The Best Birthday Present!
Pinkie Pie is the happiest pony in Ponyville. Everypony in the whole town was her friend; there wasn't a single pony whose name she didn’t know. Even so, her closest friends only consisted of five: Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Twilight Sparkle. All together they formed the Elements of Harmony, ready to protect Equestria from any danger.
But when there wasn't any danger, they led normal lives. And at this moment, Pinkie Pie’s birthday was close, very close… Well, as close as today could be. She'd organized a birthday party for herself and invited only her closest friends--this time, she hadn’t forgotten her own birthday. She was looking forward to seeing her friends at the party that night, but there was something she was looking forward to even more... She wanted to see one specific pony, and that pony was Twilight Sparkle. Pinkie Pie had been harboring a crush on the unicorn for a long time now, but every time she tried to confess, something went wrong. Sometimes, somepony would even interrupt her, or she wouldn’t understand. Once, Pinkie Pie was able to tell her “I love you,” but Twilight had taken it the wrong way. She thought that she meant it as friends, and Pinkie didn’t have the courage to correct her. Today was going to be different, though. She was determined to tell her tonight, after her birthday party.
Which was about to start.
“This is it... The big night, Gummy! The big night... I’m going to do it; I’m really going to tell Twilight how I feel!” The lizard looked at her, not really understanding what she was saying to him. “I’m a little nervous, but I’m ready!” In that moment, there was a knock on the door and she quickly answered it. All her friends were there.
“Happy birthday!” They all said in sync.
“Thank you for coming!” The party pony exclaimed as she hugged her friends at once.
“We wouldn’t miss your birthday!” Rainbow Dash smiled genuinely. Once Pinkie Pie released them, they all entered.
“I’ll play the music with a low volume; everypony else is asleep!” Pinkie Pie said once they arrived in her bedroom, playing the music. Everypony put their presents on a table. Her bedroom was prepared for the party: with decorations, food, and drinks! There was even a banner on one of the walls that said “Happy Birthday to Me!”
Rarity and Fluttershy headed to the punch and drank as they talked. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were dancing, competing to see who'd get tired first. Pinkie Pie was watching her friends have fun, and her thoughts wandered to how lucky she was to have friends who cared about her. Each of them were willing to do anything for her, and she was ready to do the same. Her friends were what made her smile, and she was always ready to make new friends. She didn’t have a problem when it came to that; she always knew what to say to make a pony smile. She would always be there for them... Always.
“Hey, Pinkie!” A voice from behind her interrupted her thoughts. She turned to see Twilight smiling at her. Pinkie's heart started to race, and she felt her cheeks get warmer. “Spike was tired and couldn’t come. He wishes you a happy birthday, though!”
“Oh, it's no problem. I understand! He’s still a baby, after all. Tell him I say thank you!”
“I will!” The lavender unicorn stepped forward so she was side to side with Pinkie. “This is a nice party, Pinkie. You sure know how to organize one! Though, I wish you would've let us do it for you, since it is your birthday…”
“Don’t worry, I wanted to do it! It’s like a present from me to me!” She giggled, and Twilight did the same. Then, Pinkie Pie found her gaze and couldn’t look away. She'd always admired those lavender eyes of hers; they reminded her of grapes. She adored Twilight's ability to read books faster than anypony else, how she was able to do different kinds of magic, and how she could learn quickly. Although their first meeting wasn’t perfect, she managed to become friends with her when she helped defeat Nightmare Moon. From that day on, she made sure to make Twilight feel at home; Pinkie didn’t want her to leave. So, she used every opportunity she had to get to know her better. She had fun when Twilight refused to believe her Pinkie Sense, and back then they'd spent a lot of time together until Twilight had finally surrendered and accepted this strange phenomena. Still, she liked that strange machine Twilight made her use. The next time they'd spent time together was when Twilight received a visit from her future self. She was very worried and nervous, and Pinkie had learned from past experiences that she should listen to her even if it didn't seem like a big deal, so she supported her to make sure she knew that there was always somepony willing to lend a hoof. However, these past few days were different. Pinkie wished more than ever to spend time with her... Alone.
It all changed when she was watching her practicing magic. Twilight didn’t know that she was being watched. At the time, Pinkie wanted to surprise her, so she jumped on her and hugged her, exclaiming, “Surprise!” The bookworm pony was so startled that she accidentally released the spell. It bounced on the window of her library, and it hit Pinkie Pie, knocking her out. When she opened her eyes again, she was laying on Twilight’s bed, and the owner of the bed was looking at her with a worried expression. Pinkie didn’t know why, but since that accident, she started to look at her differently. Twilight had hugged her and demanded to know what she was thinking.
“I was watching you doing a spell and I decided to surprise you!” The party pony answered, keeping her usual smile. But the unicorn wasn’t smiling; she looked angry.
“Don’t do that again! It’s dangerous to scare a unicorn when they are doing magic!”
“I-I’m sorry, Twilight. I didn’t want to scare you… I saw that you were working hard, and I wanted to do something to encourage you…” The party pony looked upset, and Twilight softened her expression.
“Sorry for yelling at you, but… I was really worried! Promise me that you won’t do that again… At least don’t do it if I don’t know you're there…”
“I won’t… I Pinkie Promise!” Twilight hugged her, but this hug felt different from the others. Pinkie hesitated for some reason, but she returned it. Then, Twilight released her friend and spoke again.
“You can leave whenever you want. I just stunned you.”
“I’ll stay for a little, I want to watch you finish that spell you were practicing!”
“Okay, but no more surprises, alright?”
“Okey dokey lokey!”
“Pinkie Pie… Pinkie!”
“Huh?” The party pony didn’t realize that she'd lost her focus on the present. Twilight had been calling her, trying to make her react. “Sorry, Twilight. I got a little distracted in my thoughts!” She giggled again.
“What were you thinking about?” Twilight asked with a smile. Pinkie’s brain worked furiously to find an answer; she couldn’t tell her what she was really thinking, at least not just yet.
“I was… Thinking about the costumers we had today. They were all really happy and wished me a happy birthday!”
“Wow, Pinkie, the whole town loves you! I don’t know how you do it!”
“It’s easy. I know what to do to brighten anypony's day; even the saddest donkey I've ever met!” Pinkie relaxed when Twilight closed her eyes, smiling. She believed her.
Suddenly, the lavender unicorn grabbed Pinkie’s hoof, making the latter blush. “Let’s dance!”
“O-Okay, sure... Why not?” The party pony blushed as her crush took her to the dance floor. Twilight took Pinkie Pie's remaining hoof and led the dance. The party pony noticed that she'd learned some new moves. “Wow, Twilight.. Have you practiced dancing since the last party?”
“I’m glad you noticed; it means it worked! I found a book in the library titled, 'Improve Your Dancing Skills in Less Than a Week,' and decided to give it a shot!”
“It really worked! But why did you decide to improve your dancing?”
“For you... I mean, for your birthday party. I wanted to dance better for your party!” Twilight looked away, blushing.
However, Pinkie didn’t see it; she was looking at the rest of her friends who were now looking at them. Rainbow Dash and Applejack kept dancing non-stop, but were still able to watch at the same time.
“Since when… Are you so good… At dancing, egghead?!” The cyan pegasus and the farmer pony were really tired, but neither of them wanted to lose.
“Nice… Moves… Sugarcube!”
“Oh, darling... Your dancing skills are simply magnificent! I’m really impressed!” The fancy pony said as she applauded her. Fluttershy didn’t have anything to say; she was scared that if she did say something it might discourage her friend or make her lose her balance.
“Thanks, girls!” Twilight didn’t really listen to them, though; she was concentrated on Pinkie Pie’s eyes. The pink pony was wondering why her crush was staring at her like that. Soon, Rarity joined the fun, forcing Fluttershy to dance, too. They danced for an hour before playing some games. The party lasted for a few hours more before it was too late, and everypony left for their homes to sleep. Rainbow Dash and Applejack left first; they were both very tired after all the dancing. It turns out that they both collapsed at the same time, and the bet was called a draw. Rarity and Fluttershy were the next ones. Only Twilight remained behind while Pinkie Pie started to clean. She decided to lend her a hoof.
“Thanks, Twilight, but I can do it myself!”
“I insist. I want to help you clean so you’ll finish sooner!”
“Thank you… So, you had fun?”
“Of course I did. Your parties are the best, Pinkie!”
“It’s because I put all my heart in them! Like you do with your magic.”
“You sure are one of a kind. Between your Pinkie Sense, the parties, and your ability to make anypony smile… I’m happy to have found a friend like you… And you are literally the first pony I saw when I got here.”
“Oh yeah. I still remember that day; I threw a party to make you feel welcome and mixed it with the Summer Sun Celebration. I wanted to be friends with you, but I'm glad we became close friends!”
“Yeah… I can’t believe that the only thing I wanted to do when I arrived was leave right away… But thanks to you and the others, I learned about friendship, the importance of having friends… You supported me and I finally found out what was missing in my life… Coming to live here was the best thing that's ever happened to me. I thank Princess Celestia every day for making me come here.” Pinkie Pie listened to every word carefully. So carefully, it seemed, that she forgot that she was cleaning her room. She remembered what she was doing when Twilight looked at her.
“What was life like here before I came? Did all of you see each other? I mean, our closest friends.”
“I knew them, of course, but we didn’t really hang out much like we do now. We thank you for that; you were the one who created a bond between us.” They stared at each other for a few moments before looking away, blushing. They returned to cleaning. There really wasn’t much to clean, so they finished within ten minutes.
“Phew, that was the last cup!” Said the party pony as she put the cup in the trash. She turned to find Twilight sitting on her bed. She was staring at the floor strangely, so Pinkie Pie trotted over to her. “Is something wrong?”
“Huh?” She looked up in surprise. “No… Nothing…” She cast her eyes downward again.
“You can tell me. I won’t tell anypony if you don't want me to, I Pinkie Promise!”
“Well, it’s… It’s just that… I… I kind of…” The bookworm pony blushed harder and hid her face behind her hooves. “I can’t tell you…”
“You don’t trust me…?” Pinkie's eyebrow furrowed. “I thought we were friends…”
“We are, Pinkie... I do trust you!” Twilight said nervously, her mistake.
“Then why don’t you want to tell me?” The party pony was about to burst into tears. Twilight, noticing it, tried to calm her down.
“It’s complicated. I should never have opened my mouth, Pinkie... This has nothing to do with me not liking you, because I really do; I like you in a romantic way!” The lavender unicorn covered her mouth with her hooves after the words escaped, and her face became red. She didn’t know how they'd gotten out of her mouth. Pinkie Pie fell into silence, too. She wasn’t sure if she heard Twilight right… Was she dreaming?
“What did you just say?”
Twilight knew that there was no going back. “I… I have a crush on you, Pinkie… I was afraid of telling you because... Because I didn’t want to lose you as a friend… Surely you won’t want to be my friend anymore…” She started to cry.
The party pony knew that she'd heard well this time, and that Twilight was telling the truth. She would never lie. So, after a mental celebration, she sat on her haunches next to Twilight. The unicorn was too ashamed to look at Pinkie, sure that her friend was going to hate her for what she'd just said.
“You’re right, Twilight… I don’t want to be your friend…“ She lowered one of Twilight’s hooves with her own, holding it gently. “I want to be your marefriend.”
Twilight met Pinkie’s eyes again. She was looking at her with a look she'd never seen before. The unicorn watched her slowly leaning toward her and, before she knew it, their lips joined. They felt as if time had stopped. Pinkie’s eyes were closed, but Twilight's eyes were wide open, tears still streaking down her face. After a few seconds that seemed like hours, Pinkie pulled away and giggled when she saw Twilight’s face.
“What… What just happened?” The unicorn asked, still shocked.
“We kissed!” Pinkie said with her usual smile.
“W-Why?”
“Because that’s what couples do.” The party pony wiped the tears from Twilight’s eyes. “Right?”
“C-Couples?”
“Come on, Twilight... You’re supposed to be the smart one!” Pinkie laughed.
“Sorry… But I’m still trying to figure out if I’m dreaming…” Out of nowhere, Pinkie squeezed her cheek with a free hoof. “Ouch! Why did you do that?”
“It hurt, so it’s not a dream!”
“I guess you’re right!” She exclaimed, recovering her smile again. Twilight hugged Pinkie Pie tightly. “You have no idea how much I've wanted this day to come!”
“Not as much as me. This is the best birthday ever!” Pinkie Pie said, returning the hug. After a few minutes of just hugging, they stared at each other again and shared their second kiss. It was better than the first one; neither of them wanted to break it. This kiss lasted longer than the first, and both felt sad when they pulled away.
“Pinkie… As much as I’m enjoying this… I really must go now… But I’ll see you tomorrow, right?”
“Okay…” Pinkie didn’t want Twilight to leave either, but she knew that she had to go. So, she nodded and accompanied her to the door. Twilight turned before leaving.
“Sweet dreams, Pinkie…”
“Don’t worry, I will! You're always in my dreams, and I wake up smiling more than usual!” They both blushed. Twilight nervously leaned toward Pinkie’s cheek and kissed it.
“See you tomorrow!” She slowly walked away. She turned to see Pinkie one last time before trotting away.
“Good night, my sweet Twilight!” The party pony closed the door behind her and walked to her bedroom. She fell asleep almost immediately, her dreams filled with Twilight.