//------------------------------// // September // Story: My Little Dashie: 2020 // by Rdasher12 //------------------------------// *September 17th* (Dashie’s 9th Birthday) It's been nine years... it's crazy how time goes by so fast. Twelve-year-old me seemed like a lifetime ago to twenty-one-year-old me, even though twenty-one-year-old me only seems like nine months ago in comparison now. I wish it would slow down at some point. All I did was go to work for a day and whaddya know she got so much older while I was gone it seems. It really puts things into perspective for me. I never understood when my mom felt very much the same way that I do now towards me. Time always went by so slowly when I was younger, I had no idea what my mom was talking about, and I even thought that she was being a bit overdramatic and sappy. What I wouldn't give today for her to be here acting that exact way that annoyed me so much when she was still around... But, enough about me, today is Dashie's day, and I'm going to make sure that it's as good if not better than her previous birthdays, even with everything going on in the world still today. ---------- "Happy Birthday!" I cheer as I jump around on Dashie's bed. Serves her right for what she did for me on my birthday morning. I'll consider it a tradition from now on. Dashie's upper body lurches forward with a sharp gasp as I continue to chant the same two words. "Happy Birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday Dashie!" I can't help but laugh along with what I was doing considering just how out of character I was behaving just to get back at her. Dashie looks around almost frighteningly as I come to a stop. I contemplate if I overdid it as I speak. "Well, what else did you expect, Dashie? I couldn't let you get away with you jumping around on my bed when it was my birthday last month!" I continue to chuckle as Dashie gives a sigh of relief in response. After a moment, she pipes up. "It's not that... I think I just had a bad dream, hehe... But yeah, I guess I deserved that, Pops. If you've got me up this early then you better have breakfast ready!" I nod to her and grin as I answer. "Of course, of course... Meet me in the dining room in five, okay?" Dashie smiles back at me as I leave the room and close the door so that she can get ready for the day. As I head for the kitchen to finish preparing our breakfast, I can't help but wonder what she was dreaming about. Come to think of it, I too had a bad dream the night before my birthday. That sure is an odd coincidence, but I'm sure it's nothing more than that... ---------- Every year that I think about it, I can't help but be convinced that Dashie is way older than the age I've given her entails. Of course, I started at zero on the night that I found her and never really bothered messing with it since. It's likely that she's into her teenage years by now, probably more along the lines of thirteen or fourteen in actual years instead of nine like we're celebrating today. Dashie has never really had much to compare it to aside from the occasional teenage cartoon, so she hasn't really said much about the whole thing. Her actual age has become fairly obvious to me, however, especially in the last couple of years. I think she hit the pony equivalent of puberty about two years ago and since then, her voice has gotten a bit deeper and raspier, so more in line with the voice I used to be familiar hearing in the show. On top of that, she started growing even faster than she already was as a filly, which was apparent thanks to the growth chart that I had been marking for her ever since I found her. At the end of the day, it's not really hurting anything to leave it be, and if Dashie nor I are bothered by it, I don't see much reason to add on years right now. Maybe sometime in the near future when she's close to adulthood it'll make a lot more sense to do that so that she's not labeled as a teen when she clearly isn't. But, we'll see... Dashie and I are currently at the park once again for her annual "birthday performance". She's always acted as if each one had to be more awesome than the previous, training whenever she came to the park to perfect her techniques and even develop new ones along the way. It was kind of cool in a way, though. Obviously, she can't go to school and participate in sporting events, but if she could, I know that she'd be all over it and it'd help to itch her competitive drive a bit. So, even though she can't do that, she's seemed to have made up her own way of itching it herself. That can only mean good things in my book. I'd much rather that happen out here than inside of my house! I continue to watch my daughter as she zips and wooshes through the air, cutting through it like a hot knife through butter. Her stunt vocabulary really has increased a lot over the years, some of the stunt's names I don't even understand... There are flips, barrel rolls, 180s, and 360s, not to mention 90s, and that's about where she loses me for the most part... Maybe one day I'll educate myself more thoroughly on the subject to make her happy. Her rainbow trail is as cool as ever, as she'd put it. However, I always thought that "majestic" fit the bill a lot better, even if that word might be a bit fancy for her. Oh yeah, about the gift that Dashie got for me last month. I still haven't figured out what on Earth it's supposed to be or do exactly. I've tried looking it up on my phone and even seeing if it was sold at my work but to no avail. I've tried everything that I can think of and Dashie has shown no signs of giving me any hints about it let alone the answer. I'm sure I'll figure it out one day, or maybe Dashie will get bored of making fun of me for not knowing and spill the beans. Either way, I decided to get back at her double for what she did. I went out of my way to create something totally random for her as well. To be honest, I'm not so sure what it is myself. It definitely doesn't do anything, and since there are no right answers to what it is exactly, there's absolutely no way that she can guess what it is correctly. Once again, it serves her right! ---------- It was tough getting her home before nightfall. If it weren't for the somewhat cooler temperatures at night this time of year, I don't think that I would've gotten her back in time for her birthday dinner and cake along with her presents. Speaking of presents, it was just about time for them. I get up from my seat at the table and get the cake from the fridge. I can see Dashie's ears perk up at the sight of it as I light all nine candles on the cake. Dashie giggles when I start to walk back towards the dining room table with the cake in tow. "Ha! Looks like it's your turn to get all embarrassed singing that lame song again!" I shrug off her seemingly rude comment and chuckle. I know that she doesn't mean it. Yeah, it's a little awkward being the only one singing the Happy Birthday song to someone, but I don't mind one bit if it's for Dashie, and I'm sure that she feels the same way and appreciates it. I put the cake on the table in front of Dashie and her gifts and start to sing. Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday, my little Dashie, Happy Birthday to you I can tell that Dashie is trying to hold back some laughter as she closes her eyes. I taught her from a very young age that you never; under any circumstances, tell a single soul about what you wished for your birthday or it won't come true. With that being said, it used to be incredibly easy to figure out what she was wishing for as a filly. It made it a lot easier to make them true if I knew. After all, my goal has always been to make sure that she's happy. As the years have gone on, however, it's gotten more and more difficult to figure her out. I haven't been able to tell for sure what her birthday wishes have been for quite a few birthdays now. I haven't the slightest clue what they might've been nor if they have come true, or not. In all my thinking, Dashie blew out her candles. I bounced out of my own head and back to reality and clap for my daughter before pushing one of the two gifts on the table towards her. "Ya know, I've been trying to guess what you got me for weeks. But, it's been like, impossible! I didn't even ask for anything. I have everything that I could ever want. So, Pops, what do you get a mare that already has everything?" Little did Dashie know that being cooped up in a house with the only access to the outside world being a TV meant that 'everything' to her wasn't even the tip of the iceberg... "Why don't you open this first present and find out?". To be totally honest, what I got her wasn't anything crazy by my own means. It was a rather cheap, unique gift that she definitely hasn't even heard of before. Without further delay, she tears into the wrapping paper surrounding the gift. She eventually gets it all off to find a packet of space ice cream. "What... is this stuff?" She looks around the packaging quizzically, trying to figure out what on Earth 'space ice cream' was supposed to be. I had taken some time when she was younger to teach her about outer space, but there's only so much that I can teach her myself. "Well, this gift sort of requires another science lesson. So, how about we put it aside for now and you can open up your other gift?" I push the unopened gift closer to her as she averts her gaze to the new wonder in front of her. "Whatever you say, Pops. Not sure why you gave me that one first then..." She casually rips open the next gift, still somewhat confused about the last one. In all honesty, I had only done that to make her confused so that she was even less prepared for what was about to come. Dashie finishes opening her other gift and, after looking at it for a mere moment, she looks back at me with a slightly annoyed face. "What the heck, Dad? None of these gifts make any sense!" She slammed her hooves onto the table in a bit of a fit, but I'm quick to alleviate her frustrations. I pull out the weird gift that she got me for my birthday just over one month ago, now. "Ya see, Dashie? You've had this coming for quite a while. Did you really think that I'd let you off of the hook so easily? Now, we both have to deal with the torment of having no idea what our gifts are for. How does it feel?". Dashie stares on in defeat as she leans her head back against her chair. "My brain hurts..." ---------- After a brief science lesson on why astronauts can't eat normal ice cream in space, we enjoyed her first gift with much vigor. I do feel a little bad about getting her back for what she did, but at least I can say that I still gave her an actual gift along with it. I've just retired to my bedroom for the night, having given Dashie a big hug and one last Happy Birthday in her room beforehand. I had joked that my bonus gift to her would be me sleeping in her bed with her that night like she had done for me the month previously. I would have done it too if she were really up for it. But, she was never going to say yes, which somehow made the whole thing that much more comedic. She only had a twin as that was all that I could afford at the time, so it's not like it would've worked anyways. On another note, the pandemic had seemed to steady itself during the hot summer months. Cases and deaths were as low as they had been since the start of it all. However, recently the numbers have been going back up and while it hasn't had me worried about it yet, it does claim a slightly larger plot of land in the back of my mind than it did during the summer. It sure isn't going to get any warmer, and with there still not being any vaccine out in the near future, I'm afraid that it could get pretty bad... Dashie and I have continued to do everything that we need to stay safe during all of this, but sometimes it doesn't matter and bad things happen anyways. I really hope that won't be the case, and I'm probably just overthinking things, but I can't seem to help it... Surely, a good night's rest will put my mind at ease. I clear my mind of all that occupied it and slowly drift off to sleep. That night, I dream about what the world might look like when it comes out of the other side of this whole pandemic. It's certainly changed the way that we see what used to be normal, everyday things, and I can't see that stigma going away with the virus. Then again, as long as Dashie is safe, I could care less. I do it all for her. I've always done it all for her. I will continue to do it all, for her.