Happy Birthday Dear...Who?
Another lonely school day, another lonely afternoon in my garden. Trudging away from the building, I followed the short path towards the alcove where I always held the Gardening Club. But this time, there are no other members here, now it’s nothing but me and all these flowers surrounding me. I know it might sound sad and all, but I’m used to it honestly, being invisible to everyone around me is just a natural thing for me.
I reach my garden, still looking beautiful since last week. Those new members really did a great job…I say as I see some potted flowers that weren’t in the right places. Guess those three forgot to finish when they left. I slowly got on my knees, opened my bag, and brought out the trowel I always bring with me. Rolling up my sleeves, I start working on fixing the plant. This’ll be no problem for me.
I’ve been working in gardens like this my entire life. Ever since I was young, this was how I spent all of my time, and never have I met anyone who shared the same interest as mine, not even my family. Even years later, I never convinced anyone to help me out, but at the very least, the silence is pretty nice for gardening. I can pretty much plant these without even trying. It allows me to think about other things.
It’ll be my birthday tomorrow, and just like last year…and the year before that…I’m not expecting anyone to wish me a Happy Birthday. Not like I haven’t gotten any from my family, teachers, and the guidance counselor I’ve been talking to in the past few weeks, but nobody else at school said anything about it. They’re just normal days to everyone, especially me. It’s not like I need other students to really care about some day like that. Then why does it feel so worse than all the other times?
“…” They picked out some pretty good flowers, really brings out the color of the garden. I’ll have to thank those guys whenever we meet up.
“I thought I’d find you sitting around here.”
Suddenly I hear a familiar, yet unexpecting voice, especially after what happened recently. Turning around, my thoughts were right, as I saw Sunset Shimmer right behind me. To say I was surprised was an understatement, I was downright speechless. “Uh…hi Sunset…guess you did find me.”
She approached me with her hands behind her back, a toothy grin plastered on that face of hers. A part of me was a bit suspicious; sure she’s now one of the nicest students in the school, but I’m still not sure why I’m shaking a bit. “Although, I honestly wasn’t expect you to be here by yourself. Don’t you have other members of the Gardening Club?”
I stood up wiping the dirt from my hands onto my jeans. I looked up to the slightly taller girl and used my hands to hide my cheeks. “They’re…not meeting with me today, I just like coming here from time to time. That’s it.”
I watch her glance around at my garden with a frown, I could tell just by looking that something’s off. “I’m starting to get the feeling people still don’t come around here,” she said. “Doesn’t it get lonely, all by yourself surrounded by nothing but plants?”
“I’m not lonely here, Sunset,” I slightly lied. “Like I said before, I have all these beautiful flowers to keep me company. I’m mean, it’s not like I’m still just some lonely girl without any real people to hang out with, unlike you.”
She gave me a leery look, “I…didn’t mean it like that.”
“Good! Because I’d rather be with something who has no chance of forgetting anything, than anyone in this school!” Immediately I realized what I blurted out, as Sunset started to back away from me, her face with a hint of fear. My heart started to drop as I remember how I felt in that parking lot when I took her memories. That face of fear and confusion she gave us wondering where she was, all made me regret ever digging that thing out.
I sighed, “I’m…sorry about that outburst Sunset. It…really does get pretty lonely out here by myself. Guess I never bothered to really express it to others.”
“That’s okay,” I suddenly hear her say, looking up to see her give me a small smile. “I didn’t gave you a good first impression. Actually, I didn’t gave you a good second impression either, so I can’t blame you if you still don’t like me for what happened last week.”
“O-of course I don’t h-hate you Sunset! I…I never b-…blamed you for what happened,” I stumbled on my words so much that I probably sounded like such a loser. If I still had that memory stone, this would be the part where I erase her memories and restart this whole conversation over. Now that it’s destroyed, I’m stuck in an embarrassing conversation with no way out.
“Um…I’m glad you came to see me, but…” I think my stomach’s about to burst. I must be making her so uncomfortable right now. I gotta get out of this before I start sweating up a storm.
“Well, it’s been great seeing you, but…oh man, would you look at the time! It’s starting to get late!”
“It’s…only 5 o’ clock.”
“Which means that it’s time to head off to bed! Early bird catches the worm they say.”
“But you’re not even done planting those pots behind you. You’re not just going to let them sit there, are you?
Darn it. Why am I such a slowpoke? I always waste so much time spacing out. Worst of all, I can’t think of a single good excuse to get out of this corner. Defeated, I took a deep breath. “Look Sunset, I really do appreciate you coming here to see me, but after everything that happened since last week, it’s a bit awkward to just act so casually, like nothing happened, right?”
I hoped she would understand everything I was rambling about, and leave. Better to have her not here before I do something stupid right in front of her. “Well, I guess you make a good point when you think about. A villain like you can never hang out with us good guys, especially one who erases memories.”
Well, that was easier than I thought. “That’s exactly right. I mean, I wouldn’t put it entirely that way, but…”
She continued. “And to think, I came all this way just to wish you Happy Birthday. That is today, right?”
My eyes shot open and my body tensed up. Did she just? “You know today’s my birthday!?”
She shrugged her shoulders, all nonchalantly like. “I mean, I did get pretty excited when I learned it was pretty close the other day, I even brought you something, but since we can’t be friends, I guess that means we should never see each other for the rest of our lives. I best be on my way then.”
She started to turn and leave. I knew it was too easy, but I was not expecting outright manipulation. She may not be the biggest meanie anymore, but she’s definitely taking advantage of those days. “Fine! I guess you win Sunset.”
Fortunately, she turned back around. Unfortunately, she started to speak with that stern voice.
“Wallflower. You’re obviously still upset about what happened last week, with the memory stone. Me and my friends forgave you, so you don’t need to act so distant like this anymore.”
“I know, but…it’s just….it’s hard for me to really put it to words. I’m not the best at conversation.”
Those eyes gave me that same scary stare she’s been giving me the entire day. I waited for her to say something back. Until she abruptly said, “Give me your arm.”
“W-What!” After that shock, it took me a good second to understand what she meant by that. And when I did, I immediately stepped back. “Are you going to read my memories?!”
Her eyes opened in surprise at what I said. “Well that’s a first, never had anyone but my friends call me out like that. But I am going to read your memories. It’ll make things easier for the both of us if you’re not comfortable talking to me. That is, if you don’t mind me looking.”
Despite the warm look she was giving me, I still hesitated to give her my hand. With her reassurance however, I took a deep breath. “Okay, but no looking into anything private!”
“Don’t worry about that, I learned to control how much and what I see. Just take a deep breath and let me take a peek.”
I sighed as I held out my arm for her. Without hesitation, she grabbed it with her right hand, and eyes flashed white. I didn’t get a good look when she searched my memories the first time, but now that I can see her, it’s such a surreal and freaky sight to look at. A couple seconds later she released her grip as her eyes went back to normal.
“Well…what did you see?” I asked, fully aware of what the answer was already.
She shook her head in reaction, her eyes glistening with resolve. “Enough to know that you’ve been punishing yourself by distancing yourself to even the members of your club. You were even planning on canceling the club were you?”
I didn’t have time to respond, too ashamed to really say anything to her. She kept talking for me. “You’ve even went as far as to make sure nobody knew about your birthday. I was lucky enough to look it up through the student records just in time, but you did a great job making sure no one learned that it was today. You can’t be invisible for the rest of your life!”
I couldn’t take this anymore. “Well maybe I should, Sunset! Maybe I should just keep blending in until even you guys forget I exist!” She was about to say something, but I was just so strung up that I had to keep going. “That night when you guys destroyed the memory stone, I spent that whole night thinking about how much I really erased, so many people’s memories I snuffed out because I was so insecure. I was so jealous that everyone loved you despite what you did, while no one even knew my name. But that’s still not an excuse for what I did.”
That pit from my stomach felt much lighter, but it was still just a bittersweet feeling. “I’ve never felt so ashamed in my entire life, you may not share my thoughts, but I just can’t help but think that I deserve to just stay hidden. You understand that, right?”
I wasn’t really paying much attention when I was talking, so imagine my surprise when I heard Sunset…chuckling. I turned to see that she actually was trying to hold it in, and failing. I couldn’t believe it, she wasn’t laughing at me, right?
“Hey,” She suddenly said, getting my attention, “you know, I can understand exactly how you’re feeling. I can also understand enough to know that you’re taking this way too seriously. What you’ve done may be unforgivable, but to be honest, turning into a power-hungry she-demon bent on interdimensional conquest is arguably worse. ”
I vividly remember how terrifying Sunset was in that demon form. I had nightmares for weeks. Still… “Well, I wouldn’t say it’s worse than erasing memories for the sake of quelling your own insecurities, but it’s pretty close. Um…where are we going with this?”
She gave me the same warm smile from earlier. “No matter what we’ve done in the past, nobody deserves to be forgotten. Even if you think you do, it won’t help anyone. You really don’t want to be forgotten do you?”
“NO!” I suddenly said, “I mean…not literally. Not even sure if that’s possible.”
“Then how about we move on from all that and try to make new, better memories. Besides…” She suddenly opened her backpack’s side pocket to reveal a box wrapped up in beautifully flashy paper, and along with a neat little bow. “I still need to wish you Happy Birthday!”
She handed me the small object which I wasted no time in accepting. The wrapper had an amazingly bright sunflower pattern and the bow itself was bright green with a vine-like patterns. I wanted to keep whatever it was inside so I wouldn’t have it all go to waste. Without another thought however, I quickly found myself opening the gift. And…
“Ten coupons for free milkshakes at Sugarcube Corner?”
I looked up to see Sunset rubbing the back of her head. “Yeah, I had no idea what you wanted, and I couldn’t just ask you directly, so I had Pinkie whip this up for me on the spot. I hope you still like it.”
I’m more of a fruit smoothie person, but I was so overwhelmed with so much joy, I couldn’t help but rush in and give Sunset the biggest hug I could muster. “It’s perfect Sunset! Thank you so much!”
I felt her arms wrap around me. “You’re welcome Wallflower.” She was so warm.
After a while, I let go of her, and besides the both of us clearly feeling a bit embarrassed, we were both feeling much better as well. I then heard her say, “You know, I told the girls about your birthday, and they were all talking about throwing you a party to celebrate. You should’ve seen Pinkie, she was absolutely ecstatic about throwing your first party just for you. Though I had to turn her down, I wasn’t sure if you were into something like that.”
“Well…yeah. A small little get together at Sugarcube Corner is good enough for me,” I said a bit reluctantly. Then another thought came to my mind. “But I wouldn’t mind if we went to the mall tomorrow and maybe…buy a new camera I could use for my Gardening Club.”
Sunset gave me a quick laugh. “Well, I think that could be arranged. How about we cash in these coupons first. I bet you’ll just love Pinkie’s Rainbow Supreme Shake. Probably the reason why she gave you all those coupons, but it’s not like you can complain, right?”
I looked back at the coupons, then back at the garden behind me, and back at Sunset with a smile. “Sure, but I still got a couple flowers left to plant. Can’t leave them behind in good conscience. Care to join?”
With a nod, we both started to get to work on the last few flowers, and at the end of the day, I never looked so forward to my birthday in years. For the first time, I have friends to celebrate it with, and now I can’t wait ‘til next year.