//------------------------------// // Birthday // Story: Reincarnation // by Silver Butcher //------------------------------// Leaf was at the store with her mom as she tried on various dresses, but it was for a good cause she was turning six. Of course I would forget my actual date of birth in reincarnation but hey its free cake. Spike though as she came out of the dressing room in a light blue dress with a bow on the back with matching Tiara. "Oh, my baby girl looks so cuuuute." Her mother squeed as she took a picture and put it with the others. "Mooooom." Leaf wined "This is embarrassing why can't I just wear a tuxedo?" "As cute as that would be the party is princess themed so you're are stuck with getting a dress." Leaf sighed but excepted her fate. Her new family wasn't poor but they weren't exactly well off either with the only source of income coming from their general goods store that was across the street from their house. The consequence of this meant that when her mother noticed that the princess themed items were half off because of the lack of interest in princesses, her mother had taken advantage to give Leaf the biggest Birthday she had ever had, in this imparticular life at least. "At least there will be cake." Leaf muttered as she turned back into the dressing room, inside was a mountain of dresses she had tried on, they had been there for over 3 hours and she was so ready for this to end, "Oh Honey this dress is Seafoam Green with a Seashell necklace, and a pair of clip-on seahorse earing! And this one is a white with a lovely Tiara with a little red gem in it, oh and this one matched your fur color!" "Oh sweet Celestia I'm gonna be here forever," Spike groaned After another 2 hours of trying on dresses, they finally settled on a ruby red dress with a fake horn ring and slippers. It wasn't Spikes first choice but he could deal with it, anything to get some cake in her belly. The pair then headed to the park where all three of Leafs friends would be waiting for the party to start. Upon seeing them her friends ran to them and they all hugged. "Winter Breeze, Summer Rain, Autumn winds I'm so glad you could all make it." Leaf said in sincerity as she danced on the spot, she had figured out long ago that she probably wouldn't be seeing her other friends for a fairly long time, if ever, and as much as the thought had saddened her, she had pushed past it and moved on, but always set a tiny amount of hope that the day she see them again would come. Winter was wearing a light blue dress that matched her fur and scales, Summer was wearing a bright orange dress that contrasted her fur and scaled, and lastly Autumn was wearing a bright pink dress that was a little big for her. "Happy birthday Leaf." Summer said as the group went over to where their parents were so they wouldn't mess up their new dresses. "Winter I'm happy to see you got over your cold." Autumn gave a smile as she used her magic to spread out a blanket for them all to sit on. "No joke it was awful being sick I'm just glad I got sick over the weekend so I didn't have any homework to catch up on." Winters' throat sounded weak. Leaf figured from all the coughing she probably did. "I'm just happy you know who isn't here." Leaf said and her friends instantly shuddered. Leafs eldest brother had not improved over the years and in some aspects got even worse, being one of the only 4 Electrical Kirin in existence had made him famous, his fame had died by the time he was 9 but it had molded him into a self-centered ass that expected everything to be done his way, what was worse was that their great aunt, Ocean Smog, had encouraged this behavior and favored him heavily, due to being an electrical Kirin herself most likely. Spike remembered the day his parents had kicked him out of the house, at the age of 19 paying no rent and never having a job, Ocean had scooped him up and he was now living the high life with her and her wealthy husband. "And let's just hope he doesn't come here," She added with a nod "Just spent like three hours with my mom trying to just pick one and leave, but no, we had to try them all on just to make sure," her Three friends look at her for a moment and Summer shook her head, "I just realized I've never seen you wear a dress before," the other two nodded, "Leafy you look amazing," Winter said, "my dad's brother's wife makes clothes if you want I could get you a few more dresses," "I prefer tuxedos," Leaf storm replied, earning a sigh from her friends, "Leafy," Winter whined, "Why can't you just let us stuff you into a dress, maybe put on some makeup, really make you glow?" Leafy gave her the stink eye. "First because I don't enjoy this stuff, I'm doing this for mom, second I have seen you put makeup on Autumn and I don't want you doing it to me," "You were just intimidated by how awesome I looked," Autumn shot back, as they had been having their talk River and the rest of the parents present had been setting up a small picnic table, complete with the Leaf storms favorite cake, a Vanilla cake with small hard candies that looked like little gems, expensive, but since it was Leaf storms special day she did her best to make it as special as possible, "It's time for the birthday girl to make a wish," River said, sitting at one of the several tables Onyx was talking with a few of the other parents, at the cake table, sitting at the end Pop-pop was in deep, and well-thought-out, discussion with Sunset and Comet, "My gift is better," He said simply, "No ours is better," The said in unison, Pop-pop shook his head, "My gift is better," He said matter-of-factly, "No ours is better," The three had been doing this for over 9 minutes non-stop and only stopped when River informed them it was wishing time, Leaf walked up to the three of them and cleared her throat. "I believe I will be the judge of the best gift." She joked as Pop-Pop and the wonder twins blushed a little before laughing at the fact that a six-year-old is more mature than they are. But then again Leaf has always been responsible for her age. Always writing down lists of stuff that needed to get done along with important dates and the like. "Alright let's go get some cake." Pop-Pop then used his magic to pick up Leaf and put her on his back. "Besides I know I have the best gift." "IT," "IS," "ON," The twins say in alternating words. Leaf felt she would never understand how they do that but it was always amusing. River poked Onyx who jumped and got out of his chair, joining the family and friends to sing happy birthday to Leaf storm, who was placed at the end of the table by Pop-pop, The candles had been light and the song was about to begin when a voice sounded out. "Well, well, well," Astral said as he made his presence known, He was standing beneath the shadow of a tree and leaning against it, his face showed he expected a hero's welcome as he walked to the party, "Oh Celestia dammit," Spike thought as he approached "this'll make 6 birthdays in a row he's ruined, and that's like my entire life, as far as he knows, which makes it even more of a dick move in my books," Astral was very clearly empty hoofed, his present being 'the honor of his presence' as he put it, Astral walked to the table and took a seat, he looked over at Leafs friends and gave his usual comments, "Look at this, still pretending to like you to try and get close to me, it's adorable, really girls stop leading her on," Leaf knew her parents were trying very hard to ignore their son, Comet and Sunrise however bit back with words, "Do you see what I see Sunset?" "Why yes, Comet I think I do!" "It's the worlds first walking tub of lard," "I must say tho even for lard it is exceptionally repulsing," the two snicked when Pop-pop snaped "Hey!" the two looked a them "Now what has lard ever done to you two to deserve that?" The Twins laughed as Pop-pop smiled at them before getting up, having openly admitted to disliking his grandson ages ago, Astral denied this by saying it was his way of trying to be fair since the other three would never get as much attention as he would, "Hey Pop," Astral said with a nod "You almost dead yet?" "I've got a good 17 or 18 years left in me, and when I do die you ain't gonna be getting an inheritance from me," Astral shrugged, "Doesn't matter if you do or not, by then I'll have friends up so high I'll just have to ask em and they'll fix it so I get what I deserve," "Oh, now Astral," Leaf spoke up "Why must you deny Pop-pop the joy of seeing that, I think you should get what you deserve now," Pop-pop and the twins snicker at that as Astral looked over at her, "Leafy, Leafy, Leafy, I know you're trying to hurt my feelings, but taking out your anger over you future striping career on me..." "Astral," Onyx said calmly "Finish that sentence, go ahead, try me," Onyx and River were both smokings as they stared at their son, wishing that River's sister Ocean had never found out he had electrical powers and flaunted him to the world, "Alright, so this is 6 in a row right?" Leaf asked "all of my birthday parties that you've ruined," Astral waved her off, "Please, a party celebrating me getting a sister without me, I just saved this..." Astral gave her a disgusted look like he had just looked at a dead thing, "...speaking of saving, that dress is not helping your problem area," "Alright cake time!" Pop-pop decided, not wanting an Onyx, Astral shouting match for the third year in a row. "Leafy you hate that old song anyway right?" "You hate it too," She replied. "I'm old, I've heard it too many times," "I've heard it was more Pop's trust me on that," Spike thought as Pop-pop cut the cake, he gave a nice big piece of Leaf when Astral pointed at himself, "Star of the show here," he said dully "I'll take the first piece thanks," "Absolutely not," Pop-pop replied coldly "Birthday girl get's the first piece, you can have what ever's left when all who were invited get a piece," "Um," Astral said "This part is celebrating me getting a sister, so I should get the first piece, the accessory can have the second piece," "I want the first piece" Leaf declared loudly as Pop-pop set it down and proceded to serve Leafs friends, River and Onyx moved to the twins, asking them to help set up the presents, as this went down Astral made his move, "Thank's for holding this," He said as he attempted to push Leaf off her seat, as soon as he got close she combusted and he jumped back, this was when Leaf made the sad discovery that her new dress was not fireproof, the ring on her horn melted and the dress turned to ash, she looked down at it in silence, not angry, but more disappointed at all the time wasted picking it out, Astral tried going for the piece and she hissed at him, he turned in apparent defeat as Leaf turned to her long-awaited slice, when Astral struck his back hoof out, nailing the slice and sending it flying, Leaf sat in silence as Pop-pop turned just in time to see Astral shove the rest of the cake to the ground, "Vanilla, Disgusting, how hard is it to get Chocolate right?" all of the party goes where about to make a move at Astral when Leaf gave up "I'm done," Leaf declared loudly, gaining all of their attention "I'm leaving, Astral enjoy your motherfucking party," With that Leaf turned and stormed off, leaving flaming hoof prints behind her, Astral scoffed and was about to head out when Comet and Sunrise got him in a headlock, "I think you should smell with your nose-" Comet began and he shoved something small up Astrals left nostril, "-what we have to see with our eyes," Sunrise finished as he shoved a similar thing up Astrals right nostril. the two let him go and he turned, with sparks coming off him when the two balls in his nose deflated, reviling themselves to be the twins special skunk bombs, Astral howled as his eye's water and he ran, screaming for someone help, he was ignored by the party who where all trying to figure out what to do, Leafs friends where whispering to each other about their three pieces of cake, "I'll go get her," River sighed as she made to go get her daughter, "Excuse me," A voice said "We were just passing through and noticed that little scene," River turned and froze at the two standing before her, "You...you...you..." was all she could stutter when Pop-pop finished for her "You're the Princess of Friendship," "Yes I am," Twilight said with a wave "Discord and I are here to speak to Rain shine and we noticed...that happening, you wouldn't mind if I talk to your daughter real quick would you? I feel I might make her day a little better," "Please do that," River begged "I'll pay you to do that," "How much we talking here?" Discord asked, earning a glare from Twilight "Joking," he amended as Twilight gave River a short bow Discord walked over to the twins who looked up at him in awe, he said nothing as he was suddenly wearing a Trench coat with a Fedora and smoking a Cigar, he reached into the coat and handed them a card, "Where you both 18 go to a place called Cordio's, It's a joke shop I created, just place that card on the counter and I'll give you both jobs and market you skunk bombs," With that he moved to the table and sat down, his costume disappearing, looking at the trio talking as Twilight made her way after Leaf, the twins looked in amazement at the card, "Dang," they said in unison looking at each other.