'm quite ready to forgive them for this...