Cherry’s Birthday Surprise Part 3

“Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. She is not who she says she is!”

Cherry screamed as suddenly she heard—

“SURPRISE!” The lights burst on, and there was a big pink ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHERRY’ banner above written with little hearts and sparkling cherries. There were tables with pink sparkly cherry patterns, along with all kinds of streamers and decorations of sparkling cherries. All her friends were there, and they were dressed in various dog themed outfits. Kittenberry even had on a pair of pink puppy ears to go with her pink lolita dress. Bunberry had apparently slipped on a pair of doberman puppy ears. Dragon had on a poodle onesie, while Dag stood next to him in a bulldog onesie. J.J. had on a yellow suit with brown paw prints on it, and a pair of golden retriever ears. Lamp Flower had on a gray paw print dress with a pair of scott terrier ears. Coffin flower had on a dark black gothic dress with a corset, and a pair of great dane ears. She figured it out quickly, they all wore dog themed outfits because her animal aspect was a puppy. “Happy birthday, Cherry!” They said in unison and cheered.

“How did you put this together?” she asked, tears welling up in her eyes.

“Kittenberry put up the streamers and banners and decorations. Dragon helped, because of how strong he is,” Bunberry said, waving her arms at them.

Dragon blushed and Kittenberry giggled, infecting everyone with her joy, eliciting giggles from all, even Dragon. Then Kittenberry walked over, and put a crown with the words ‘birthday princess’ on Cherry’s head. “Thanks Kibby.”

“Anytime, mew. I’d never miss an opportunity to give someone a super cute birthday!” Kittenberry responded.

Bunberry moved it along, giving a fancy wave towards Dag. “Dag helped with some of the coordination, while Kittenberry is good at cuteness, Dag is great with proper placement.”

Dag gave a theatrical bow. “Anything for the birthday princess.”

“Lamp Flower came up with the idea of the costumes. Though we all put our own spin on it of course.” Bunberry waved at Lamp.

Lamp gave a warm smile. “When you’ve had children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren you learn a few things.”

“Coffin Flower procured most of the things we needed while we were setting everything up.” Bunberry pointed to Coffin Flower.

Coffin Flower blushed herself. “Well, someone had to get the supplies.”

“J.J. allowed us to use his restaurant for the surprise party.” Bunberry waved towards him.

“Ol’ J.J. would never miss an opportunity for a surprise party.” He gave his signature smile.

“And I am the mastermind behind it all. We all worked together to get you this party, Cherry. Because we love you and want you to know how much we care.”

No one had ever been this kind to her. She couldn’t think of a single birthday that was worth remembering, she had almost come to dread them, as it meant she was getting closer to being expelled from the orphanage like the other big kids had been. There was no callousness here, however, there was only love. She had never felt so much love in her life. These thoughts made her eyes tear up. “Thank you all, so much. This is the best birthday I’ve ever had.”

“It’s not over yet. J.J., you got it ready?” Bunberry asked.

“You know it!” J.J. walked on over as the lights dimmed and he was holding a big chocolate cake on a platter. It had 12 pink candles on it, and two gray ones. The two gray to symbolize the years she lost, apparently. That was a bit melancholic but any sadness she had towards it instantly evaporated when she smelled how good the cake was. J.J. cut a slice out and handed it to her. “Birthday girl always gets the first slice, house rules.” When she looked at the slice she realized it wasn’t just chocolate cream cake, there was also ice cream! This was a sugary nightmare but for someone her age it was heaven.

She sat down, while Bunberry got a slice and sat next to her. Everyone got slices and they all sat down around the tables. J.J. went to his kitchen and came back with a bunch of huge bowls full of special punch. He gave everyone a glass and filled it up. It was red and tasted really fruity and a bit sour too. Cherry liked it.

After everyone finished their meal. Bunberry stood up. “We got one more thing planned just for you. Dag, if you would?”

Dagger Flower rose from his seat happily and turned to J.J. “Just this once, J.J., to make her happy?”

J.J. shook his head with a smile. “All right, but don’t make a habit of this, just this once.”

Cherry watched in anticipation as Dag moved some tables and chairs around. “It’s been awhile since I did this. You see, I used to be a circus clown. My name was the Great Enigma. I don’t know if you ever saw Magnum’s Magnificent Oddities, you were probably too young. There were several performers there I think you would have liked. Anyway, let’s see if I still got it. J.J. if you would!”

J.J. nodded and then a different music played. A cheerful, airy music which seemed to fill the room with a sensation of excitement. Cherry was sure she’d heard it somewhere before, but she wasn’t sure where. Maybe when she was very small. She’d learn later it was called circus music.

Dag wasted no time. Immediately he backflipped onto a table, then front flipped right on top of a chair in perfect balance. He didn’t stop there though, he was just warming up. He backflipped back on the table, cartwheeled around it in a circle, then front flipped onto another chair. Afterwards he immediately executed a 360 degrees pirouette mid air, turning himself upside down and landing on his hands, lifting himself up by just one of them. It seemed his onesie allowed for quite a bit of flexibility. Everyone clapped excitedly, especially Cherry. It was really freaking cool. 

Suddenly he did something really weird. He walked over to her, and pulled out of thin air what looked like a black circle. He placed it in the air right next to her and it didn’t move, it somehow was just floating there. Then, moving farther away, he placed one in the air above a table. “If you’ve never seen my performance, you’re in for a real treat.” He stuck his hand through the hole which was at least twenty or thirty feet away, and it appeared right next to Cherry. Cherry gasped and then he took it out and stuck his head in the hole, and it appeared right next to Cherry too. It was incredible. Like those holes were a portal of some sort.

Then he walked over, grabbed the hole from Cherry’s side, and moved to a new location. He slapped it on the table then he grabbed the other one. He leaped into the air and slapped it about twenty feet upwards right above it. “Geranimo!” He cried out as he leaped and spun himself like a drill into the hole. Only to appear above, and then continuing his corkscrew he flew out of the top hole, to the bottom hole, then to the top hole and the bottom hole, going faster and faster and faster in a seemingly infinite loop. His body began to blur as it fell faster and faster through the portal. To the point it was getting hard to see if he was even there anymore. Cherry watched with morbid fascination as suddenly he and the black holes were gone.

“Dag? Where did Dag go? Is he okay?!” Cherry was worried. Dragon pointed upwards. Cherry looked up, to see Dag hanging upside down on a flying broom, his twin tails falling from above.

“Awww, Dragon, I’m going to punish you for that later. Don’t ruin the trick.” Cherry wasn’t sure what he meant by punishing him, but the red mark on Dragon’s face definitely implied something.

Despite whatever thing was going on with Dragon and Dag, Cherry’s mouth was agape in awe. “H-How did you do that?”

“It’s my Trait, Mischief. I can perform cartoon-like abilities in real life, transformed or not.” Dag said, as he flew down on his broom, right next to Cherry.

“Wow! That’s really cool!”

“I know right? Anyway, that’s enough for me. I’ll be going now,” he said, getting off his broom as it vanished in a puff of smoke. However, he suddenly started walking backwards. Cherry wasn’t sure how he would be going anywhere walking towards the back table, until Cherry saw something impossible. Dag had walked past the table and just disappeared. As if where Cherry was, was a center stage and Dag had just walked off of it.

After watching this, Cherry began to wonder if the world itself was Dag’s plaything.

“Nah, I’d never leave you like that,” he said, as he walked out right from behind Cherry. Cherry leaped into the air in shock. “Sorry, that’s my last trick, but that was fun, wasn’t it?”

Cherry was a bit spooked but definitely agreed. Dag was incredible. She’d want to see more of this later. After the show Dragon started clapping and everyone else joined in. They clearly enjoyed it too.

“That was incredible, Dag. Can you use your powers on others? Like you know the cartoon where their eyes go swirly and they hypnotize them?” Coffin Flower asked enthusiastically.

“Yeah, I can, but uhh…” He looked over to Dragon, unsure. Dragon shrugged. “Well, sit still then.” His eyes swirled with rainbow lights, and Cherry watched Coffin Flower’s body stiffen as her expression became blank. “You are under my spell… uhh… touch your toes.” Coffin Flower touched her toes. “Poke Dragon in the nose.”

“Wait what, Dag what are you—” Before Dragon could finish, Coffin Flower minced over and poked him right in his tiny button nose. She had to lean down since he was quite a bit shorter than her, only four feet nine inches tall, but she did it with that same blank expression. “Gah! Please stop! That feels so weird.” Cherry giggled at the spectacle. It was pretty funny.

“All right, now bark like a dog,” Dag commanded, and with sudden enthusiasm Coffin Flower barked like a dog. Cherry swore she could see an almost imaginary tail behind her, her performance was so good. “Okay, now return to normal.” He snapped his fingers.

Coffin Flower looked back and forth, momentarily confused, then let out a delighted giggle as she blushed. “Mmmm, if only a girl had your Trait. Oh well, thank you, that was lovely.” Cherry loved her, she was so goofy and silly.

Dag just looked at Dragon again, he responded with another shrug. “Uhhh, sure. Anyway, we should get going. First though.” He moved up to whisper something into Dragon’s ear. Dragon seized up and nodded. “Good boy. Anyway, goodbye everyone. Happy birthday again, Cherry.” Dag waved, then walked out of the restaurant.

Dragon walked over to Kittenberry near Cherry, and took a deep breath. “Kittenberry, can we talk?”

“D-Dragon, you sure, mew? You, umm, I…” Before she could respond further, he walked over and gave her a hug.

“I’m sorry, Kittenberry, I’m sorry for every horrible thing I ever said or did to you. I was wrong. I am dealing with some harsh ice cream and it's not fair to take it out on you.” Dragon said, remorseful. Cherry was proud of Dragon for admitting that.

Kittenberry’s eyes teared up. “D-Dragon I.. I only wanted to be your friend, mew. I’m sorry what happened to Fluffy Ruby… it…”

“It doesn’t matter. I got stuff I got to work through, and I never should have taken it out on you. If you will have me. I’d love to try to make a friendship work with you again.” Kittenberry responded with another hug and a nod as tears filled her eyes. Cherry was glad they made up. She couldn’t have imagined how long ago this should have been done. At least now though, it was finished.

The festivities over, everyone began to shuffle out, Kittenberry stayed behind, but everyone else went their merry way. Cherry felt more warmth and love today than she ever had. Though she had one more surprise left.

Kittenberry walked over to Cherry. “Hey, Cher Cher. We got a mission, if you are up for it. We’re gonna go with Gray Bubbles.” Cherry had never met Gray Bubbles. She was kind of excited too. Cherry agreed, and walked with Kittenberry to the portal area. There she saw someone who interestingly had the same skin color as Lamp Flower. Huh.

“Ah, Cherry Sparkles, good to see you. Happy birthday, I have a surprise for you. Let’s go.” She walked over to Blue Bubbles.

Blue Bubbles was someone that Cherry loved seeing. Her radiant navy blue afro complimented her dark skin well and looked gorgeous with her beautiful blue eyes. She wore a dark blue ankle length dress with white lace decoration on the hem, sleeves, and collar. Along with a pair of stockings, and dark blue heels.

“Ah, you’re all ready. Okay, here’s your portal. Nothing is really there though, but I know better than to mistrust your judgment, Gray.”

Gray Bubbles smirked. “Excellent.” She walked inside.

Kittenberry smiled at Cherry. “See you on the other side, mew!”

Cherry was about to walk in, when suddenly she realized, she’d never actually asked Blue Bubbles what she wanted to be called. She stopped for a moment and turned to her. “Blue Bubbles, can I ask you something?”

“Yeah, what’s up Cherry?”

“Gender has been on my mind lately and I realized I never asked yours. Could you tell me? For now I’m trying out being a girl and using She/her pronouns.”

Blue Bubbles started to tear up. “Literally no one has asked me that besides Dag. I’m agender, I don’t really feel male, female, or anything. I use they/them pronouns. If you forget it’s fine, everyone else does but… if you want to use them. I wouldn’t be against it.”

Cherry smiled warmly at them. “I’ll remember that for the future. Thank you.” She then walked inside happily, and she swore she saw Blue Bubbles smile for the first time ever since she had met them.

On the other end of the portal was just a simple open field. Gray and Kittenberry were waiting. Cherry looked left and right but didn’t see anything all that dangerous. Was there even any Luminescent here? Gray started walking away and Cherry followed.

It was about a few minutes before Gray suddenly stopped. “This is the spot. Now we wait.”

“Now we wait for what?” Cherry asked. To answer her two golden portals opened up. And out walked… Lucid Allbright.

Kittenberry looked at Gray Bubbles with fear. “This isn’t what you said would happen! Why is he here?!”

“It seems you kept your end of the bargain, Gray Bubbles,” he said.

Cherry’s brain went into overtime, what did he mean?

“Yes, now give me Lightning Dust! You promised!”

“Of course. Lightina Allbright. You can come out now,” he called out.

From out of the other golden portal walked out a woman with olive green hair, golden eyes, and wearing a lavish forest green gown. She looked over towards the group.. “Huh… been such a long time. I suppose I owe you an apology, Cherry Sparkles.”

Cherry was utterly freaking out. Two Royals were here, including Lucid Allbright, what could she possibly do against this? On top of that Gray Bubbles was in league with them? She’d never even met her until now. What in the world was going on?

Kittenberry also was afraid. “Y-you didn’t say anything like this. You said I could see her again! Gray what did you do?!”

“Oh, right, the decoy,” Lucid said, then from behind him, brought out an Umbra girl with light Orange hair and light orange eyes. She wore a dirty white blouse with a red jumper and a red ribbon in her hair.

“Fuck, Kitten, why did you listen to that asshole!” the girl shouted. “Damn it, Cherry, run! Run as fast as you can!” The girl could swear. That should be impossible, right?

Lucid grabbed onto the girl. “That’s not part of the deal. Look, we don’t have a choice in the matter, neither do you. You don’t understand what’s at stake here, Acorn Flower. The girl cannot escape or we’re all doomed.”

It was Acorn Flower, but hadn’t Lightning Dust killed her!? Cherry had no idea what was going on!

“Acorny I’m sorry. I wanted to see you so bad, but I didn’t think this would happen. I’d never betray my friends, I just wanted to see you again. I’m so sorry, she tricked me, I…” Kittenberry’s eyes filled with tears.

“Just complete the exchange already. Lightning Dust, it’s so good to see you again. Shall we pick up where we left off?” Gray looked extremely happy to see this girl.

“Gray, we weren’t even married, and even if we were, ‘til death do us part kind of sailed already. I was purified, became a Luminescent and then a Royal. Lightning Dust is basically dead at this point. I’m Lightina now. Besides, we were wrong, trans people are real. I’ve seen it first hand.”

Kittenberry and Cherry were both horrified by this revelation. “What do you mean became a Luminescent…” Cherry asked.

“Simple. Sorry to put this on you so soon. When a human is purified, they can become a Luminescent, and certain ones can become Royals. You’ll learn more at the base. Come, Cherry, it’s time to meet Mother,” Lucid said matter-of-factly. He didn’t seem as cruel as before. Something was definitely off about him.

“What is this utter sugar muffins?! Lightning Dust, Adaption hater Lightning Dust is telling me she suddenly believes in trans people? After all we fought for? After everything we did?” Gray was furious, and Cherry was confused.

Nothing made sense, everything was upside down. Humans were Luminescent?! How was that possible? Also to meet his mother, did he mean the Glimmering Queen? Everything was crumbling around her.

“Gray, go home. Cherry, I’m sorry but you have to come with us. The fate of the entire world depends on it. Thanks to my errant ex-girlfriend.”

“No, no no no no! I didn’t make a fey pact so you could just leave me. I got you saved, Lightning Dust! You can’t abandon me!” she cried out. Then Lightina sighed and bashed her upside the head, knocking her out.

“But I-I don’t want to leave Bunberry and the others.”

“It is up to you if you ever see them again. I haven’t got all day, the clock is ticking. Either come with us, or else I’ll be forced to take Acorn back.”

“No! Please, no!” Kittenberry cried out.

Cherry knew what she had to do. Kibby had suffered for so long, even had her girlfriend miss her birthday party. Cherry couldn’t let that happen to her again. “I’ll go.”

“Great, then here.” He tossed Acorn Flower towards them. “She’s unharmed, as promised.”

“Yeah but I was locked in a cage for a fucking week. I got to say, Hotel Luminescent sucks ass, I’m so giving you a bad Yelp review.” Acorn Flower seemed kinda snarky. Cherry would have appreciated it had she not been heading to certain doom. She only hoped Kibby would be happy.

“I will not miss that mouth of yours.” Lucid seemed exasperated. Then held his hand out to Cherry. “Come, Cherry. It’s time.” A golden portal opened up. Cherry gulped as she took his hand.

“I’m sorry Cherry, I really didn’t know, I’m so sorry please don’t hate me…”

“I don’t hate you Kibby, please let the others know what happened,” she said, as she was swallowed into the golden portal.

Bright, that was all that could be described. It was so bright, the lights were blinding. She couldn’t see at all. “It burns! My eyes!” she cried out.

“Don’t worry, it’ll pass, just give it a second,” Lucid reassured her.

Sure enough, he was right. Suddenly she could see, it kind of reminded her of the Umbra base and how it had been too dark to see at first. Looking around she looked to be in some kind of abandoned temple. There were stone pillars, stone floors, and stone walls. She was in some kind of lobby. There was a hallway to the right, but behind her was a single wooden door. In front of her was a massive staircase with an even more massive set of stone doors at the top of it.

“Come with me,” he said, and then took her up the stairs. He pushed open the doors and walked inside. She followed closely behind him, afraid. “I’m not going to hurt you, I know that’s hard to believe but you’ll understand soon enough.”

Inside of the doors was a massive throne room. There was a layer of pillars on each side that encircled a giant room. At the end was a large stone throne and to the left of that throne was a smaller throne. Sitting on the large throne was a strange female figure. She was glowing with such bright light that it was impossible to tell what age she was, or even what her skin color was. She surmised this must be the Glimmering Queen. Next to her was someone that nearly made Cherry’s heart stop. A woman with light skin, pink hair and eyes, and faerie-like wings. She was the Faerie Royal that Bunberry described, and Lucid was leading her right to her! She started to struggle but Lucid kept his grip.

“Calm down, Cherry, it’ll all make sense soon.”

Suddenly the faerie royal got up out of her throne and ran over to her as fast as she could, enveloping her in a hug as Lucid released her. “Cherry! Oh, Cherry, finally! I’m so glad!”

“Wh-What do you want?! Who are you?” Cherry asked, taken aback by the hug. Then suddenly a shiver ran up her spine as the faerie royal broke her hug.

“Oh, Cherry, my sweet Cherry,” she said, and suddenly transformed before Cherry’s eyes, losing all of her fey attributes to start, then changing her body entirely. After it was over, there was a woman very familiar to Cherry, a woman in her thirties with brown skin, the same color skin as Cherry, with pink hair and pink eyes. “I’m your mother.”