(The next day)
At Sugarcube Corner...
It had just turned midnight. It is the start of the next day, meaning it's Adorabella's birthday, and she is turning 23. Pinkie Pie had been tirelessly preparing everything for the day throughout the week, non-stop. She had been on a massive spending spree, getting party supplies over the week. Pinkie Pie is determined to make Adorabella's birthday very special.
Adorabella's presents are already at the Cloudominium. Now it's just a matter of getting the party supplies there as well.
While it's dark, with the moon in the sky, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie are still up, working together to move party supplies to the Cloudominium. Pinkie Pie has all the birthday party supplies in a big purple box, with much smaller green boxes inside. In the smaller boxes, there are napkins, paper plates, plastic cups and plastic cutlery. There are also of course a lot of snacky foods in the small boxes, such as cupcakes, sweets, chocolate, crisps, fruit, salted cashews, sweet cashews, salted peanuts, sweet peanuts, and much more. But most importantly, there is a big circular cake in one of the boxes as well, which the box is pink so the cake doesn't get lost. There are also parts that assembles a massive table, which those small boxes are coloured yellow.
There are also all sorts of drinks in the small boxes except for alcoholic drinks. Adorabella's father was an alcoholic and with alcohol present it would trigger a very terrible flashback for Adorabella.
"You sent out the invitations out to Derpy and Ralph, right?" Rainbow Dash double checked.
"Of course, silly!" Pinkie Pie giggled.
"We gotta be real quiet when we get back to my place Pinkie. Adorabella isn't a deep sleeper. She can be woken up very easily," Rainbow Dash stated.
"Okay, I will just whisper from this point. Tell me when I can stop whispering," Pinkie Pie whispered.
"Yeah that works," Rainbow Dash nodded.
"Also, please do tell me you have had somepony cast the spell on you that let's you walk on clouds. I'll need your help setting everything up," Said Rainbow Dash.
"Yeah, Twilight did just before she left," Pinkie Pie responded, still whispering.
"You ready to hold onto the box?" Rainbow Dash asked. Pinkie Pie nods. Rainbow Dash flaps her wings and hovers over Pinkie Pie to pick her up. Then Pinkie Pie grabs the big box and holds on tight. Rainbow Dash flaps her wings harder to get the box of the ground. Then, she starts flying back to he Cloudominium, so she as well as Pinkie Pie can set everything up.
(Later on, in the morning)
Rainbow Dash walks into her bedroom. She sees that Adorabella is still asleep. Rainbow Dash didn't expect her to still be asleep. Adorabella is usually awake way before her.
"Um... Adorabella?" Rainbow Dash spoke quietly as she gently prods Adorabella's head. Adorabella moans as she opens her eyes and rapidly blinks.
"M- morning..." Adorabella yawned.
"Let's go downstairs real quick- breakfast is already made," Rainbow Dash pulls Adorabella put of bed.
"O- okay..." Adorabella nodded.
Rainbow Dash and Adorabella are walking down the spiral stairs, to the bottom of the foyer. Rainbow Dash takes Adorabella to the living room, but stops her just outside of it.
In front of the sofa by the window, there is a rectangle-shaped plastic table with 4 legs, that has a whole wide variety of food in separate trays, such as cupcakes, muffins, sweets, chocolate, crisps, fruit, salted cashews, sweet cashews, salted peanuts, sweet peanuts, cookies, and more. There is also a plastic tub of different types of sandwiches. As well, there's plastic plates and cutlery.
Then on the round table by the sofa near the window, there is also bottles of different drinks, such as water, squash, milkshakes, fizzy drinks and so on. As well, there are plastic cups, for pouring drinks in. Adorabella's backpack is careful placed next to that table, which the bag is filled with nothing except the shards that stop magic.
But what caught Adorabella's eyes is what's on the round table in the middle of the living room, near the rectangle table. There is a massive cake with white icing and thick pink edges, also made of icing. On top is an icing that resembles her cutie mark, as well as 2 different lit candles, one being a 2 and the other being a 3.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADORABELLA!" Voice scream with joy, spooking Adorabella and making her hide behind Rainbow. Adorabella then shyly walks a few steps, into the living room.
Appearing from the left and right are the rest of the mane 6, Starlight, Ralph and Derpy. Seeing it's them, Adorabella relaxes, and looks at everything.
"Oh... my..." Adorabella starts getting very emotional. Tears form in her eyes. They are not tears of sadness, but of joy.
"I planned all this just for you! We got so much to do today!" Pinkie Pie bounces around Adorabella. The white pegasus grabs the pink earth pony and hugs her.
"Thank you all so much... I never had a good birthday..." Adorabella is crying. She is really grateful for everything being done for her.
"Don't be sad, it's your birthday. Let's have some fun now," Pinkie Pie smiled, putting both forehooves on Adorabella's cheeks and making her appear to smile. Adorabella steps back, and looks at everypony else.
"Th- thank you..." Adorabella shyly smiled, her eyes full of tears, tears of joy and happiness. She is extremely grateful. Everypony gets around the white pegasus and hugs her. They all have one big group hug, and then they all let go of each other. Everypony sings Adorabella happy birthday, then she blows out the candles.
Adorabella got more tearfully happy. She had never had been shown this amount of respect.
"Before we uh... carry on... c- can I q- quickly go somewhere... w- with Twilight, and Rainbow?" Adorabella requested.
"Yes, Adorabella? Where do you want to take us?" Twilight nodded, stepping forward as she asks.
"I- I wanna di- dispose of the shards that cancel magic out... I- I wanna show my trust in all of you... but I don't feel all secure after disposing them. I- I'd feel safer... if we went to where I wanna go and back, together," Adorabella requested as she walks over to grab her black backpack.
"Oh- yeah, of course. Let's find somewhere to dispose them. We probably should dispose them far away... as they are quite powerful," Twilight nodded. The alicorn, light blue pegasus and white pegasus make their way to the foyer. They walk out the door, Twilight closing it behind her. Everypony else waits for the 3 of them to return.
Minutes later...
Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Adorabella are flying through the Everfree Forest. The alicorn and light blue pegasus are following the white pegasus. She stops, and lands down, so did they.
Adorabella breathes in deeply. They are at the location where she wants to dispose of the shards. They are at the shack, the very same shack that Adorabella lived in by herself for a decade, in complete isolation, with ingrained fear, with painful amounts of anxieties and shyness.
"Is this... the shack you talked about?" Twilight gasped. Seeing all this for herself makes it even more heartbreaking, that somepony tried to stop their suffering by isolating themselves, in fear of suffering again. Adorabella had spent all her teen years and a little more living in fear. But all that did was added onto the suffering, and as a consequence, Adorabella missed out on her entire teenage years by living in constant fear.
"Y- yeah... and I feel this is where it's appropriate to dispose the shards," Adorabella stated. Her breathing became more heavy and rigid.
"It's okay, we have your back," Rainbow Dash gently spoke, lightly smiling. Adorabella lightly smiles back. She looks at the shack, and takes a deep breath. She flaps her wings and hovers over the water, and over to the door, using her body to gently push the fragile door open. Adorabella grabs her backpack and empties it, dropping the green shards onto the floor.
Adorabella slowly takes her necklace off. As she did, she feels her heart pounding so fast, that she feels as if she is getting pulled to the ground. She is so scared to take it off. She slowly but surely takes it off, and chucks it on the floor. Then as fearlessly as she could, she flaps her wings and flies over the moat, where Twilight and Rainbow Dash are. They can see Adorabella is breathing very heavily.
"I am so proud of you," Twilight gently spoke, nodding with approval. Adorabella gently nods, and hugs Twilight.
"Hey Adorabella, wanna race back?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"I- I wanna uh- I wanna just... casually fly back... w- with you two... I'd feel safer..." Adorabella requested, stuttering.
(Another few minutes later)
Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Adorabella have returned to the Cloudominium. After getting inside, the party resumes. Everypony sang happy birthday to Adorabella. After singing, Adorabella blew the candles.
"Thank you... all of you..." Adorabella repeated, tearfully happy and joyful. She has never been so happy.
It is time for Adorabella to open her presents. She has got 3 present, one from by the mane 6 as well as Starlight, one from Ralph and the other from Derpy.
Twilight uses her magic to levitate the present she got for Adorabella, to her. The white pegasus flinches and ducks, partially hiding her face with her mane, but quickly regains her comfort. She looks at it and the present looks squishy, and the wrapping paper is completely covered in sellotape.
"Sorry uh... it's the magic..." Adorabella apologized as she slowly gets back up.
"Oh my- I'm so sorry I forgot you weren't comfortable around magic- I'll try to be mindful of that next time," Twilight apologized back. Adorabella gently takes the present, and tries getting into it herself, using all her strength, pulling and biting at it. But the sellotape is proving too strong for her.
"Do you want any of us to uh... help?" Fluttershy offered.
Adorabella ignores and continues trying to hack at the sellotape-covered wrapping paper, as if she was a cat and the wrapping paper was a cat toy. Adorabella goes onto her back and tries using her rear hooves too. She does look like a cat attacking it's favourite toy.
Adorabella is determined to unwrap the present herself. The others didn't want to help, because they were afraid that Adorabella would think she us weak. They don't want her thinking negatively about herself, especially on her birthday.
"Ay, lemme help ya there..." Applejack saw the white pegasus struggle enough. Applejack helps Adorabella to unwrap the present. After the intense struggle and with help, she opens the present. It is a quilted black coat with light grey edges and pink buttons, and had a hood. On the inside of the coat is heat-absorbing white wool.
"Oh my- I love the coat! Black is actually my favourite colour- thank you!" Adorabella has a grateful grin grow across her face as her happy tears increases. She tries it on, then pulls the hood down.
"Called it!" Pinkie Pie said aloud. She then pulls out a camera out of her mane and takes a picture of Adorabella. A small photo is printed out.
"I love the inside of the coat- I love it!" Adorabella's grateful grin grew even more.
"We are really happy you love the coat me and my friends made darling," Rarity smiled. The others also smile. They are very pleased that Adorabella loves her new coat.
"Why is black your favourite colour, may I ask?" Starlight asked.
"B- because my cloak was b- black... and whenever I- I feel unsafe... the darkness helps me... hide... to feel safe, if you get what I mean," Adorabella explained.
"That is understandable, I get that," Starlight nodded.
Next is a present from Derpy. It is a wooden basket, with paper confetti covering the contents below. She puts it down by Adorabella, then steps back. The white pegasus carefully uncovers the confetti, being mindful to not make too much mess. With the confetti out of the way and inside is uncovered, the basket has several triple chocolate chip muffins inside. Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie uses her camera to take a picture.
"Your favouwite type of muffins Adowabella," Derpy smiled. Adorabella hugs her mailmare pal.
"Thank you... I love your muffins... not just that they taste good... but... you helped me feel at ease with my first days of work with them... I felt safe, because of you..." Adorabella saw more in Derpy's muffins than the delicious taste in them.
"I'm happy they did," Derpy nodded. That comment made the grey pegasus feel really good. The 2 then let go.
Now it's time for the last present, which is from Ralph.
"I... I wasn't sure what to get you. So I got you a small mirror and a brush," Ralph said as she passes Adorabella a small circular mirror with a square base, and a pink brush. She carefully places them by the basket of muffins.
"Ralph... even if you got me nothing... I'd still be grateful you accepted my invitation," Adorabella said as she hugs him while trying to hide her blushing face from him. Ralph notices though and also blushes as he hugs her back. The 2 then let go.
Then, very quickly, everypony goes to start eating the party food.
Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy notice Adorabella hesitating to eat the food. They go and check on her while everypony respectfully mind their business.
"Are you not hungry? I don't want you to miss out..." Fluttershy gently asked.
"I... I don't r- really have a big appetite..." Adorabella stuttered.
"Somethin' is on yer mind." Applejack can tell there is something Adorabella isn't saying. Adorabella sighs.
"Well... I never really ate a lot when I was young at home... and whenever I asked for extra food when young..." Adorabella shudders as she thought all the way back to then, to the horrible past. Fluttershy reassuringly comforts Adorabella by standing close to her.
"We understand now, but don't let the past hold you back from enjoying your birthday. It'd be a real shame for you to not be happy on your special day," Pinkie Pie gently said, lightly patting Adorabella on the back.
"If yer want, we'll stick with ya to keep th' demons in yer head away. Enjoy yerself today, a'right," Applejack reassured. Adorabella lightly smiles, and nods. She reaches for the cashews on the round table and very slowly starts eating.
"You okay?" Rainbow Dash asked, coming up to Adorabella. The white pegasus nods as she consumes cashews. It's her favourite food.
All the way until the end of the party, everypony ate, and talked. When there was no more food or drinks left, the party ended. During the party, Adorabella bonded more with the mane 6 and Starlight, as well as her other 2 friends, Derpy and definitely Ralph. Adorabella hung around mostly with Rainbow Dash and Ralph.
Some time after, the cake gets split and everypony got a slice. There is also 3 spare slices so Applejack or Rarity could give them to the CMC. After the party, most of the others left, after they cleared up after themselves of course. Only Ralph and Rarity stayed, but then soon after, Ralph had to leave as well. It is just now Adorabella, Rainbow Dash and Rarity in the living room.
"It was a lovely party... I can't be more thankful," Said Adorabella, smiling.
"We are pleased to know you enjoyed yourself darling," Rarity smiled back.
"Also, do you want to have your mane trimmed a bit- your mane is absolutely beautiful... but it is almost down to your hooves- but it's still a very beautiful mane," Rarity offered. Rarity loves Adorabella's mane, because unlike most manes that comes down on one side, Adorabella's mane comes down on both sides, giving her a very unique mane style. But Adorabella's mane is also so long that it is down to her knees, and Rarity is worried that one day Adorabella may trip on her own mane.
"Th- thanks... b- but I like my mane... because if I get scared or uncomfortable... I can hide my face behind my mane- to feel safe, if you know what I mean," Adorabella politely rejected.
"I understand darling," Rarity nodded.
"Well, I hope you two will have a good rest of your day- especially you, Adorabella," Said Rarity.
With that, Rarity soon leaves as well. It is now just Rainbow Dash and Adorabella in the living room. The 2 pegasuses walk to the sofa near the window, and sits down. Adorabella leans on Rainbow Dash from the left. Rainbow Dash rests her chin on Adorabella's head.
"So how was that?" Rainbow Dash checked.
"Lovely... I really loved it," Adorabella replied, smiling, getting emotional.
"Birthdays before today's were just any other day... so to feel... to feel special- to feel special... it- it feels great..."
"I'm sure it does," Rainbow Dash yawned, hugging Adorabella, then letting go.
"Also uh... well done, for giving up those shards. It weren't easy, but you did it..." Rainbow Dash yawned more.
"I haven't slept at all since yesterday... I'm gonna go for a nap..." Rainbow Dash is tired, and starts laying down. Adorabella, not wanting the safety-reassuring hug to end, also lays down with her. Rainbow Dash puts both forehooves around Adorabella as they both slowly drift to sleep, napping together on the sofa.
Adorabella is content with her birthday. It may of been short. She may of not had many ponies come over. But it meant more to her than that. Aside the party, presents and party consumables, Adorabella appreciated the friends there far more than anything else. She trusts them so much that she doesn't feel like she needs the shards. Adorabella now can truly feel she fully trusts her friends. They made her birthday be special, something she never had when she was younger. But most importantly, they have made her feel special. What mattered to Adorabella about the party wasn't the presents, the food and drinks, or the cake. But it was the friends that truly mattered to Adorabella. The friends were what made to the party so special to Adorabella.
Unlike anything in the past, today will be a day where Adorabella will keep looking back to and smile to appreciate how great today was. Adorabella is grater she collided into that bird 3 weeks ago. Without that, Adorabella thinks she could still be alone in the shack in the Everfree Forest, alone, lonely, and always living in fear. But today, that fear is gone, because she feels safe and trusts her friends. Adorabella is grateful to have the friends she has by her side.