Nine – Happy Birthday, Twily
The snow was falling hard over Canterlot that evening, with icy winds frosting the windows of the royal apartments. Spike stared out at the blizzard, glad he wasn’t out there right now. Even his scales couldn’t protect him from that chill, and pity the tireless weather ponies in charge of bringing winter to the city.
He sighed and leaned his head against the pane. “Stay safe, Rarity,” he murmured. “Stay warm for me.”
“Oh, I shall, my Spikey-wikey!” Twilight called out in a poor imitation of Rarity’s posh accent.
The dragon spun around and glared at her, but she giggled and trotted over to his side on the couch. “Sorry to tease you like that. If it helps, I miss her, too.” As she sat down, Twilight’s face became gloomy. “I miss all our friends back in Ponyville.”
Spike put his arm around her. “I guess it’s not so bad. At least some of our friends are here.”
“And that’s the best birthday present I could ask for.” Twilight tilted her head to the side and smiled. “Well, maybe the next Daring Do book would be better. Ooh, or the third-edition biography on Madame du Ponydour! I already have nine out of the ten books for my collection! I should really make a list—”
“Don’t.” A claw-tap to the top of her head brought Twilight’s rambling. “Just enjoy the party.”
“Did somepony say party?” With a trumpet blare to announce her arrival, Pinkie Pie trotted into the living room with a three-layer birthday cake balanced on top of her head like a crown.
Fluttershy came in behind her with a flock of brightly-colored birds nesting in her mane. With a content smile, the pegasus flew over the couch and lifted her hoof like a conductor. “Ready? A one and a two and a three!”
The birds began to sing a simple version of “Happy Birthday” to Twilight, fluttering their wings at the end of each verse. When they finished, Pinkie Pie knelt down and offered the cake to Twilight and Spike.
The excited filly clapped her hooves and blew out the candles. As she did, a faint pink cloud of dust rose up from the top of the cake. Twilight inhaled the dust and sighed happily.
Spike jumped off the couch and took shelter behind Pinkie Pie. “So, Twilight… is it working?”
“Well, these things take time, Spike,” Twilight explained. “It’s not like I can just flick my tail and make it—aaah!”
With an audible crack, her legs began to stretch out by an inch or two. Twilight’s eyes squeezed shut as her mane and tail grew, too. Her body twisted up and down, scaring everypony else into drawing away from her.
When it stopped, she violently sneezed out a jet of pink dust and sat back on the couch.
“Woo-hoo!” cried Pinkie Pie. “That was fun! Do it again!”
“Gosh, Twilight, you really are a year older now.” Fluttershy landed beside the filly as the birds flew out of her mane and up to the rafters. “Does it hurt?”
“Mm, only a little.” Twilight gasped and put her hooves to her mouth. “My voice got deeper, too!”
“We should have more parties like this in Ponyville!” Pinkie Pie declared. “Wouldn’t that be super-duper spectacular?”
Spike slapped his forehead. “If we did that, wouldn’t we run out of kids because they’re all getting older?”
“But we’d have birthday cake every day, Spike!” She grabbed him by the face and looked deep into his eyes, manically smiling the whole time. “Cake. Every. Day.”
“That’d be amazing…” he whispered. Now he couldn’t stop thinking about waking up to a gem-encrusted cake every morning.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Twilight warned. She was huddled next to Fluttershy, who sheltered the filly with her wing. “We need to plan tomorrow’s party. I got my cutie mark when I was that age, and that was when Spike’s egg hatched, too.”
“Oh, yeah!” Spike pumped his fists. “And I know exactly what I want on my cake!”
“But you didn’t get a cake when you were hatched.”
“All the more reason I should get one now!”
The air grew colder as the front door was opened, then quickly shut. In trotted Time Turner, followed closely by Twilight Velvet and Nightlight, all wearing scarves and bearing gifts. When they saw Twilight on the couch, they stopped and smiled.
“Marvelous!” Time Turner exclaimed. He tore open the box he’d been carrying and took out his circadian hourglass. Then he dashed over to Twilight’s side and held the hourglass close to her head.
Spike squinted at the device. He saw sand pouring through it, just a little slower than usual. And if he looked hard enough, he thought he could see a faint pink glow in the sand, too.
“This confirms it,” said the timekeeper. “Your body’s timeline is catching up with your real one. That’s one birthday down and thirteen to go!”
Nightlight grinned as he nudged his present over to Twilight. “Open it, honey.”
The filly jumped off the couch and stared at her gift. Slowly, her horn turned magenta and the present slowly began to unwrap itself. Everypony cheered her on as the ribbon and wrapping paper fell to the floor.
When the box was open, Twilight looked inside. She gasped and pulled out a handmade doll. It was light blue with a mane full of differently-colored yarn. Spike could’ve sworn it looked an awful lot like Rainbow Dash without wings.
“Cadance wanted to thank you for the photo we sent,” said Velvet. “So she made this for us and sent it over by the fastest pegasus in the Crystal Empire. Isn’t that wonderful?”
“Yes!” Twilight began to bounce around in a circle, lost in her joy. “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!”
Pinkie Pie began to bounce in a circle around her, mimicking her happy expression. Spike tried to watch, but was getting dizzy and turned to the delicious cake sitting on the coffee table.
He figured there’d be plenty more parties, so nopony would mind if he stuck out his claw and swiped a nice chunk of frosting for himself…