"Thirty-six, thirty-seven, thirty-eight, thirty-nine, and… forty!"

Canvas looked on with a tired, but satisfied smile as he marveled at the large wall of white paint cans in front of him. Because of his success in Baltimare, he was able to buy all the supplies he needed to finally paint his house. Canvas knew that it would take a lot of hard work, even for several ponies at once. Even though he had the time to start on it today, he didn't feel like doing anything that tricky after just getting back home to Ponyville.

Not to mention, he certainly didn't want to start any work on his friend's birthday.

Canvas headed toward the backwoods that would lead him to Troy's place. Since he remembered what happened last time he tried venturing through the thick foliage, Canvas pulled out several lines of orange rope from his art bag before trotting into the forest. He wasn’t an expert on wilderness survival, but he did learn a few pointers over the years; and in this case, Canvas made sure to tie one of the orange ropes to the base of a tree every twenty feet so that he could retrace his steps.

Once the forest line became more familiar, Canvas couldn’t help smiling to himself in success. But still, he continued to tie more rope to the trees he passed until eventually saw the clearing of that field. By the time he finally ventured out to the region that hosted Troy’s cloud, Canvas looked back contentedly to see the clear trail of orange that would guide him back home.

Despite how embarrassed Troy was the last time he was caught, Canvas was secretly hoping that his friend would be singing some more; of course, that was less to do with seeing a funny reaction from the gryphon, and more because his voice was legitimately really good. Canvas may have not been an opera aficionado himself, but he’d buy a record of Troy’s the moment it was released. But before he could think too much about that hypothetical, all he could hear was Troy’s snoring when he looked up to the gryphon’s cloud. He knew it was Troy's day off, but he was still surprised to see that he wasn't up yet. Canvas knew it was likely a bad idea to wake up a dozing gryphon, but he nervously cleared his throat before calling out to him

"Good morning, Troy!"

A disgruntled groan could be heard up in the cloud, and Canvas tried his hardest not to instinctively grow worried about his own well-being. Fortunately for the pony, after an irritated gryphon's head popped out from the cloud’s side, Troy's expression immediately went from annoyance to pleased surprise. Troy’s brows rose up as he glanced down from his home with a grinning beak to boot. "Oh, hey Canvas!"

Troy quickly flew down to land in front of Canvas, and appeared rather cheerful despite his ruffled feathers. "Where have you been, man?” he asked with a tilt of his head. “I thought that Baltimare trip was only going to be for a day or two! I was this close to asking Twilight if something happened."

Upon seeing how closely Troy was holding two of his talons together for emphasis, Canvas tried not to blush too guiltily while smiling back at him. "Well, it was supposed to be,” he admitted with a light shrug, “but that social went really well for me! The paintings I brought with me sold like friggin’ hotcakes, and I ended up taking a few commissions on the spot! It took me a few extra days to get all the clients’ works finalized, but the pay was more than worth it!”

Troy’s face lit up excitedly, and he put out his claw for Canvas to bump. “Dude, that’s awesome! I told you that trip would be worth it!”

“Yeah, I’ll fully admit you were right there.” Canvas smiled warmly as he bumped the gryphon’s clenched claw, and then he added with a cheekier tone, “Plus... With my extra earnings, I was lucky to get enough bits for your birthday gift."

Troy's eyes widened a bit before his face drooped down, and he groaned under his breath. "Ugh… Seriously, Canvas? You really didn't have to buy me a gift for my birthday."

Canvas raised his eyebrows while staring back at him in confoundment. "Wow, Rainbow Dash was right! Do you seriously not celebrate your own birthday?"

"Well…" When he saw how baffled the pony looked from that revelation, Troy looked away from him with an awkward skew of his beak. He started to straighten out the ruffled feathers across his neck as he tried to explain. "Back in the Gryphon Kingdom, most of us don't really see the point of it. I mean, it’s not like we don’t celebrate anything, but we don’t really see the reason to celebrate the day we're born. It just seems kinda narcissistic, you know? Like, 'Hey, I survived another year! Buy me something!'"

Canvas narrowed his eyes as he tried to fathom the gryphon's words. From the way he was gawking at the gryphon, it was like Troy just tried to explain quantum physics to him in traditional Zebrican. "Seriously? That's kind of a cynical way to think about birthdays, dude!"

Troy could understand how a pony could be so befuddled, but all he could do was shrug his shoulders in response. "Hey, that's just how I was raised. I mean, I get it's a big thing around here, but it just seems weird to me."

Canvas looked like he wanted to say something more about it, but he eventually sighed before nodding in understanding. He then regrew an optimistic smile before saying, "Well, considering that you’re my friend, it seems only fair to show my appreciation. And since you literally saved my life, I’m not gonna apologize for getting you a birthday gift."

If it wasn’t for that last part, Troy likely would’ve tried to say otherwise about accepting a gift. Bit given the circumstances, he mirrored Canvas’ grin all the same. "Well, thank you,” he said with a genuine nod of his head. “So… do you have it with you or something?"

"Actually, ummm...” Canvas made sure to look around before continuing his answer. "I can’t really give it to you now. But if you’re not doing anything, can you be at my place at eight tonight?"

Troy pondered the question for a moment, but didn’t seem too weirded-out by his friend’s request. "Well… I know I was supposed to help out at Lyra and Bon-Bon's place today for some candy tasting, but that's about it…"

Troy didn't notice Canvas’ smirk, which was most likely due to the pony knowing something his friend didn’t. But upon realizing his schedule was clear after that meeting, Troy nodded in acceptance to Canvas’ request. "Alright, that sounds good. I'll be there at eight."

Canvas' smile grew even bigger than before, and his tail wagged excitedly enough to smack against his cutie marks. "Great! I gotta get some other things done today, but trust me! I think you're really gonna like it!"

Since both of them had plans, Canvas and Troy said their goodbyes before the pony started heading back to the woods. However, he stopped at the treeline to turn back to Troy, and shouted out, “Oh! And one more thing! Be sure you come alone."

Given how insistently Canvas gave that clarification, Troy cocked his head to the side in confusion. "Umm… why?"

Canvas didn’t give an answer, and merely winked at him with a coy smirk and said, "Just trust me, okay?"

Troy wasn't sure what to think about Canvas’ request, despite his reassuring smile.But if the gryphon learned anything from the time he spent with Canvas, it was that he wasn’t the kind of pony to screw him over. After giving a quick sigh, Troy nodded back at him and replied, “Oh, alright then. I trust you, Canvas.”

The stallion shot his friend a thankful smile, and then waved him goodbye before disappearing back into the woods. When the pony was out of eyesight, Troy looked back up at his cloud, not sure of what he was going to do until the afternoon. After shrugging to himself, Troy said to nobody in particular, “Eh, I might as well shower before visiting Lyra and Bon-Bon. It’s not anything big is gonna happen…”

"SURPRISE!!"

“GAAAHHHH!!!” Just as Troy opened the door to Lyra and Bon-Bon's sweet shop, he shot back out into the street in shock. His pupils were as thin as pin-pricks as he stared wide-eyed back at the crowd of ponies inside the building. Most of the ponies looked surprised at his reaction, but they weren’t worried enough to keep a mass of giggles from following suit. Meanwhile, Troy’s feathers were so ruffled that he looked like a puffball with a beak.

After groaning under his breath, Troy quickly rubbed his feathers back down while the ponies kept snickering. Even though he should’ve realized it from the get-go, it turned out the whole ‘candy testing’ thing was just a ruse for a surprise party.

However, once Troy got his feathers straightened out and his heart rate back to normal, the party went alright when he finally went inside. He was fairly surprised that none of his coworkers or Rainbow Dash showed up (or Canvas, for that matter), but Troy didn't mind that too much as he conversed with Pinkie Pie and others who were there.

As he drank his third bottle of watermelon soda, Lyra and Bon-Bon walked up to him with cheeky smiles. Lyra had her horn brightly lit, which helped to hold two wrapped gifts in her aura. "Happy Birthday, Troy!" said Bon-Bon while pointing at the gifts.

“Oh! Uhhh… thank you!” Even though Troy wouldn’t say that the mares weren’t friends of his, he was still rather surprised that these two would go all-out for him like this. Since he considered the two to be more friends of Canvas than himself, Troy smiled meekly as they hoofed the gifts towards. "Wow, I… I don’t know what to say. I can't believe you two would do all this for me."

"Well, why not?" said Lyra with a skewed brow and sassy grin. "You're a really good friend to Canvas, so I don’t see why we wouldn't help out. Besides, Pinkie Pie was the one who did most of this."

The couple glanced back at the pink mare, who was now dancing on the shop counter with a lampshade on her head. Even though the mare’s antics were enough to incite a ton of laughter from the other patrons, Bon-Bon looked worried over whether the glass counter was going to hold Pinkie's weight. Meanwhile, Lyra just chuckled when she turned back towards Troy. "Seriously, I have no idea how she does this all the time without getting worn out. She just loves throwing parties, no matter the occasion."

"Yeah, I can see that,” Troy said while staring at the borderline-insane pony. After shaking his head in disbelief, he turned back to Lyra with a curious look. "Speaking of Canvas, though... I'm kinda surprised he's not here."

"Well, he did say something about getting some paintings started when we met him at the train station…” Lyra tapped the bottom of her chin with a hoof, and then looked up at Troy to ask, “Didn't he say anything to you?"

"Well…” Troy thought back to their conversation earlier that morning. Even though the topic of incoming paintings didn’t come up, he recalled what Canvas said about a gift for him tonight. "I did promise Canvas I’d be at his place at eight for something. He wouldn't tell me what, though."

"Oh, really?~" Lyra immediately grew a devilish-looking grin as she perked her brows suggestively. "Is it a date?"

Troy merely scoffed and rolled his eyes back at her. "No, it's not. Canvas is just a friend, alright? He just wanted to give me a birthday gift, and he wanted to show up alone."

Troy hoped that would end her suspicion, but that last detail of his answer made Lyra cheeky stare at him for a little longer. Fortunately, she did revert back to a regular smile, and let the gryphon’s response slide with a shrug while Bon-Bon turned back to Troy.

"So what are you waiting for?" asked Bon-Bon, who pointed a hoof at the unopened gifts still in Troy's claws. "It’s not the boxes themselves we’re gifting, you know! Presents have things inside of them~"

“Wow,” remarked Lyra while eyeing her wife coyly, “and you call me sassy.”

“Hey, it’s totally fine,” said Troy in assurance. “I probably would’ve said something like that if I thought of it.” The gryphon then went to open the first present, which gave Bon-Bon the chance to stick out her tongue teasingly back at Lyra. The unicorn huffed in response with a forgiving smile, and used her magic to pick up the shreds of yellow and blue wrapping paper Troy ripped from the box. A large smile grew on Troy's beak when he saw it was a large bag of Lemon Drops, which looked like they were freshly crafted by the candy-maker. "Wow! This is really thoughtful, Bon-Bon! Thank you so much!"

Bon-Bon grinned proudly back at him, Lyra tried to interject with a cautious expression on her face. "You better be careful, Troy. I swear the last time she made lemon candies, one of them tried to bite me!"

“Ugh!” Bon-Bon instantly turned to her spouse with a bitter scowl. "For crying out loud, can you quit saying that?! I keep telling you, the hard candy probably shrank in your mouth from the saliva or something! Seriously, how can candy even bite somepony? It's almost as crazy as the time you said you saw a human looking through our window!"

Lyra’s glare immediately turned serious as she eyed her wife intensely, and said with an unrelenting tone of voice. "There was a human. He was wearing a pink hat!”

The moment Troy saw Bon-Bon roll her eyes with an umanused groan, he returned his attention to the second gift before the two could start bickering. Unlike the first gift, the item in Troy’s other claw was a smaller box wrapped with a familiar mint-green paper. When he opened the top flap, Troy’s brows rose in surprise when he saw a small cassette player with a pair of matching headphones. "Wow, a walkman?” he asked with a huge smile growing across his beak. “That's awesome, Lyra! I've been meaning to get something like this for my flights."

Lyra quickly stopped her arguments about her ‘Mystery Human,’ and turned her attention back to the gryphon with a thankful smile. "Yeah, I figured you might enjoy something like that. Also…”

Using her magic, Lyra pulled out a small card from behind the counter and levitated it to Troy. "I wasn't sure what kind of music you liked, so here's a gift card for that music store in Cloudsdale. I've had it on me for a while, but I haven't been able to really use it for obvious reasons. I don’t want it to go to waste, so here you go!"

As he took the card with his claw, Troy’s eyes widened in shock when he saw the amount Lyra’s gift was worth. “Holy crap, forty bits?! This is really nice of you, Lyra!"

"Hey, that's what friends are for,” she said with a shrug and a warm smile up at him. “I know that we don’t hang out with you as much as Canvas, but we still really appreciate everything you’ve been doing. Not just for him, but for Ponyville too.”

A small blush came up across the gryphon’s cheeks, and Troy felt his chest get a little lighter. Even though he couldn’t say anything against Lyra’s claim, he couldn’t deny how nice they’ve been to him whenever they met up. Of course, when he caught that last part of the unicorn’s remark, Troy couldn’t help glancing around the shop with a touched look on his face.

With all the cheerful ponies hanging out and laughing without a care in the world, Troy’s smile grew wider when he thought back to when he started working on the weather patrol. Despite how strangely ponies may have first reacted to seeing a gryphon around town on the regular, Troy couldn’t deny how quickly it took for the town’s citizens to warm up to his presence. Unlike back home in the Gryphon Kingdom, ponies didn’t hesitate to show their kindness and generosity whenever Troy finished a hard day’s work. And while he still thought birthday parties were an odd thing to do, Troy couldn’t mind it one bit as he turned his attention back to Lyra and Bon-Bon. Instead, the gryphon tried his hardest not to look too emotion as a grateful beam spread across his beak.

"Yeah, it… It really means a lot to hear that. And you guys are really good friends too."

Lyra and Bon-Bon were quick to hug him. Troy closed his eyes as he hugged them back, making sure not to cling too tightly and accidentally hurt the mares. However, Troy then felt a large weight pressing down on his back, and heard Pinkie Pie’s voice as she shouted, "Oh, come on! I want to be part of the group hug too!"

After the party died down, Troy helped Lyra and Bon-Bon with cleaning up the shop, despite how much they tried to claim that wasn’t necessary; the cleanup wasn’t too taxing, but the gryphon was surprised by how many candy wrappers were strewn around the place. After a few final hugs and goodbyes, Troy decided to venture off to Cloudsdale to make use of his giftcard. The mare behind the counter at the record store seemed a little taken aback when he entered the place, but Troy didn’t try to feel too judged while scanning through the store’s music selection.

Troy was surprised by how much pricier tapes were in comparison to records, so he bought just a few opera cassettes for his flights. As he walked back to the counter, he also decided to get a tape placed near the register: a cassette with a grey mare on the cover holding a cello, titled ‘Octavia: Concerto in Canterlot.’

After his items were rung up, Troy added the batteries to his walkman as he walked out of the store. Then he put the Octavia cassette in, pressed play, and flew off.

Though Troy liked listening to opera while flying overall, doing it with a cassette and headphones was a much better experience than his previous methods. It used to be that if he wanted to fly around with music, he’d have to settle with soaring in circles around his record player on the ground. The sounds of the different instruments flowed to Troy's ears through those headphones, and carried a lot more clarity that made him grin the entire time he soared back towards his home.

When he reached his lake and cloud, Troy was pleased to see that nopony else was around. Since he was alone again, Troy quickly popped out the Octavia cassette (which was actually really impressive for an earth pony) while hovering in the air, and pulled out one of the other tapes in his satchel.

He grinned to himself as he selected one particular tape, titled ‘Verdi - Rigoletto.’ He may have not cared too much about birthdays, but he was willing to use his own as an excuse to listen to one of his favorite tracks. He quickly fast-forwarded the tape to search for a particular section, and his wings fluttered in the air when he found the specific song he was hoping for. Troy cleared his throat as he heard the orchestral arrangement begin to play in his ears with crystal clarity.

The vintage strings began to play out the beginning parts, and the gryphon spread his wings out as he flew around the clear skies. His body flipped around like an acrobat, but his headphones were able to stay secure on his head. Troy felt absolutely fantastic upon realizing he could go all-out while singing in the air, and have no fears of being unable to hear the music due to high winds. He couldn’t have appreciated the portability of his new device more than in that moment, since it could always be by his side and keep him from feeling restrained by the player's range of sound.

Since there wasn’t a pony in sight in the skies, Troy spun around like crazy as he let the music take over. His nerves tingled from the elating energy flowing through his body as he began to sing, and his operatic voice belted out passionately amongst the silent skies:

“La donna, mobileeee!! Qual piuma al vento!! muta d'accento, e di pensiero…
Sempre un amabileeee, leggiadro visoo… in pianto o in riso, menzognero…”

His voice grew even louder for the bigger part, and Troy started flying higher upward. Since he had no restraints, Troy felt ecstatic that he could fly this high while still hearing the music clearly from his tape.

“La donna, mobil… qual piuma al vento…”

Troy stopped when he was several hundred feet in the air, and hovered in the skies as he sang the next long verse.

“Muta d'acc - eeeeeento…”

Troy quickly shot down to the lake with his wings pulled in as he kept singing, his voice picking back up.

“E di pensier!!”

His wings shot back out just a few feet above the lake, and Troy glided over the shimmering water like an eagle keen on catching a fish with its claws. As the motion of his flight caused a sizeable wave to grow behind him, Troy continued soaring a mere few inches from the surface as he kept going.

“E di pensier!!!”

Troy quickly landed on the ground, leaving an impressive skid mark on the grass, and belted out the first big finish of the song to the nature around him.

“Eeeeeeee... E di pensier!!!”

With a huge grin on his face, and an unrelenting rush of excitement from the experience he found himself in, Troy shot back up to the skies as he sang the song’s second half. The gryphon performed several barrel-rolls and flips through the air, as his singing filled the serenity of the forest. As he reached the end of the song, Troy landed on the edge of his cloud, and lingered at the outside of his entrance as he got to the final big finish.

“EeeEEeeEE DIIII…”

After bursting inside of his cloud with a theatrical raising of his claw, Troy sang out the last part with gusto into the open room like he was on a grand stage:

“PEN-SIEEEEEEeeeaaaahhh!!!!”

Troy's voice went from a powerful belt to an inaudible screech halfway through the line. The very moment his eyes reopened, Troy ended up standing in his room with a look of frozen shock. Standing in front of him, in his living quarters, were Rainbow Dash and the rest of the weather team. Much like Troy, the ponies remained deathly silent while staring at the gryphon with their jaws wide open.

Above the group, a banner was hung from the top of the cloud structure that said, ‘Happy Birthday Troy!’

Of course, Troy didn't notice the banner, as he was too busy trying not to piss himself while still holding his claw up. He stayed silent as his beak hung open, the music from his cassette player could still be heard coming out of his headphones.

After what felt like an eternity, Troy slowly used his other claw to shakily press the 'stop' button on his walkman. Unfortunately, the abrupt pause to his orchestrals meant that he was stuck in a very awkward bout of silence while facing his work crew. The only sound that could be heard was the rapid breathing from Rainbow Dash's snout, whose face was scrunched in while trying desperately not to burst out laughing.

Troy’s feathers started to ruffle back out from his body, and his face began twitching uncontrollably by the time he tried to speak. Unfortunately, his voice came out in a very faint creak while gawking back at his coworkers.

"... Why… are you in my house…?”

Holding a hoof to her muzzle, Rainbow Dash clenched her eyes shut and tried to control her muffled snickering. The other ponies had to look away from the gryphon, mostly due to how stunned they were from the impromptu performance they just heard him performing outside. Meanwhile, Dash’s words came out in one quick breath as she tried to keep herself from cracking up.

"... Mmf… ggng… itwasasurpriseparty… mmhmmm…”

While the rest of the weather crew either just stood in shock or tried to muffle their own laughter, Troy's outward claw finally came down to the floor. Of course, his talons were still shaking alongside the rest of his body as he desperately tried to think of anything to say. Knowing very well that his cloud wasn't soundproof, he could only stand in his stunned state from the realization that his boss, as well as all his coworkers, just listened to him sing the entirety of ‘La Donna É Mobile’.

With his feathers now fully ruffled out, which drew even more snickering from his coworkers, Troy managed to speak once more. His voice was slightly more audible, but the strong twitches from his bulging eyes made it look like he was either going to have a heart-attack, or a response that would lead to several ponies being thrown out of his cloud.

"... I-I… already HAD a surprise party…”

Rainbow Dash's legs started shaking as she looked away from Troy, and several more chortles slipped from her clenched muzzle. She tried to nod to Troy’s point as she kept her eyes closed, but she already looked like she was laughing from how much her head was convulsing up and down. And dispute how badly she was struggling to remain silent out of respect, her response to Troy was basically the

"... That… Th-That was the surprise!”

Not able to hold it in any longer, Rainbow Dash fell to the floor with tears trailing down her face as she howled in laughter. Even though Troy looked like he was going to go into full-on murder mode against them, the rest of the weather crew couldn't contain themselves either. And less than a minute, the sound of Troy’s singing was replaced with the uproar of laughter that echoed far across the field below his cloud.

"Another round for my buddy here, the birthday boy!" shouted Rainbow Dash, who looked to be in high spirits with a hoof wrapped around Troy’s shoulder.

The weather crew cheered again while bunched together across the counter of the Cloudsdale sports bar. Troy couldn’t help smiling contentedly as well, and took another shot as he sat on his tiny stool. Despite how furious he felt at having his coworkers laughing at him in his own home, he managed to loosen up a little after they all quickly apologized afterward.

Troy didn't plan on doing anything else that afternoon, so he felt alright enough to agree to go with them to celebrate his birthday. After a few shots and some good laughs, Troy was really beginning to warm up to the whole ‘birthday’ thing.

Two of his coworkers, who were a pair of identical twins, started to chat with him at the bar. The duo, who Troy knew to be Flitter and Cloud Chaser, seemed especially interested to talk with him some more after the whole cloud incident. Despite their identical shades of light-purple coats and light-blue manes, the only real distinctive difference between them was the pink bow in Flitter's mane, which bobbed up and down as she cheerfully sang his praises. "So Troy, do you like, sing professionally or anything? Because you could totally get yourself a singing career with that voice!”

"Yeah, totally!" said Cloud Chaser as she dipped her head next to her sister's. "If you sold an album, we’d both buy copies of it the opening day!"

Even with how genuinely they complimented his talents, Troy just scoffed to himself and turned away from them. "No, no, I haven't. And I don't really plan to, thank you very much."

"Aw. come ooooooon!” whined both the mares in unison. When he glanced back at the twins, he saw that Flitter and Cloud Chaser looked legitimately disappointed in his response. The first twin continued, "Seriously, you should totally try singing at, like, concerts and stuff! I mean, I don’t even listen to opera, but I would totally pay a ticket for that!"

“A-And not as a joke either!” clarified Cloudchaser, which was followed with a firm nod from her sister. “Like, you could give a stellar performance if you really tried for it.”

"I can’t believe I'm saying this,” said Rainbow Dash, who caught Troy’s attention from his other side, “but I agree with both of them."

Troy turned his head back to Rainbow Dash with his brows raised in surprise. Considering how loudly she was cracking up from his performance just a couple hours ago, he wasn’t expecting her to compliment him now while munching on a plate of mozzarella sticks. After downing another deep-fried stick of goodness, the pegasus swallowed before she looked back at him with a smirk. "I mean, I hate opera! I honestly can’t see why Rarity or Twilight like it so much. But I have to say, you really do have a knack at singing the stuff, dude! I mean, I don't think I'd actually pay to listen to that kind of thing, but I know a lot of ponies would."

Troy may have been skeptical about his abilities to say the least, but he had to blink a couple times in confoundment of his coworkers’ praises. Not to mention, he could tell from Rainbow’s insistent tone that she truly meant every word she said to him. But as the gryphon stared off towards the bottles on the wall across from them, Rainbow huffed with a shrug of her shoulders and added, "I mean, I knew Canvas said you liked opera and all, but he never told me you, like, sang it!"

"Wait, when did he tell you that?" Troy may have been grateful to hear his friend didn't mention the singing part, but he was surprised that Canvas mentioned anything of the sort to his boss.

"I caught him at the train station before he went to Baltimare,” she replied with a casual shrug between bites of her mozzarella sticks. “I asked him what would be a good gift for you, and he told me you liked opera. How did you think I knew to get you that record?"

"Ohhhh." Troy slowly nodded, and was quick to recall the opera record she had gifted him back in his cloud. Even though she was still giggling when she presented it, she was also really glad when he mentioned it was one he was planning to buy. All the other gifts from his coworkers were thoughtful as well, and included a new satchel, some Wonderbolts patches from the twins, and a really nice pair of claw trimmers from Thunderlane. Nevertheless, the album collection of Cosí Fan Tutte from Rainbow Dash was claws-down Troy’s favorite present from the group.

And as he sat with his coworkers at the bar, Troy was beginning to feel less insecure about his hobby as more of them raved about his singing. At first, he thought that Canvas was just complimenting him because he was his friend; but now, the gryphon was trying his hardest not to blush as everypony else went on about how great he really was.

While half of them tried to get him to use the karaoke machine nearby (which was about as fruitless as teaching Pinkie Pie how to sit still), Troy glanced up at a nearby clock on the wall. His eyes shot wide-open when he saw that it was already close to seven o'clock.

"Yeesh, we've been here that long? Troy downed the remainder of his pint in one go, and was just about to get himself off his stool. “I gotta get back home so I can meet up with Canvas at eight."

"What for?" asked Rainbow Dash after downing her mug of root beer.

"Oh, he said he had a birthday gift for me,” he answered with a lighthearted shrug of his head, “so I'm gonna head there to see what it is."

"Oooohhhh, I see." Rainbow Dash gave the gryphon a cheeky grin, which looked very similar to the one that Lyra gave at his first party. Because of her tone, Troy paused before he could get out of his seat.

"Okay, what is it?” Troy wasn’t willing to put up with much more after the cloud incident, and was quick to shoot a warning stare back at her. “Seriously, I really don't see what the big deal is!"

Seeing his irritation, Rainbow Dash turned her expression a bit more serious, albeit still smiling a bit. Nevertheless, she still held her hooves up in innocence and said, "Nothing, nothing at all!"

Although he could tell there was something, Troy was just about to let it go before she added, "I'm just surprised to see you dating, that's all."

“UGH!” Troy’s groan was loud enough to catch the attention of several of his coworkers, who turned to see him rolling his eyes in annoyance. "Oh, come on! You too?!"

Troy looked fairly irritated at her assumption, and spoke up before Dash could get the chance to defend herself. "It is not a date, Rainbow! I'm just visiting a friend, and that's all he is! Just because I hang out with a gay friend doesn’t mean anything, and I think you would know better than to make assumptions like that!" He sighed deeply while glancing away from her, which kept him from noticing Rainbow Dash biting her lip in guilt.

"Umm…” Rainbow felt a little uneasy as she squirmed in her stool, but only needed to let out a light huff before saying sincerely, “I'm sorry, Troy. You're right. I shouldn't make assumptions like that."

"Nah, it's alright,” assured Troy apologetically with a wave of his claw. “I'm sorry for snapping at you. You didn’t deserve that. It's just that Lyra thought that too. It's really weird, you know?"

Even though he knew he had to get home soon, Troy decided to remain in his stool for a little while longer. Rainbow Dash nodded her head in understanding, and waited a moment to make sure he really wasn't mad at her. She was sure he was going to get snippy, but she couldn’t help saying with a shrug, “You know, the two of you do spend a lot of time together…”

"So? Is that so bad?" He didn't like where Rainbow was getting at, even though he knew she had a fair point. "He's a good friend, and he's pretty cool to hang out with. Besides, he’s really been helping me be more social recently, so I seriously don't see why everypony’s making such a big deal."

"It's not a big deal, it's really not,” said Rainbow before she finished her mug. Since she didn’t want any awkward silence between the two of them, she cleared her throat before asking, "So Troy, did he know about your singing thing?"

Troy chuckled under his breath, and even smiled in response to her question. "Yeah, he did. He decided to find me at my cloud right when I was in the middle of Vesti La Giubba." Troy huffed to himself, only to look back at his boss and see her staring confusedly back at him. "It's a song from Pagliacci, an opera made by Leo--oh, never mind!"

Troy brushed the rest of the comment away with a swipe his claw, while Rainbow Dash just shrugged her shoulders. Of course, after thinking about what Troy said, Rainbow cou;dn’t help giggling when she said, "Man, I bet he was surprised to hear you like that!"

A smirk came across Troy's beak as he remembered how Canvas looked.

"Yeah,” he said with a nod of his head. “His face was pretty cute."

When the bartender handed Troy another complimentary drink, Troy began to down it without realizing what he said. However, it didn’t take long before he suddenly spat it back out with a shocked look on his face. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was staring at him all bug-eyed, and looked like she was going to give another reaction like back in his cloud. The startled gryphon held out his claws and sputtered out a correction. "Priceless!! I meant priceless! His face was… priceless. You know, like, funny and stuff. I didn't mean like… like…”

Seeing how flustered he was getting, Rainbow's head hit the bar as she started laughing. A few of Troy’s other coworkers heard enough of his comment to struggle not to giggle as well, which just caused his face to turn even redder. Not wanting to deal with any more of her pestering, Troy grabbed his satchel and shot off his stool. He made a beeline towards the exit, and kept his head pointed to the ground as he shouted, "I gotta go, guys! See you at work!"

Troy didn't listen to the groans from his coworkers as he walked across the bar, and was instead trying desperately to avoid thinking about that slip of the tongue. By the time he reached the door, he didn't look back when he heard Rainbow Dash yelling for him.

"Troy, wait! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to laugh, jus--"

Her voice cut off as Troy closed the door behind him. Before any of the ponies could have the chance to reel him back to the bar, he spread his wings and flew off. He didn't want to ditch his coworkers like that, but he also didn't want to deal with the awkward aftermath of what he just said. Not to mention, it wasn't like he meant it or anything. It was just a fluke, or a miscommunication of words on the gryphon’s behalf.

While trying his hardest to shake his head clear of that mistake, Troy managed to get back to his lake in record time. He tossed his satchel into the cloud before heading for the waterfall. Since it was close to evening, the waterfall was even colder than usual as Troy plunged his head into the wall of cascading water. The freezing water was more than enough to jolt Troy's conscience from thinking of it any more, and he eventually sighed with a refreshed shiver while droplets rolled off his feathers.

After about ten minutes of lying under the waterfall in silence, Troy silently soared back up to his cloud. He was still shivering from the freezing temperature, but Troy was quick to shake himself off like a wet dog before stepping inside. His satchel remained on the floor, but couldn’t think to pick it back up while his mind remained numbly blank.

Troy eventually looked at his alarm clock to see it was almost eight. Even though he felt more than a little hesitant to see Canvas after what just happened, Troy knew better than to go back on a promise to his friend. But alas, he had to take a deep breath while checking his feathers, making sure they weren't too wet or ruffled. And by the time he stepped from his cloud and spread his wings open, Troy hoped more than anything that he could keep his head clear as he flew off to Canvas’ place.

Just so any newer readers are aware, I've recently been undergoing a big project to turn the Brushed Away series into physical books for individual sale. Because of that, I just wanted to make a quick note for which chapters have been revised so far, including this one.

I want to give my deepest thanks, as well as some well-deserved credit to my followers helping me out with this process, as well as Double R. Forrest for their proofreading credits. And if anyone is interested in helping out with making this project a reality, I highly recommend checking out my Official Ko-Fi page dedicated to it.