Happy Anniversary Sug

by Bysen

Epilogue

One year. One amazing year!

Can’t say it’s been the best year ever. Sure has had its ups and downs, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Beats the year before though, that’s for sure. That year was Celestia-awful. But it weren’t all bad. It ended with me and Fluttershy getting our son: Angel. He’s turning one year old today.

You know, I don’t even know where to start telling you what’s happened since he was born. Ain’t sure if I should tell you chronologically or by who it happened to or how bigger deal it was. I guess I’ll just wing it. Like I said, it ain’t been too bad of a year… at least not for us. Can’t say the same for some other ponies though.

I suppose I’d best start with Rainbow Dash. I miss her. Nowhere near as much as Pinkie does though. Think you’ve already gathered she’s no longer with us. Minutes, if that... just after she they left that night; but after midnight. I like to believe Pinkie’s idea that she held out just long enough so that our anniversary and our son’s birthday wouldn’t be forever marred by also being the day she died.

Her funeral was less than a week later and it was truly heart-breaking to see her parents that day. I gave them my condolences and introduced them to their gran-child. I told them how much their daughter meant to me and Fluttershy and how much I will forever miss her. And I ain’t ashamed to say that I was crying just as much as they were.

They weren’t the only ponies I talked to. I met Prism Slash for the first time. For what I heard was a simple little ‘donation’ he where sure broken up over it. Apparently he was closer to Dash than anypony really thought. Including his wife… heh, she tried not to show it but I could tell she was nonplussed. But Dash was the mother of his child after all and I hope his wife don't hold it against him.

They weren't the only people I talked to either. Next time I see him, I’ll have to ask Fluttershy’s brother how he met that hippogryph. For that matter, I also found out Butterscotch used to be great friends with Dash too. Think they may’ve even dated back when they were younger. I’ll have to ask him that as well.

Even with all of that, what truly hurt the most, was I never once saw Pinkie Pie cry. She forced a smile but you could tell it wasn’t one of her renowned ‘walk a mile just to see that smile’ smiles. At first I thought that with how much she’d been hurt over the last year that maybe she was just all dried up by that point.

It wasn’t for two or three months that I finally talked to her about it. Well, finally talked to her about it and got a true answer that is. What she told me… damn… I don’t know if it were beautiful or foolhardy. ‘Dash wouldn’t want me to be sad. She’d want me to live like I used to. Like she used to. But I can’t! But I don’t want anypony else to be unhappy because I’m unhappy… so I’ll pretend. And I’ll keep pretending! I don’t want ponies to be unhappy because of me.’

I walked right up to her, wrapped my hooves around her, pulled her tight and told her ‘Cry if you have to; be sad if you have to! Grieve. Just let it out Pinkie. You’re allowed too. I promise you, nopony will ever be mad that you’re sad. They WILL be unhappy… but that doesn’t matter. It’s empathy and it means that they love you. You don’t always have to put everypony ahead of yourself.’

And so she cried. She cried for hours. I didn’t let her go. Not even after Fluttershy came around and joined in holding her five or six hours into it. Not even when she fell asleep at nearly 1am. I didn’t let go of her until she woke up in both mine a Fluttershy’s hooves knowing she was allowed to be unhappy and we wouldn’t be unhappy. Later that day a slapped Seafoam for putting that stupid idea in her head in the first place. Just don’t tell Pinkie that last bit ok?

She came to us a few more times over the year when she was feeling down and we helped her every step of the way. We made sure Elliot and Octavia knew how she was feeling. They already knew obviously but I had to make sure. They gave her just as much support. Maybe more. Actually, I know they offered her more, and it must’ve taken a damn lot for her to do what she’s doing today.

She’s taken Ace and Ven and she’d heading home. Going back to the old rock farm to let her children meet their gran-father. She hasn’t seen or heard from him in nearly fifteen years and I hope for Pinkie’s sake he’s still alive. I’m sure he is. I don’t think Elliot or Octavia would let her go if he wasn’t. He deserves a second chance. And Pinkie deserves a family. Maybe if all goes well, we’ll head out there with her next time and bring along Angel.

So speaking of family: Twilight. Now this story ain’t exactly a happy one neither. Don’t get me wrong, I’m mighty happy for Twi and my brother. Fact I’m over the moon even! It’s just Big Mac still blame himself somewhat. ‘Course I’d never tell him this but I have to agree with him on some level. He had a chance to stop her from removing her horn, he knew there’d be side effects. It’s all some sort of magicy mumbo-jumob that I quite don’t understand. But basically: she’s emotionless.

She don’t feel a single thing. Quite frankly I’m surprised she’s staying with Big Mac seems it clear she don’t love him. That sounds horrible to say it like that. She can’t love him. It’s physically... or physiologically or magically or something-illy impossible for her to feel love. Or anything like that. Fear, joy, pride, envy, sadness. She’s still logical though and I think that’s why she stays.

She knows Big Mac still loves her and would do anything for her. She’d be stupid to leave somepony like that. That don’t change the fact that I’m horrified that one day she’ll change her mind, decide it’s not worth it and just leave. I can’t imagine what that would do to my brother… it would never happen of course. But fears ain’t always reasonable.

Anyway, now I said she’s got no emotions what so ever, and for the most part that’s true. More than most. In the ten months since she had the thing removed I’ve only seen her show anything other than absolute impartialness to the point of once even when she was sure she where about to die saying ‘If I don't survive tell Spike hello’. That one time though…

It was only a just a month or so ago now when it happen. I saw it, Macintosh saw it and Fluttershy saw it. For a scant few seconds it was there: she wore a smile. And it ain’t a forced fake smile that Pinkie had made her do so many times. This one was genuine right down to the core. It happened right after she told us ‘I’m pregnant’ and I don’t think I’ve ever seen my brother happier than that moment. Or Twilight for that matter.

Kinda feels hard to top that there little story but I’ma try. From Twilight a guess that leads us to Spike. So him and Sweetie Belle are getting married in a year. And I’d wager any amount it’s going to be exactly a year from now. Right on our anniversary too. Ain’t sure if I should be flattered or annoyed by this but it’s going to happen.

Now, I ain’t exactly 100% in the loop on the matter but I heard they’re trying for a foal. Or an egg rather. A chimera. Would’ve used to be they’d go to Twilight for the spell they needed for it to happen, given that ponies and dragons can’t naturally breed. Luckily Sweetie Belle’s a unicorn and Spike just happened to be the former number one assistant to the most powerful unicorn alive. Sufficed to say, they have the spell.

Now I don’t know if they get a bun in the oven… or would it be an egg in the pot? Anyway, I don’t know if they plan on moving the wedding up a bit if she gets herself an egg before then or if it doesn’t count as being born until after it hatches or any of that stuff. Of course with what happened to Rarity, it’s possible they won’t even end up getting married.

Geez, I’m making everything sound a lot worse than it really is aren’t I? Rarity and Elusive are still together. In fact, they’re living together again. Right now the whole lot of them, Rarity, Elusive, Sweetie Belle and Spike, are all off in Prance visiting their father. Of course that’s got nothing to do with what happened to Rarity. Her thing was about… six, seven months ago? Around that time.

So Rarity’s freaking out; no surprise there. But for once she has a pretty good reason, though I’d have been grateful for it in me and Fluttershy’s boots. She was pregnant. Now you might’ve picked up on the word ‘was’ in that sentence and remembered her talking with Dash about what she should’ve done with her pregnancy. Well, it ain’t like that. Turns out it was a false alarm with a false-positive on the test.

Problem was though, Elusive refused to marry her before she found that out. She’d begged him to marry her, make an honest mare out of her and not bring a bastard into the world. And he completely refused. Long story short, I went down there to buck his teeth out. I almost did too. What Rarity had neglected to mention was that he HAD proposed to her not a month before that. And she’d refused.

Rarity had told him what they had worked. That she loved him and he loved her, and that was enough for her. She didn’t need a title like husband or wife to know that they loved each other. So when she’d flip-flopped on that and demanded he take her hoof, he’d known it wasn’t what she’d truly wanted. Now Rarity being her overly dramatic self had never given him a chance to tell her that and upon hearing it she was right back in his hooves.

Quite frankly I don’t know if it’s romantic or stupid. Going to have to lean towards romantic seems Applebloom had a similar thing with Jade Dagger. Gosh… this one’s a story that’s for sure. Don’t even know where to start really. So my sister had the pregnancy scare too, except she was pregnant. Now Jade Dagger, the guy who knocked her up wanted the kid and she didn’t. So when she got rid of it, he left her. And left her pretty broken up too.

So some stuff happened, again sounding equal parts stupid and romantic, and she found herself in a relationship with Diamond Tiara. That was going pretty well for a few months. Then Jade came back into the picture. Now as much as he’d hurt my sis, she’d hurt him just as much it turns out. There’s a back and forth for a few weeks between those three. And in the end, DT ends up breaking up with Applebloom.

Ton of drama in between but that’s the short version. Now, my sis and Jade ain’t back together though at this point. Sure, they’re civil with each other and they’re no longer screaming at the top of their lungs at one another like they were when he first got here so by then I’m thinking everything's fine and dandy. I’m wrong of course.

So Silverspoon came to me, not wanting to dump more on my sister’s plate and asked me to help look after DT in this whole mess, what with her past issues and all. Turns out though, those past issues are just that: in the past. She’s completely fine. Applebloom on the other hoof… I hear Sweetie Belle did something similar and to a lesser degree. But Sweetie Belle was able to heal herself.

Anyway, she was in the hospital for over a month with burn on some ridiculous percentage of her body. Straight boiling hot shower, so hot she passed out in it. I owe Jade so much for getting her out of there… though I gotta wonder how he knew what she was doing in the shower. She’s fine luckily. The burns weren’t life threatening, just wide spread, and barely skin deep. I don’t know the burn degree terminology but it where just the heavy blistering level one.

After that month in the hospital with Jade coming to visit her every day, well every day except one and let me tell you that one day he didn’t show up caused a lot of drama… but that’s not the point. After that they found themselves back with one another. Things were going well and he finally left the farm. Oh right, forgot to mention that in my idiotic kindness I’d let him stay at the farm while he where in town thinking it would only be a week or so… cut to two and a half months later and he’s still there. But eventually, he moved in with Applebloom.

So once again I think things are going well. Like I said they’re acting civil with one another and their all lovey-dovey again. At least in public. They’re over for dinner with me, Fluttershy, Angel, Big Mac, Twilight, Spike, Sweetie Belle, Rarity, Elusive, Silverspoon, Diamond Tiara, Scootaloo, Gilda, Vinyl Scratch for some reason, Octavia, Elliot, Pinkie Pie and Ace and Ven. I think I could’ve just said 'all of us' but oh well. We were having a special dinner to celebrate Trixie coming back a year after she'd saved the town last winter wrap-up. She was more devastated to heard what happened to Twilight than I think even Shining Armour was. Too bad none of the royals could make it to that dinner but can’t have everything I guess.

So Applebloom and Jade are fighting, having some silly little argument like very couple does. But it starts getting a little loud. Didn’t help that Gilda egged them on until both Vinyl and Scootaloo whacked her up-side the head. Anyway, the two of them reach a fever pitch and I’m starting to usher Fluttershy away with Angel when out of the blue, he just punches my sister right square in the jaw. Hard.

So I’m up over the table and on top of him before anypony else can even register what just happened. I tackled him to the ground, sitting on his chest and just wailing on him for a good minute before I finally stop. I ain’t sure who it was but I pulled away by at least two ponies trying to pull me off of the guy. And after all that, do you know what he says? He turns to Applebloom, big smile on his face and says ‘That counted as your punch.’

Now I had no idea what the hell he meant and I was right about to start into him again, thinking he’d meant ‘We’re even now so I can hit you again’ or something. Only thing that stopped me was Applebloom starts laughing. I turn up and look at her and she’s just laughing right at me. And then she said back to him ‘No I think I would’ve hit you harder, I still owe you half’a one.’ And he starts laughing too.

Know what I learned? Those two kick the crap out of each other! I mean they fight all the time. Like really REALLY fight! Turns out they try not to start throwing punches in front of other ponies for that very reason of what I just did. I don’t even know how to explain it right. I mean, they’re both professional fighters after all but still… am I the only one who finds this weird? I mean it’s not even a dominance thing ‘cause they both just beat the living hay out of each other and neither one’s really in the lead. It’s just… just…

Moving on. So I mentioned Scootaloo and Gilda didn’t I? Well Scootaloo moved back up to Cloudsdale after quitting her job at the Ponyville Foal-Mart. She got her old job back at the Cloudsdale Foal-Mart. Should’ve also mentioned that Elusive took Scootaloo’s vacant job here in Ponyville. It sounds mighty complex whose jobs got where but after Filthy Rich passed, rest his soul, Diamond Tiara inherited all his assets, including ownership of the company.

Anyway… actually I’m ganna go off on a tangent here, I’ve been trying to avoid starting with ‘anyway’ or ‘so’ but I’ve still been doing it a lot. Anyway… I just didn’t again didn’t I? So-DANG IT!!! So anyway… from what I heard Scootaloo and Gilda are an item but they’re not serious. But also from what I heard they’ve been ‘not serious’ for almost six years now so take it with a pitch of salt.

I don’t know the exact details but I hear Silverspoon’s seeing some stallion and Diamond Tiara’s for the most part gotten over her issues. Or at least hasn’t had time to worry about them after taking over her father’s businesses. That girl could buy the entirety of Ponyville if she wanted too and yet still lives in a small house with three other ponies. She’s humble I’ll give her that.

I guess that just leaves me and Fluttershy. Can’t really say too much about us. We haven’t had any fights or anything even minor between us and it’s been a pretty calm year. Well, calm excluding all the stuff we went through for our friends that is. The biggest thing I can think of was Pinkie filing out some legal forms and Angel’s name is technically spelt ‘Anjel’ but we’re happy for a little bit of Pinkie to be in our son too.

Now as I said before, today’s that little guys birthday. He’s turning one year old. It’s also Fluttershy and I’s anniversary. That’s where I am right now. Laying here against our tree. Then sun’s starting to set off in the distance, I’m here, lightly nuzzling Fluttershy, she's wearing my hat, and all the while Angel’s pressing up between the both of us, just like he was a year ago when I uttered these words then…

Actually, there is one thing. It’s pretty big now that I think of it, one of our earliest things me and Fluttershy had with each other. I broke a promise to her that I made back on our first date. But you know what? I don’t even care. In fact, I couldn’t be happier about it. Don’t think she could either. I promised she would be the only one I ever called it but…

Happy Birthday Sug

Author's Note:

Roughly translated what you just read says 'I had another 40 chapters worth'.

I cried when writing the part where AJ met RD's parents. I got teary-eyed when I gave the story a once over and I got a bit glassy when I put it up here and did the final check.
The part where Dash's death wouldn't be the same day as the birth of Angel was a reference, or at least inspired by, Scrubs when Jordan gives birth to Jennifer Dylan Cox was when Lavern died and Dr. Cox doesn't want the two things to be forever associated with each other.
And to a lesser extent Angel being called Anjel is how Jennifer Dylan is J.D.

The story line of Twilight having her horn removed was going to end with her becoming emotionless as a magical side-effect. Big Mac was going to have a crisis of heart that she no longer felt anything for him but he would ultimately stay with her because even though she didn't love him, he loved her. And that emotion would illicit a small amount of emotion from Twilight in turn and that's how their story would've ended.
Unfortunately, I didn't start this final part soon enough and the story was cut short and ended simply with this. It's a happy[ish] ending and though it could've been deeper, the same story is still there and I'm happy with it. Also you just read that so you have a deeper appreciation for them now anyway.