Once they were inside the main hall they were immediately assaulted by the loud dance beat from the vinyl that DJ Pon 3 was spinning. The spot lights moved across the hall while changing colour to the beat of the music and occasionally strobe during a particularly fast section. It was easy to spot Twilight in all this as her eyes often ran counter to the movements of the lights. It seemed most of Ponyville was here. Most were dancing, but many were chatting with each other over a mug of punch or cider or hanging around the ou d'oeuvres and snacks table making small talk with a friend. The hall was festooned with streamers, and a large golden yellow banner hung at the back of the hall with pink and blue lettering saying "HAPPY (smudge)th BIRTHDAY, FLUTTERSHY!" For some reason the number that showed Fluttershy's age was completely smeared out. Nearby Ditzy Doo, a grey pegasus with a yellow mane and tail, and bubbles as a cutie mark, hovered while looking rather sheepish. Rainbow Dash was also hovering nearby giving Ditzy a death glare.

The hall was also filled with many different colour balloons and Fluttershy couldn't help but notice there was a bunch of strange shaped balloons circling the room. She flew up to take a closer at them and realized they were all in the shape of animals. Not just in the shape of animals, but they moved like animals. They hopped, stalked, pranced, slithered, flew, swam, or waddled one right after the other like they were in one continuous parade. There were rabbit balloons and bear balloons, racoons, fish, dragons, birds, beavers, tigers, snakes and manticores, and occasionally one of them would open up its mouth and let out a silent roar.

Fluttershy squealed in delight, completely enchanted by the animated balloons. Suddenly she felt someone grab her and start dragging her away.

"C'mon birthday girl, time to sit on your throne." said Dash as she dragged Fluttershy towards a chair that sat under the now slightly defaced banner. It was constructed to resemble a royal throne, painted the same golden yellow as the banner, but instead of some royal symbol at the top of the backrest there were butterflies that resembled Fluttershy's cutie mark.

"But I want to look at the balloons." protested Fluttershy.

"Plenty of time to do that later, now it's time for cake!" As Dash placed the now resigned Fluttershy on the throne, the dance music stopped and the lights in the hall returned to normal.

As the owners of Sugarcube Corner, Mr. and Mrs. Cake, entered the hall pushing a large birthday cake lit with candles towards Fluttershy, Rarity sauntered over to stand beside Twilight.

"You did a nice job on those balloon animals," said Rarity, "I'm glad you got the magic for them worked out. Fluttershy seemed to be quite taken by them."

"Thank you," replied Twilight, "it seems like such a childishly simple problem now. All animation spells work on the premise of trying to mimic the living entities as closely as possible which includes not just movement and look but behaviour as well. All I had to do was simplify it and delete any behaviour associated with the entity I was trying to replicate in balloon form."

Rarity tried to keep a neutral face, but she was bored by magic lectures as a young filly and she certainly didn't need them now. She decided to change the subject, "You look different."

"Ha. Ha."

"I'm not talking about your eyes. Your coat seems a shade darker and you look a bit taller."

Twilight looked at her with surprise and then looked at her coat with curiosity, "I cannot really see a difference. How can you tell?"

"Please, as a trained seamstress, I can easily spot such tiny differences. It's why I'm so good at what I do."

"Interesting." was Twilight's only response.

At that moment the giant birthday cake was placed in front of Fluttershy, Dash handed her an umbrella and ducked behind the throne chair. Fluttershy blew out the candles before sitting back and quickly opening the umbrella. At that moment, Pinkie Pie burst out of the cake, showering pieces of it everywhere while shouting, "Merry Hearth's Warming! No, that's not right." Pinkie then ducked back down before coming up again shouting, "Happy birthday!"

Fluttershy shook the cake pieces off of the umbrella before closing it and gave Pinkie a big appreciative smile.

Dash came out from her hiding place and yelled to the crowd, "Time for the presents!" to a chorus of cheers.

As many of the guests started towards the front with their presents, Twilight's voice could be heard above the din, "I would like to be first to give my gift to Fluttershy!"

The crowd parted as Twilight walked up. Fluttershy smiled sweetly and looked for a wrapped gift her glowing eyed friend might have on her but couldn't hide the look of confusion when she couldn't see one. Twilight paused, gave a reassuring smile and then her horn erupted in magic and Fluttershy closed her eyes as she could feel those tendrils of energy touch her mind. Then as quickly as it started, it was over. Fluttershy opened her eyes and looked around. Everything seemed to be still the same; there were no special gifts, no bunnies jumping out of hats, no dancing flowers, nothing that could be construed as a product of magical intervention. Fluttershy gave a look of utter bewilderment, "You know Twilight, as gifts go…" then Fluttershy's expression changed to one of realization. She let out a loud laugh, not one that was loud by Fluttershy's standards but one that was loud by most ponies' standards.

Fluttershy then flew quickly into the hall grabbed a balloon and flew down with it to a light blue unicorn who possessed a safety pin cutie mark. "Pop it!" she ordered. The unicorn shrugged and with his horn popped the balloon causing Fluttershy to squeal in delight. She flew back up, considered using one of the animated animal balloons, decided against it and retrieved another regular balloon and gave the blue unicorn the same request and once that was fulfilled the same squeal of delight escaped her lips.

Fluttershy then flew to Pinkie, "Say boo!"

Pinkie looked a perplexed, "Uhm, boo?"

"No, try to make it really scary!"

Pinkie raised her hoofs up high in a threatening manner and tried to make the scariest face she could and in a loud voice yelled, "BOO!"

Fluttershy laughed in absolute delight, "Yes! Again!"

Pinkie complied and Fluttershy giggled uncontrollably before flying off to another random pony and introducing herself.

Pinkie face was full of concern as she turned to Twilight and demanded, "What did you do to her?"