Today's His BIRTHDAY?!

by ThePinkedWonder

Chapter 4: Solving the case

Ten minutes before Eric Reed’s party…

The hot-air balloon holding the three ex-game hunters landed near Twilight’s castle. Twilight, Starlight, and Spike immediately hopped out of its basket and hurried to Ponyville’s bookshop. There, Twilight purchased a book called “101 pranks for the ultimate prankster”.

The trio then sprinted to Ponyville’s joke shop. Starlight bought a cache of practical joke items, such as fake bits and small rubber balls that can be set to harmlessly explode in green slime.

With Twilight’s gift covered in pink-purple wrapping paper, tied in a light-pink bow, and Starlight’s in a blue wrapping paper and tied in a green bow, the trio sped toward Twilight’s castle.

“I hope Eric likes what we got for him. This is going to give him a serious edge during his next monthly prank war with Rainbow and Pinkie,” Starlight said in a cheerful voice.

“Yep. Pinkie won their last one, so Eric’s going to enjoy what you two bought way more than volumes one and two of 'Equestria's beginnings’,” Spike remarked with a smirk towards Twilight.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Ha ha, Spike. I just hope this will be enough to let him not doubt how much Starlight and I care for him.” Still fighting the nag of regret in her heart, Twilight sighed and added, “If our gifts can do that and prevent him from becoming homesick, I can forgive myself for forgetting his birthday. I will NOT repeat this mistake next year!”

The friends dashed to and through the doors of the castle. They rushed through the lobby, down the hallways, but stopped at Spike's bedroom. Spike needed to retrieve his gift, which was wrapped in green wrapping paper. With Spike’s gift in tow, Twilight, Starlight, and Spike zipped through the hallways again and, finally, through the door to the castle’s dining hall.

“SURPRISE!!”

Twilight, Starlight, and Spike yelped and jumped, the gifts from the trio dropping to the floor. Inside the hall, straight ahead of them, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Applejack covered their mouths with their hooves. As well as others, such as the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Maud, Trixie, and even Discord. On the table, multiple wrapped boxes, some small, some large, others in between, lay across it. A bowl full of red-colored juice sat beside a big pink cake.

Pinkie uncovered her mouth. “Oops. We thought you were Eric. Rarity went out to get him a few minutes ago.”

“And where the hay have y’all been?” Applejack pointed at the gifts on the floor. “Did yer run late gettin’ Eric’s gifts or somethin’?”

“Uh...you could say that,” Twilight answered with an uneasy grin.

“Oh.” Rainbow chuckled and commented, “With how you plan, Twilight, I figured you stashed him a gift months ago.”

Twilight tittered, her face glowing red. Starlight pawed the floor with a forehoof.

“What did you get him? Bet it won’t top the Great and Powerful Trixie’s gift: a magician's cape,” Trixie boasted with a hoof on her chest.

Twilight and Starlight picked up their and Spike’s gifts with their magic, walked to the table, and laid the gifts down. As they did, Twilight thought, ‘Please let it be that Pinkie reminded Trixie of Eric’s birthday or I’ll NEVER let myself live it down.’ After the gifts were set, Twilight glanced toward Trixie. The edges of the alicorn's lips curled upward, and she gritted her teeth tighter than she meant to.

“I got him some ‘Power Ponies’ comics, Twilight picked out a book on pranks, and Starlight brought him some stuff for pranks.”

Pinkie and Rainbow turned their heads to each other and giggled.

“What?” Twilight asked, cocking her head.

“Pranks and a book on them are what Pinkie and I bought him. Or rather, Pinkie got him pranks, I got him a book that has 101 pranks.” Rainbow motioned to a pink and a light-blue wrapped box.

“WHAT?!” Twilight and Starlight yelled simultaneously.

Twilight spun her head to Starlight with a frantic frown. "Starlight, we can’t give him this now! Maybe there's still–”

The door to the dining hall creaked opened, forcing Twilight and her ex-student to twirl around. It revealed both Rarity and Equestria’s lone human, Eric Reed, or "Buggie" as Twilight and Starlight prefer to address him with as a nickname they gave him. He wore a hat with designs of Twilight’s, Starlight’s, Rarity’s, Applejack’s, Rainbow’s, Fluttershy’s, and Pinkie’s Cutie Marks; Twilight’s and Starlight’s were near the top. Around his neck, a necklace with a green geode hung from it. While he generally doesn't care much about fashion – the geode was a past gift – he did enjoy the clothes Rarity personally made for him, such as the white shirt and dark-blue shorts he was wearing.

Twilight and Starlight jumped back. Twilight inadvertently flicked a wing behind her, and it slammed into the bowl of juice. The liquid splashed and dumped over them, covering much of their bodies and manes.

“Twilight!” Starlight shivered from the impact. She delivered a hard scowl aimed at Twilight.

“S-sorry, Starlight! I-I-I just…” Twilight gasped. She forgot Eric was there.

Starlight followed Twilight’s lead with a gasp of her own. Both mares forced a smile, faced Eric, and simultaneously said, “U-uh, surprise! H-happy birthday, Buggie!”

Eric, the ponies, and Discord all stared at the two suspicious mares in silence.

Rarity stepped forward and asked, “Okay, Twilight, Starlight, what is wrong? You two and Spike had been gone for hours, and now you are acting strange.”

Discord floated to the wet pair of ponies. "Yes, I thought, as his 'big sisters'" – Discord snapped a claw, materializing hats saying "#1 sister" on it onto Twilight's and Starlight's heads – "you would have been here to help whip up the birthday boy's party, not pull a me and be strange." Discord sneered at Twilight. "Especially you, Ms. Writes-checklists-a-lot."

With another snap of his claws, the "#1 sister" hats poofed out of existence.

Twilight and Starlight pointed at themselves, spun their heads in random directions, and Twilight countered, “S-strange? S-Starlight and I aren’t acting S-strange! We’re...uh…”

Eric raised his hand. "Hold it! Twi, Starie, if I know you as well as I think I do, I bet I can figure out what’s up.” Eric strolled across the room to Pinkie. “Pinkie, can you lend me that detective hat and pipe you use when you’re solving a mystery? Oh, and give me something to wipe the tip of the pipe.”

“Sure!” Pinkie reached into her mane with a forehoof and pulled out a checkered light-gray and dark-gray hat, a smoking pipe, and a cloth.

Eric took off his hat, gave it to Pinkie, and put Pinkie’s detective hat on. He wiped off the pipe’s mouthpiece and blew into it. Despite it being a smoking pipe, bubbles bubbled out of its chamber, not smoke. “Heh heh, I’ve been waiting to do that. Now, let’s solve this little mystery.” He sauntered to his Equestrian sisters, glanced at their manes, coats, and tails, and gazed into their eyes.

“Your coats, manes, and tails look fine, save for the juice, but your eyes are a little red. You both are grinning, and I know it’s one you give when you’re hiding something.”

Pinkie Pie waved her hoof. “Oh, and I bet their stuttering proves it!”

“Good deduction, my dear Pinkie Pie.” Eric blew into Pinkie’s pipe again to blow more bubbles, rubbed his chin, and paced in circles. “Back to the case. Twi, Starie, I haven’t seen either of you or Spike in the last few hours, which Miss Rarity already brought up."

Rarity's lips sunk into an offended frown. "Wait, 'Miss Rarity'? Not that I don't mind the respect, but the way you said it, you made me sound like I'm an old mare!"

Eric stopped pacing and glared at Rarity. "I'm in a mindset, so just let me work, Rarity. You and I both know you're far from old." 'But you pulling out that ridiculous fainting couch can get old.'

"Sorry," the not-old mare said, biting her lip. "You know how we mares are about our age."

Eric's glare softened. "It's okay. Now, where was I? Oh, right, the case." He paced in circles again. "The mares and dragon in question didn’t tell anypony that they were leaving, so it was either because of an emergency or they thought it was.”

Fluttershy pointed toward Twilight’s bag of bits still tied to the strap wrapped around her. “Twilight and Starlight have their bag of bits too.”

“Right you are, Fluttershy, and today’s my birthday.” Eric blew more bubbles. Once the last bubble popped, he strode to Pinkie to return her hat and pipe, then took his own hat and put it on.

“Thanks, Pinkie.” Eric turned to face Twilight and Starlight with a little smirk and strolled to them. “I think I cracked this case: you two forgot my birthday, panicked over it, and had been running either around Ponyville, but stayed out of my sight, or you left Ponyville to get my ‘perfect’ gift. Oh, and Spike may or may not forgot too, but he kept telling you it was okay, but you were too stubborn to listen. Am I right?”

“Maybe?” the guilty pair answered together.

The human nodded his head in victory. “Knew it. Score one for Eric.”

“Wow, yer good,” Apple Bloom said with an impressed smile.

Eric proudly patted his chest. “Thanks, Apple Bloom. These two are a cut of work, but I know ‘em pretty well.”

Starlight frowned in remorse, her ears flopped to lie against her head, and said, “Fine, we admit it. Twilight and I did forget your birthday, and we are so sorry.”

Pinkie laid a hoof along her cheek. “Ohhhhh. I would have reminded you and Twilight about it three days ago, but I thought you two would be the last ponies to–”

Applejack bobbed Pinkie on the head and whispered, “Not now, Pinkie Pie.”

Twilight’s ears, similar to Starlight’s, wilted. “But we didn’t try to forget and it’s NOT as if we don’t care about you or your birthday! I promise we are going to make up for this! I'll write a pie chart, which I should have started with instead of lists, and–”

Eric pressed his hand over Twilight’s mouth. The young man smiled warmly, yet with a trace of amusement. “Oh, Twi. Freaking out badly as usual.” He pulled his hand from Twilight’s mouth. With a friendly sneer, he looked at Starlight. “Same goes for you, Starie.”

Twilight’s ears stood up. “Wait, I don’t ‘freak out’ THAT bad!”

Starlight’s ears spiked up in turn. “Neither do I!”

"Oh, no?" Discord snapped his claws. High in the room, a bubble appeared and played an image of Twilight (as a unicorn) crazily casting the "Want it, Need it" spell on her Smarty Pants doll. A different image followed that was of Starlight running "Our Town"; the town's other residents bore equal signs in place of their Cutie Marks.

The busted ponies' faces scrunched up, the ping of embarrassment assaulting them mercilessly.

Trixie's eyelids closed half-way and she smirked, her eyes locked on Twilight. "Well, looks like Miss Princess of Friendship has been more devious than I thought!"

After Discord snapped his claws again to dismiss the images, Twilight mumbled, "I only let things get that bad one time."

"I gotta side with Discord on this one." Eric chuckled and straightened his hat. “Not to mention, if you two weren’t panicking royally, no pun intended for you, Twi, you would have remembered that you’ve proved a ton of times how much you care about me.”

“We did?” Twilight and Starlight asked together.

“Yep.” Eric’s smile deepened, fondness oozing from his brown eyes. “Twilight, after you found me in Equestria, you took me under your wing and did all you could to help and even protect me. Need I remind you about the time you dove into fire to save my life? Starlight, you’re been just as great to me and I’ll never forget how you got hurt trying to protect me from Chrysalis. Both of you have not only been my best friends, you have taken the roles of big sisters to me and even embraced it.”

“We do our best, but with this being your first birthday in Equestria, I was worried you might get homesick. The spell we cast for you to talk to your family won’t work again for another three days.” Twilight’s ears, once again, slumped. “Now Starlight and I, two of the ponies that are the closest to being your family in Equestria, forgot your birthday. You didn’t forget ours.”

Eric snapped his fingers in realization. “Oh, yeah, I forgot to spread out when you cast that spell, so I won’t be able to talk to my family today.” Eric lightly slapped his cheek, feeling the guilt and sadness screaming from Twilight’s and Starlight’s eyes. “B-but I can talk to them in three days, which I can do at all thanks to you two. I’m not sad over it or mad.” Eric fiddled with his hat’s brim. He scraped the floor with a foot – a habit he acquired from living with ponies for almost a year. “Besides, I have a little confession to make: I only remembered your birthdays because Pinkie reminded me a few days prior. If anything, we’re even.”

Twilight (and Starlight) grinned from relief, the harsh weight of her guilt vanishing into the air. “Oh, I’m so glad you forgot our birthdays too. Now I don’t feel like the worst friend and sister ever for forgetting yours.”

“Wait, you thought you were the worst?” Eric shook his head, both from bewilderment and amusement. “You were REALLY losing it bad this time to think that, Princess of Panicking! Just like my two human big sisters, you and Starlight are amazing!”

“I agree,” Rainbow said with a nod. “You couldn’t do more for Eric if you tried.”

“Yep, yep, yep. Even the rest of Ponyville know how much you care about Eric,” Pinkie agreed while hopping.

Happy tears welled in the two caring big sisters' eyes, their mouths quivering.

"See?" Eric waved his hand toward himself. “So come here and give me a hug, big sises!”

Starlight, Twilight, and Eric embraced in a group hug. Eric seemed to be uncaring about the punch on Twilight’s and Starlight’s coats by not flinching from it during the hug.

“I love you two! All of you, really.”

”We love you too, Buggie, and we’re still sorry for forgetting your birthday. I know Starlight and I can be ‘hoofulls’ sometimes, but I’m glad you can put up with us.” Twilight turned her head to Spike. “Same goes to you, Spike. We’re sorry we didn’t listen to you from the start.”

“It’s all right." Eric patted Twilight's back, but they remained in a hug. "You and Starie wouldn’t be you if you never had freak-out moments, and I can be a pain sometimes too.”

“And if you did listen to me right away, I might have asked, ‘who are you, and what did you do to the real Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer?’ and thought you really went crazy!”

Everyone, except for Maud, burst into laughter; Maud laughed hard on the inside, but kept her typical emotionless facial expression. The hearty laughter was comparable to the laughter in Stablemart.

Once the laughing calmed, Twilight, Starlight, and Eric broke their hug.

Eric looked down at his geode, his eyes widened, and he asked, “Wait, where’s Sunset? I thought she wou–”

Faint hoofsteps in the castle’s hallways grew louder and louder. The dining hall’s door flew open in red magic and a gold unicorn, Sunset Shimmer, darted inside and screeched to a halt. Her mane was razzled, her eyes were bloodshot, and she teetered on her hooves while panting heavily. She was levitating a box wrapped in orange wrapping paper, with a pink bow on top; a necklace with a red gemstone covered her neck.

All gasped and stared at the room’s newest pony.

Twilight and Eric ran to Sunset and Twilight asked, “Sunset! Are you okay?!”

"What happened?!" Eric asked, eyes widened.

Sunset’s eyelids drooped wearily, her head wobbling. “Yeah, I'm okay…*pant*...just ran late…*pant*...sorry.” The unicorn collapsed to the floor with a soft grunt, but managed to float her gift toward Eric.

“The other…*pant*...girls said they’ll have me…*pant*...give you their gifts later.”

Spike looked at the exhausted mare and chuckled. “Heh, at least there were more than a pair of mares that forgot birthdays today.”

Author's Note:

Hmm. Looks like Twilight was wrong about how Sunset didn't forget Eric's birthday. Or she just happened to have a totally unrelated bad day.

Comments

[The Sleepless Beholder]

Hahahaha Pinkie's and Rainbow's gifts were amazing

And Sunset's arrival was the best way to end it. Poor mare/girl

This was really fun. Hope to see more stories coming from you!

[Horseus lord of horses]

Sunset spin-off?

[Dashie04]

This is pretty touching.

[ThePinkedWonder]

10627938

Glad you liked it, and poor Sunset indeed. She didn't do much in the story, but she sure made an entrance

10627942

I did have some thoughts of a sequel that showed what Sunset was going through after she got Twilight's message, but as if now, the odds of writing it are low.

10628017

Ye[, those three having each other as a family as all that matters.

10628765

I would say that that story has one of the more touchier endings for what's otherwise a comedy story.

[Toon]

I- hm, this story is nice with fluff if you don't think about it too much but some things just irk me about it. Like for starters they thought of the idea of getting him to las pegasus with all expenses paid but then the idea of paying a game needs both of their efforts?

I could let that slide honestly because maybe it was just throwing ideas and seeing what sticks but the fact in this world, games cost so much is just ridiculous. I mean realistically if it was so cost heavy then it would just plain not be accessible, the whole point of price for games is to be able to be bought not cheaply but not pricey either and sure bundles are heavy but like the price you put on them is just mind boggling.

Also the fact Twilight is a princess not being able to afford expensive things? Idk, could've expanded more onto that to tell us why? Because otherwise how does she even get paid? Or have money? Without having access to a treasury or whatever.

I also feel like you never let us, the readers, get a connection to the whole person that is important and built up to, you speak about Eric but since you skipped the whole list thing (which I feel could've been a prime spot to list off experiences and let us learn about Eric instead of just saying he likes games and stuff) it just left a lot to be wanted. We don't get a real good depth of Eric aside from him getting sad from not being able to be back home.

Like you list the examples of what they've done for him on the last chapter, with that little context beforehand it's hard to see WHY we should care whether his gifts are at stake. We don't see why it matters so much therefore hurts the suspension greatly and makes us not really care for the end result. If you need an example well -

“Yep.” Eric’s smile deepened, fondness oozing from his brown eyes. “Twilight, after you found me in Equestria, you took me under your wing and did all you could to help and even protect me. Need I remind you about the time you dove into fire to save my life? Starlight, you’re been just as great to me and I’ll never forget how you got hurt trying to protect me from Chrysalis. Both of you have not only been my best friends, you have taken the roles of big sisters to me and even embraced it.”

Without the character building it just sounds like you're kind of scrounging for good character connections with him. I mean the saving from a fire? We could've heard about the with Twilight along the journey or especially Starlight if it was so monumental, it's a lot of telling but no showing y'know?

TLDR; Needs better character building on Eric, show don't tell.

[ThePinkedWonder]

11177541

Thanks for that insight and duly noted.

As for the price of the games, before I wrote the story I looked up how much arcade games cost and the prices i got varied from game to game, but been anywhere from $300-$4,000, with some being in the tens of thousands, so I had the games in this story cost in the middle of that range. So, around $1,400 or so, or in bits, around 2,500 bits, give or take. Of course, the ones Flam and Flim sold that were 8,500+ bits was very severely overpriced because they felt they could get away with it. There was never a direct indication of how much a bit is compared to a US dollar, so I used the formula of 1 bit: 60 cents.

Also the fact Twilight is a princess not being able to afford expensive things? ? Idk, could've expanded more onto that to tell us why?

I didn't go into any specifics, but I did give a reason: Twilight has a budget and can't just buy more expensive stuff willy nilly, so paying, say, 4,500 bits was too much for her. I could have put in that she was fewer on bits at the time of this story than she might usually be. However, while it wasn't told point-blank, but Twilight could have afforded a 2,500-price game on her own; it was Starlight that couldn't (which Starlight herself stated that she could only help with paying it) and I tried to show it by Twilight acting as if she pay by herself by not asking Starlight for help in chapter 1.

show don't tell.

My eternal nemesis and pain in the ass. I've long gotten the basics down (i.e. showing a character being said) but outside of that, sometimes I have little choice but to take a guess and hope I did it right. However, some of the thigns you pointed out should help me do it better in the future, so thanks.