Pinkie Pie gets taken by Surprise

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 8.5

Chapter 1

Exiting the throng of pegasi leaving the weather factory for the evening, the white mare let out the despairing sigh she had been holding in the entire day. If you had asked her five years ago where she saw herself in the near future, cutting snowflakes would not have been her answer. Taking a side street she soon found herself in a more secluded area of Cloudsdale, walking along the all too familiar route to the Feather Duster Inn, which in recent months, she was ashamed to admit had become as homely to her as her actual apartment on the other side of town.

Sure it was tedious making the long journey back and forth each day, but at least she was assured not to be recognised by anypony, not that anypony who actually knew her paid much attention to her anyway. The mare sighed again; the small act of sadness had become as natural to her as breathing, when she found herself at the puffy cloud door of the inn. Walking in without hesitation she wasn’t surprised to see it was scarcely occupied, it served more as a student bar, and this late in the term very few students had the bits to be spending on nights out.

She made her way up to the bar, the stallion recognising her immediately and serving up her usual cider. She nodded her appreciation and took it without so much as a hello exchanged between the two. With the glass grasped in her forehoof she turned from the bar, not seeing the mare standing directly behind her. She retained her grip on the drink, but a large portion managed to slosh out over the rim and over the other mare.

“I’m so sorry…” she began panicking, but the other mare’s response was not what she was expecting.

“Surprise? is that you?” Surprise looked up in… well, surprise at the mare who spoke, and it was only now she properly took in her appearance, the cyan coat, the multi-coloured mane, the rose coloured eyes. Surprise recognised her even without the lightning bolt cutie mark.

“Rainbow Dash?” she exclaimed, her eyes widening to the sizes of dinner plates. The blue Pegasus grinned back at her, clearly unphased by the cider dripping off her coat.

“Long time no see,” Dash said still flashing her toothy grin, Surprise didn’t respond.

Long-time indeed…

“Rainbow Dash…” the flight instructor waited a second before repeating herself, but still there was no response, “where is Rainbow Dash today?”

Surprise looked up and down the line; it wasn’t unlike Dash to bunk off class, but Fluttershy as well. Her eyes met those of Derpy’s who gave her a confused shrug in response. Surprise looked back at the teacher who had continued on with the register. Dash was probably camping outside the ticket office intending to be first to buy tickets to the Wonderbolts’ tour, Surprise would find her and Fluttershy after class.

Surprise jumped back to the present where Dash was no longer smiling but looking rather confused. How long was I standing zoned out for? I’d better respond.

“Yeah it has, what are you doing here?” she said at last, Dash visibly relaxed at the awkward moment passing.

“We’re just here for a little break and thought we’d stop by the old hangout spot, I see you had the same idea,” Dash explained. We?

And sure enough standing just behind Dash was a butter yellow Pegasus with a long pink mane and another Pegasus Surprise was sure she recognised but couldn’t quite put her hoof on.

“You remember Fluttershy?” Dash asked nodding over her shoulder, “and this is our friend Twili…”

The purple Pegasus quickly shoved a hoof in Dash’s mouth silencing her, but the damage was done. Surprise wasn’t sure how she hadn’t seen it before, the coat was a lighter shade of lilac, the streaked mane was tied back in an elegant ponytail, the purple wings were the same size and shape as the average Pegasus, but most of all there was no horn. This was unmistakably Twilight Sparkle, the newest princess of Equestria, but why did she look so… ordinary?

“Princess?” Surprise exclaimed as soon as all the connections were made in her head. It wasn’t a smart move, as she was immediately swept off her hooves by the three figures and carried over to a secluded booth in the corner, out of earshot of the other patrons who had been looking up curiously at the scene taking place in the middle of the bar.

“Sorry ‘bout that Surprise,” Dash said hurriedly as they all got comfortable around the table, “I didn’t think that through.”

Surprise was sitting speechless, waiting for somepony to offer an explanation; Fluttershy was the first to do so.

“Hello again Surprise, it is good to see you,” she began, “we’re sorry about the confusion but Twilight is in disguise.”

“you see it’s almost impossible for me to go anywhere without being swarmed,” Twilight chipped in a whisper, “so I just used an illusion spell to make myself appear more…”

“Normal,” Surprise finished, Twilight nodded and the group settled back into an awkward silence.

Rainbow Dash decided to break this, “should probably explain, Surprise here went to flight school with Fluttershy and me,” she explained to Twilight.

“Oh you were all friends?” Twilight asked now looking more at ease now that Surprise wasn’t a complete stranger.

“That’s an understatement, we were inseparable,” Dash boasted proudly throwing a hoof over Surprise’s shoulder, clearly not noticing how uncomfortable she was, “we practically defined BFF.”

Again Surprise didn’t respond, Friends… forever?

“Hey Dash,” Surprise exclaimed jumping out of nowhere and leaning invasively close to Rainbow Dash, “we missed you in class today, did you get the tickets.”

Rainbow Dash didn’t reply, she didn’t even look up. Surprise nudged her in the ribs, “has something got you down? You know what always cheers me up, having a nice long la…”

“I’m leaving Cloudsdale,” Dash cut in simply, still not looking up. Surprise froze in mid-air, she was sure she had misheard her friend, it sounded for a second like she was planning to drop her education and move away.

Surprise began laughing, expecting Rainbow Dash to join in in any second, but she didn’t. At last she looked up and Surprise stopped laughing when she saw Dash’s bloodshot eyes. Dash told Surprise about Fluttershy’s plans to move to Ponyville, and her request that Dash go with her, Surprise remained utterly silent throughout.

“But if you drop out now, you’ll never graduate, and if you don’t graduate you’ll never get into the Won…”

“Don’t you think I know that?” Dash yelled back, “yeah it’s gonna be hard, yeah it might never happen, but… forget it, you wouldn’t understand.”

She began to storm off but Surprise took chase, “I understand,” she said in a deadpan voice, “you and Fluttershy have been together since you were foals, you’re too loyal to leave her now.”

Dash stopped and let out a sigh, “but I’m still leaving you, I’m still leaving Derpy , I’m still… leaving everything else behind.”

“Dash,” Surprise said nuzzling her gently, this was easily the longest she had gone being serious; it was starting to make her head spin, “even if you leave, we’ll always be friends. Just you wait, one day we’re gonna graduate and we’ll come down to Ponyville and we can all be together again.”

Dash looked up, smiling for the first time since Surprise had found her that day, “thanks Surprise, I don’t think that day will come fast enough.”

“Friends forever?” Surprise asked raising a hoof out, Dash wiped any leftover tears away and grinned.

“Yeah, friends forever,” and reaching out her own hoof they briefly made contact.

“Uh Surprise, you in there?” Dash asked waving a hoof in front of Surprises vacant expression. For the second time she came screeching back to reality.

“Oh yeah sorry, don’t know what’s up with me today,” she quickly said, hoping they wouldn’t pry any further.

“Well it’s always good to meet new faces,” Twilight said, “especially ones tied to my friends’ pasts.”

Fluttershy sat back down, Surprise didn’t even know she had left the table, but she returned with a tray of four tall glasses of cider. They chatted among themselves for several minutes; mostly the other three just listening to Dash’s many stories. The whole time Surprise noticed Fluttershy glancing up at her, a concerned look on her face, Surprise knew what was bothering her, Dash should have noticed it as well, but she was never as empathetic as Fluttershy.

All in all the evening progressed quite merrily, Surprise was easily a lot happier than she had been in a long time, she had forgotten just how much she missed this. Sadly however, all good things must come to an end, and this one ended quite suddenly as Twilight spoke up after a long lecture from dash on why Spitfire was a better Wonderbolt captain than Zeppelin.

“You know Surprise, there’s something I haven’t been able to shake since we met,” Surprise looked up while taking a sip of her cider.

“Your puffy mane and tail,” she began, Surprise looked down at her vibrant yellow tail, “even your cutie mark…”

Surprise’s eyes moved from her tail to her flank where three balloons stood out. “The resemblance is uncanny; you look a lot like our friend Pinkie Pie.”

the effect was instantaneous, the glass that had been held between Surprise’s forehooves shattered, sending glass fragments and drops of cider all over the table. The already quiet bar fell deathly silent as everypony stared over at their table.

Surprise’s voice caught in her throat, her eyes wide with a mixture of shock and indignation. Taking one last furious look at Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy who looked just as freaked out as everybody else, Surprise leapt off her seat and sped out of the inn. As soon as she was outside she spread her wings and took off, flying as fast and as far from the inn as she could. Her breathing was heavy and her eyes shone with tears threatening to give way.

Surprise saw them, but they didn’t see her, Rainbow Dash lay sprawled out over the grass, an unfamiliar pair of sunglasses covering most of her face. Fluttershy lay on her stomach feeding the leftovers of her sandwich to a white baby rabbit. And there, bouncing around them without a care in the world, the pink party pony she had heard so much about. She didn’t want to believe it, she had refused to believe it, it couldn’t be true, it just couldn’t. Surprise sped away from the clearing, she didn’t stop flying until she was back in Cloudsdale, somewhere along the way she had dropped the deed to her new house in Ponyville, she didn’t plan on going back for it.

Chapter 2

Surprise hated to admit it, but Ponyville was a nice town, with its cosy cottages and friendly neighbours, but it was hard to enjoy it, the memories of her last visit all those years ago were still fresh in her mind. Descending through the cloud cover she touched down on the dry dirt road and looked over her shoulder. There were ponies passing by, but none she recognised or more importantly, who recognised her. Sparing no time to bask in the early morning sun she began her trot through the main street, praying she was headed in the right direction.

After roughly ten minutes of travelling in one wrong direction after another and backtracking, she finally found herself standing before the door of a narrow house overlooking the town square and fountain. Bracing herself and taking one last gulp of air she raised a white forehoof and knocked three times. The square felt utterly silent even though it was dense with ponies going about their morning tasks, she looked over her shoulder again for good measure only to hear the creaking of the door.

Turning her head back around, her pink eyes came to rest on a very familiar face.

“Derpy,” she exclaimed, sounding falsely cheery, “it’s been too long.”

“I’ll say,” the grey Pegasus replied reaching out to embrace Surprise, “I was so happy to get your letter, come on in.”

As Derpy lead the way, Surprise suppressed a grimace, she remembered the letter, it hurt to lie a friend, especially her only friend.

The two pegasi entered the kitchen and Surprise was taken aback to see a small unicorn filly sitting at the table nibbling on toast.

“Dinky, we have a visitor,” Derpy announced. Dinky looked up and gave a broad smile; she hopped of her seat and rushed over to the pair.

“Hello, I’m Dinky, what’s your name?”

“I’m Surprise,” she replied. Dinky eh? I forgot Derpy had a kid now.

A pang of guilt struck Surprise as she remembered this; she hated to admit that she had merely scanned the letters Derpy had sent her over the years. Shaking this thought away she looked back up at Derpy who was watching her… and Dinky, she clearly hadn’t got her eyes treated in all these years.

“Your house is lovely,” Surprise said sincerely, it really was, small and cramped admittedly, but felt homely nonetheless, “thanks again for letting me stay here, Derpy.”

At this Dinky looked up curiously and Derpy slapped herself in the head as if remembering something.

“Oh yeah Surprise I should have mentioned, I changed my name a while back,” she explained, Surprise raised an eyebrow at this, “it’s now Ditzy Doo.”

“Oh? Why did you change it?” Surprise asked looking back and forth between Dinky and Derp… I mean, Ditzy.

“It’s a long story,” she answered simply, brushing the question aside, “strange; I could have sworn I’d mentioned that in my letters.”

Another pang of guilt hit Surprise, she probably had told her about it.

“Oh well, I must have just been confused,” she said at last shrugging it off, “so what about you, I’m not saying I’m not happy to see you, but what about your work?”

“Don’t worry about that, I had a lot of rest days saved up.” And there was the lie, Surprise hadn’t used her rest days in order to take a vacation as she had claimed in her letter, after her run in with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy at Cloudsdale, she had lain in bed for a whole week, refusing to leave her apartment. The natural side effect of this was her being let go from the weather factory. Ditzy nodded and went about making tea while Dinky resumed eating her breakfast.

“You know, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy’ll be glad to see you,” Ditzy called out over the bubbling kettle. Surprise didn’t respond, just looked down at her hooves resting on the table. She then noticed Dinky was eyeing her curiously; she was just about to ask the filly what was on her mind before Ditzy came over and set a steaming cup of tea down in front of her.

“We’re out of milk, so I’m gonna hop down the street a minute, could you watch Dinky while I’m out?” Ditzy asked.

“Of course,” Surprise assured her taking a gulp of her tea, forgetting it was just out of the pot. After she was done coughing and spluttering, Ditzy left and Surprise was left sitting alone at the kitchen table with the filly who was once again eyeing her curiously.

“Something on your mind?” Surprise asked giving the filly little grin.

“You look a lot like somepony I know,” Dinky replied. Surprise stopped smiling immediately and looked down at her cup.

Ponies are going comment on the similarities, I may as well start getting used to it.

Looking up again Surprise addressed the filly, “would you like to hear a story?”Dinky nodded enthusiastically, “once upon a time, there was a Pegasus who lived in Cloudsdale. She was destined for great things, because from an early age she had dreams. She saw herself, and she saw her friends, friends she had and friends she would make, together they stood against all manner of evils which threatened Equestria.

“She knew her destiny and lived her life preparing for it. But there was another, one who was like the Pegasus, who took her place. She stole her friends, she stole her future, and she stole her destiny.”

Dinky stared up at Surprise with wide, horrified eyes. Up until this point Surprise voice had been bitter, her expression dark, but now she smiled.

“Don’t worry Dinky,” she said with a wink, “this story has a happy ending. Because one day, the Pegasus returned, she took back everything the other had stolen from her. She reclaimed her friends and took her place as the true element, of laughter.”

Chapter 3

Surprise reacquainted herself with Ponyville throughout the afternoon. Following a quick apology to Ditzy and a claim she had important business to attend to, she took off and began scanning the town, taking in all the major locations: Sweet Apple Acres, the Golden Oaks Library, the Carousel Boutique… and Sugarcube Corner.

She resisted the urge to land there (for now) and doubled back to the library. From what her ‘casual’ chat with Ditzy had yielded, she now knew Princess Twilight Sparkle was occupying the library, as good a place as any to start. Dropping down she quickly checked her reflection in one of the windows, naturally her mane was as predictably curly as ever, even an afternoon of flying couldn’t change that. With that out of the way she reached out a hoof and knocked on the door of the large oak.

It didn’t take long before she heard shuffling of hoofsteps (or what she thought to be hoofsteps), and just as quickly the door swung open to reveal… no one?

“Um, hey there, can I help you?” a voice spoke, Surprise glanced down and realised it belonged to a purple dragon who was only the height of her leg, guess that solves the mystery of the door.

“Oh hi, I’m looking for Twil… I mean, Princess Twilight Sparkle,” Surprise announced, the dragon rolled his eyes in response.

“You and everypony else from here to Manehattan,” he said irritably, “she’s taking a day off, come back tomorrow to ask for favours.”

He began to close the door but Surprise thrust out a hoof to stop it.

“No wait, I’m not here for council, we met in Cloudsdale, I’m a friend of Rainbow Dash,” she hurriedly explained. The dragon immediately softened, and the door was once again opened for her.

“Oh sorry,” he replied sincerely, “just we get so many ponies coming here asking for stuff it kinda gets under my scales.”

With a nod of his head he led Surprise into the library interior.

“So you say you’re a friend of Dash from Cloudsdale?” he asked over his shoulder.

“Yeah,” Surprise replied absent mindedly taking in her surroundings. The library looked like it had been hit by a bomb, books lay scattered over every inch of the floor.

“Um, what happened here?” she asked, the dragon groaned at her question.

“Twilight happened,” he grumbled, “this is the side effect of one of her study marathons, and she decided to let me clean up while she went out for a picnic with Pinkie Pie.”

“Did you say Pinkie Pie?” Surprise asked, stopping suddenly in her tracks.

“Oh yeah, do you know her too?” he asked turning to face her, he then narrowed his eyes, “now that I think about it you look an awful lot like…”

“I know!” Surprise cut in harshly, raising a hoof to silence the dragon, “I… get that a lot.”

“Uh, right,” he replied, they stood in an awkward silence for a moment before he seemed to remember something, “oh yeah, my name’s Spike. What’s your name?”

“Huh?” had I not introduced myself already? “My name’s Surprise.”

“Nice to meet you,” he said, once again searching desperately for a conversation topic, “anyway, Twilight shouldn’t be long, and I’ve got a lot of work to do.”

He gestured at all the books, “you’re welcome to stay until she gets back, why don’t I make you some tea?”

“You have to tidy all this, on your own?” Surprise queried.

“Yeah, but don’t worry I’m used to it,” Spike replied nonchalantly. Surprise shook her head and marched over to the nearest table and picked up the first book she noticed, Elements of Harmony, a Reference Guide. Fluttering over the piles of books she reached a shelf and placed the book on, this did not have the desired effect.

Immediately Spike sprinted over and snatched the book off the shelf, “wait, Twilight needs to have all the books in the exact places, she’ll go crazy if you put it somewhere it’s not meant to be.”

“Well where is it meant to go?” Surprise asked, a little peeved her offer at help hadn’t been appreciated.

“We’ll let me see,” Spike examined the cover, “’Elements’, this should go…”

He suddenly fell silent; Surprise glanced behind her to make sure a timber wolf hadn’t crept in behind her.

“You, you put it in the right place,” he said incredulously, “how did you know where it went?”

“Simple,” Surprise said with a small shrug, “I put it under ‘e’.”

With the two of their efforts combined they quickly had the whole library cleared and before either of them knew it they both sat in the now neat and tidy room each chatting over a mug of tea.

“Thanks again,” Spike said (again), “you have no idea what a weight this is off my chest.”

“No worries,” she said waving his apology away. They sat again in silence for a few minutes, Surprise wondered how long Twilight was going to be, she had almost forgotten why she came here in the first place.

“I have to ask,” Spike sad suddenly, “if you know Rainbow Dash from Cloudsdale, how do you know Pinkie Pie?”

And there it was, the question she had been mentally preparing herself for, true she was waiting to hear Twilight say it, and not her number one assistant, but here they were. However now she was actually here she had to stop and ask herself, what do I say? What can I say to win this dragon over? Spike was still watching her eagerly; she would just have to wing this one.

“Pinkie Pie is your friend, right?” she asked cautiously, Spike nodded, “then I don’t think I should tell you.”

She set her now empty cup down and began walking towards the door; naturally the dragon took the bait.

“Wait, don’t go,” he begged, she turned around slightly, just enough so he could see the tears welling in her eyes. “Please, tell me what’s wrong.”

Surprise gulped and waited, looking as if she was contemplating whether to tell him or not. Then at last she returned to her seat and spoke.

“I knew Pinkie a long time ago,” she began, “and when I say that, I mean I knew the ‘real’ Pinkie Pie.”

Spike’s eyes widened in confusion, but he didn’t interrupt.

“You probably know her as the fun loving, excitable party mare,” again Spike nodded, now totally enthralled by what Surprise was saying, “I hate to be the one to have to tell you this, but, it’s only right, I wouldn’t want anyone else to get hurt like I did.

“The truth is, everything you know about her, is a lie.” Surprise didn’t think it was possible for the baby dragon’s eyes to get any wider, but they were managing it. “I once considered her to be one of my dearest friends, but she stabbed me in the back, she stole my other friends from me, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy. But her greatest crime came later.”

“What did she do?” Spike whispered.

“You know about the elements of harmony, don’t you?” again he nodded, “what nobody knows, is that Pinkie Pie was never supposed to be the element of laughter.”

“But, her cutie mark is on the necklace,” Spike claimed, utterly shaken by what he was hearing.

“Not her cutie mark, but mine,” Surprise said shifting her flank so Spike could see the familiar trio of balloons emblazoned on her flank. “She stole my place among the other elements, and ever since she’s lived a life of lies and deceit to stop anyone finding out the truth.”

Spike sat with his mouth hanging open, Surprise wiped her tears away, it had been surprisingly easy to force herself to cry, all she had to do was remember that day she had been replaced.

“But, she can’t do that,” he exclaimed at last, “we have to stop her.”

“No you can’t get involved,” Surprise begged, “it means the world to me that you believe me, but if she finds out you know you’ll be in danger.”

Spike nodded sagely, “so what do we do?”

“you leave it to me,” Surprise said leaning down, Spike was taken in and reached in to embrace her, “just promise that when the time comes, you won’t be swayed by her lies and you’ll stand by me.”

“Of course,” he said, sniffing away his own tears, “what are friends for?”

What are friends for? Not this Surprise… not this.

Chapter 4

Surprise left the library several minutes later feeling significantly disgruntled. Mere moments after her ‘confession’ to Spike, he began clutching his stomach. Surprise thought he was about to be sick when all of a sudden she was forced to duck under a spout of green fire. Her only explanation had been Spike clutching a scroll that hadn’t been there a moment before and muttering, “I wish Twilight never learnt that spell.”

Once Spike quickly scanned the letter he informed her that Twilight wouldn’t be returning that evening. Disheartened she said her farewells and made her way back into town. It was too late now to make any more stops; she should head back to Ditzy’s house and try again in the morning. Strange it had only been a day, but Surprise already found herself navigating Ponyville like she had lived here her whole life. And I would have been, if not for Pinkie!

Reaching the square she noticed the lights were still on in Ditzy’s house, at least she wouldn’t have to wake anypony to get in. for the second time that day she knocked on the front door and waited patiently. Sure enough the door opened, but it wasn’t Ditzy standing on the other side. Surprise’s eyes opened wide, her pupils shrinking to pin pricks, at the mare who stood before her. Pinkie Pie gasped and launched herself into the air, tackling Surprise to the ground.

“Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie,” she started excitedly, “I’ve never seen you in town before which means you’re new and if you’re new then I get to throw you a welcome to Ponyville party and we get to be the best of friends.”

The pink mare managed to say it all without taking a pause to breath, finally releasing Surprise from the choking hug she stood staring expectantly.

Surprise stared up at Pinkie from where she lay on the ground. That single moment seemed to stretch out forever, Pinkie’s smile never wavering. After what seemed to be an eternity Surprise got to her hooves and met Pinkie’s gaze… and returned her smile.

“Hello Pinkie Pie, I’m Surprise,” she said extending a hoof which Pinkie began shaking gleefully, “it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Chapter 5

Well, this is an unexpected turn of events, Surprise thought as Pinkie led her into the house, no matter, just play the cards you’re dealt.

Pinkie Pie hoped into the kitchen and Surprise followed close behind, sitting at the table was Ditzy conversing animatedly with none other than Princess Twilight Sparkle.

“Oh Surprise, you’re back,” Ditzy said noticing them enter, “I see you met Pinkie Pie, let me introduce you to Twi…”

“Actually we’ve met before,” Surprise cut in, causing both Ditzy and Pinkie to look at her in surprise. There was no point trying to deny it, she’d only find herself in bother if she tried lying.

“Yeah, I met her when I was in Cloudsdale,” Twilight said standing up and crossing the kitchen so she was face to face with Surprise, “you left pretty suddenly, was something wrong?”

Surprise heard the concern in her voice and saw Twilight’s eyes briefly flicker over to Pinkie Pie who was now frosting muffins on the kitchen counter.

“Oh no,” Surprise lied, “sorry if I worried you, I just remembered I had somewhere important I needed to be.”

Twilight nodded, clearly unconvinced, but she wasn’t going to pursue the topic. They all sat down at the table where Ditzy explained that Twilight and Pinkie had dropped in on their way back from their picnic.

“Yeah, and one thing led to another, and we decided to have a little sleep over,” Twilight finished. Surprise froze at this, Pinkie Pie is sleeping over? Here? Tonight?

She looked over to the pink mare who was now decorating her cupcakes to look like each of their cutie marks. She suppressed a grimace; she didn’t know how she was supposed to make this work.

“What about Dinky?” Surprise asked hurriedly.

“She’s having a sleepover of her own at Twist’s house,” Ditzy replied happily. Surprise grasped through her mind, searching desperately for any excuse to defuse the situation, but she had gone completely blank.

“Cupcakes!” a voice exclaimed pulling Surprise back to the present, she looked around to see Pinkie offering her the tray of cupcakes, “as my newest friend, you can have the first one.”

Surprise resisted the urge to reprimand Pinkie on her use of the word ‘friend’, instead she looked down at the tray and saw three were adorned with purple balloons. Reluctantly she reached forward and took one off the tray, she hoped Pinkie would move on but instead she stood waiting expectantly for her to try it.

Taking one last gulp of air, Surprise shut her eyes, opened her mouth, and bit into the cupcake. What had she expected? Not what she got, she was sure of that. Surprise’s eyes opened wide as the flavour hit her, this was, without a doubt, the best cupcake she had ever tasted.

“This, this is amazing,” Surprise said without thinking.

“Thanks,” Pinkie replied moving on to serve Twilight, “I used my secret recipe granny Pie taught me when I was just an ity bity filly.”

Surprise took another bite, savouring the taste. It wasn’t just amazing, it was incredible, Pinkie really knew how to… NO! It’s a good cupcake, it doesn’t change anything.

“So what do you girls want to do?” Ditzy asked smiling at how well everypony was apparently getting along.

“How about a game?” Pinkie suggested hoping up and down with excitement.

“Murder mystery,” Surprise muttered to herself.

“What was that?” Pinkie asked making Surprise jump in fright.

“Uh, I said,” She thought desperately, “truth or dare.”

The other three mares beamed at her, clearly excited by the prospect, to late to take it back now.

“That sounds funnerific,” Pinkie exclaimed leaping into the air and hanging there for several seconds, defying all laws of physics, “I wanna go first, I wanna go first.”

This is going to be a long night.

“58, 59, 60,” Twilight counted, “that’s one minute, you can stop now.”

Ditzy tumbled over, clutching the head she had just been standing on, “next time, I’m choosing truth.”

“Alright Surprise, your turn,” Pinkie said once she had stifled her giggles.

“uh truth,” she said at last, she had been playing it safe so far by picking dares to avoid getting asked questions that might hit a nerve, but with Pinkie’s increasing enthusiasm came more bizarre and complicated dares, and after the one involving the ceiling fan, she was kind of worried what the party pony would have her do this time.

“oh, I’ve got one,” Ditzy said trying to focus her gaze on Surprise, “how come you never moved to Ponyville after graduation like you said you would?”

And there it was, the exact reason she had been going for dares this entire time. She quickly thought what she could say to get out of this, don’t look at me, you got us into this mess by suggesting truth or dare without thinking, you can get yourself out.

“Stupid brain,” Surprise muttered to herself, “well, I got cold hooves.”

They all continued to look at her expecting more of an explanation than that, “you know how it is, faced with leaving everything you know behind.”

“But you would have been with us,” Ditzy replied sadly, “and Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were here, we could have been together again.”

Twilight picked up on this and visibly tenses, clearly expecting another outburst like the one at the Feather Duster Inn.

“Yeah, maybe,” Surprise whispered not meeting any of their eyes. The silence was broken by none other than Pinkie Pie.

“Come on everypony, this is no time for being all mopey,” she announced, receiving smiles from Twilight and Ditzy, “come on, I know what’ll make you smile.”

Maybe it was the early hour of the morning, maybe it was the light Apple family cider Ditzy had cracked open, or maybe it was being around ponies who openly thought of her as friend. Whatever it was, Surprise could not have known that morning when she arrived in Ponyville that she would be singing a duet of The Ultimate Showdown with Pinkie Pie of all ponies.

After a cake eating contest, pillow fights, and now karaoke, Pinkie had certainly kept her word that she would make them smile; even Surprise was having a hard time resisting.

“Alright girls,” Twilight bean noticing Ditzy nodding off, “I think it’s time we hit the hay.”

Ditzy had already brought out sleeping bags for them, which they now grabbed and snuggled into. It wasn’t long after the lights were extinguished that Surprise began to hear shallow breathing from two of the bundles indicating that Twilight and Ditzy were asleep, and a faint tuneless humming that indicated Pinkie was still awake.

“Surprise,” a voice spoke, causing Surprise to twitch in shock, there was only one pony who could have said that. “Are you awake?”

Surprise quickly shut her eyes and steadied her breathing, hoping Pinkie would assume she was asleep and give up.

“Sorry, I thought you were awake because I saw the light reflecting off your open eyes,” Pinkie said nonchalantly, Celestia damn you, you pink nightmare. “Anyway I’ll keep talking even if you can’t hear me.”

Oh god!

“I absolutely love making new friends,” Pinkie continued in a low whisper, “and you’re pretty awesome, the way you hit that high note in Never Gonna Give You Up, awesome.”

Surprise smirked involuntarily at this last comment, she always liked that song.

“Anyway,” Pinkie said, stifling a yawn, “as soon as I get back to the bakery tomorrow, I’m gonna start planning your welcome party.

“And I’ll invite Dashie, and,” she yawned again, her voice dropping further, “Fluttershy… and we’ll all be the best of…”

Surprise opened her eyes as Pinkie cut off, but soon she heard a light snoring coming from the third bundle. Surprise let out a sigh, Pinkie Pie, you took everything from me. I will never be your friend. however as she thought that her mind brought up all the events that had transpired that evening, Pinkie tackling her at the door, Pinkie Pie making her the cupcakes, singing with Pinkie Pie.

Suddenly Surprise’s eyes opened wide in shock, she clutched her chest as a bolt of agony was sent through her. It lasted only for a second but it left her gasping for air even after it had passed. Quickly looking about to make sure she hadn’t woken the others, she wiggled out of her sleeping bag and crept over to the window. As silently as possible she unlatched it. Angling herself through the narrow gap she created, she stepped out into the back yard, where the chill stung her and caused her to shiver. closing the window behind her she took off into the sky, Surprise wasn’t entirely sure where she would find her, all she knew was that she needed to see Rainbow Dash, she needed to see her now.

Chapter 6

Surprise couldn’t quite remember if it was illegal to break into the weather station and go through employee records, she was sure it was, but she liked to tell herself it wasn’t. Either way it was four in the morning, and she was on a direct flight to Rainbow Dash’s house. She hadn’t slept for at least two days, and most of that time had been spent flying from one destination in Ponyville to another, but anger, depression and confusion fuelled her to keep going.

Squinting in the darkness she vaguely made out a cluster of dense clouds, which upon closer inspection revealed themselves to be house similar to those in Cloudsdale. Surprise landed but didn’t stop; she trotted right up to the door and began knocking impatiently on it… with her face. Ow! What did I do that for? I really need to get some sleep.

She could just about make out a sound coming from within, it sounded like somepony was stumbling around in the dark. And sure enough when the door eased open, there stood an exhausted Rainbow Dash rubbing her eyes and stifling a yawn.

“Do you have any idea what time it is?” she fired rhetorically, then squinting at Surprise she asked, “Pinkie Pie, is that you?”

Whatever had been driving Surprise this whole time finally exploded as Dash uttered those last words. With an all mighty scream she charged head first into Dash, taking her off her hooves and smashing her into opposite wall of the room inside. Surprise heard something shatter but didn’t care to see what it was; she sat pinned on top of Dash, her face livid and her whole body trembling with fury.

“You lied to me!” she screamed in Dash’s face, “you said we’d be friends forever.”

Dash finally retook control of her senses and was able to identify Surprise on top of her.

“Surprise? What in the hay are you doing?” she demanded. Surprise reached down and grasped Dash’s face between her hooves and leaned in so they were eye to eye.

“You left me,” she said hoarsely, “you replaced me!”

“What are you talking about? I never replaced you.” Dash shouted back with indignation.

“You chose Pinkie Pie over me,” Surprise was about to say, but before the words could leave her mouth, Dash bucked up with her hind legs, throwing Surprise off her into a heap on the floor. Shaking her head she stumbled to her hooves and found Dash already up and standing in an offensive stance.

“Get out of my house Surprise,” she ordered sharply, Surprise felt as if a knife had been driven into her chest.

Dash’s body eased a little and a look of concern flashed over her eyes as tears began welling up in Surprise’s eyes.

“Why Dash?” she begged, “Why did you replace me?”

“I didn’t!” Dash shouted again, but this time her voice quivered, she looked genuinely afraid of what was going on.

“YouDidYouDidYouDid!” Surprise screamed falling to her knees and screwing her eyes up, “I came here so we could be together again, and replaced me with her!”

“Who?” Dash asked frozen to the spot, Surprise looked up and spoke with pure undiluted venom.

“Pinkie Pie.” Dash just stood dumbfounded as Surprise got to her hooves again, “you cast me aside and she stole my future.”

“Surprise,” Dash began quietly, “you’re insane.”

Surprise began to laugh quite hysterically, wait; this isn’t helping to prove my sanity.

“We never replaced you,” Dash hesitated, “we thought ‘you’ forgot about ‘us’.”

Surprise swayed on the spot, her head was spinning. Turning around she weaved her way to the open door. Dash shouted something after her but she couldn’t make it out. Reaching the edge of the cloud house, she let herself fall, spreading her wings so she would glide to the ground. What am I doing? She asked herself desperately. Scanning around wildly she could just make out a few stray clouds in the distance. Barely conscious, almost as if she were on auto pilot, she drift over to them, landing atop one. This is soft, that’s good, I need a good sleep. And with that her legs gave way and she lost consciousness.

Chapter 7

Surprise was running, or was she flying? She couldn’t tell. Behind her lay Ponyville, the chaos capital of the world, her five friends shouted after her begging her not to leave, ahead of her lay… nothing. Around her neck she noticed the familiar gold necklace adorned with its blue crystal in the shape of a balloon.

“No,” she whispered breathlessly to herself, “this isn’t right.”

She hadn’t had these dreams for years, not since she’d lost her place among the elements to Pinkie Pie, so why was she here now?

“You forgot about us!” Rainbow Dash shouted after her, her words echoing in Surprise’s skull.

“No!” She screamed, screwing up her eyes trying to block out the voices of the other element bearers. As she kept running she felt her hoof catch on something and her whole body lurched forward. Her eyes opened in time to see herself falling through the ground, the entire world tearing itself up around her.

And as she fell into the endless void she heard the five voices cry out simultaneously, “Pinkie Pie, come back!”

Surprise’s eyes snapped open, she felt the wind rushing around her and saw the earth speeding toward her. Quick as a flash she spread her wings and managed to pull herself out of the dive with seconds to spare before she plummeted into the ground. Gliding along the ground, close enough that she felt the grass brush against her hooves gently curled under her torso, she sped towards Ponyville. Her mind was still foggy from the dream; it was as if she was being guided along by a higher power.

I haven’t had a dream like that in a long time, why now?

As her mind began to clear she could just start to remember the events of the previous night, and her stomach sank as she recalled her visit to Rainbow Dash.

I’ve ruined everything.

Surprise saw the Ponyville library appear before her and knew somehow that was where she had been flying to.

Picking up speed she covered the remaining distance swiftly and landed on the balcony. The window was open and she could hear raised voices coming from within. Silently, she crept through the open window and appeared in what appeared to be Twilight’s bedroom; the voices were coming from down stairs. Slowly, so as not to be heard she moved towards the stairs and began to descend.

“She’s insane!” shouted a voice she recognised as Rainbow Dash, Surprise felt her heart stop inside her chest.

“Rainbow Dash, she’s your friend!” another voice shouted back, Twilight Sparkle she presumed.

“Friend? Friends don’t attack you in your house at ungodly hours of the morning, screaming at you for things you never did,” Dash retorted.

“Never did, sure,” scoffed another voice, Spike?

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Dash demanded.

“She told me everything about what Pinkie did,” Spike shouted back.

“Pinkie didn’t do anything! We didn’t replace her!” Dash continued to shout, her voice raise to impossible volumes, “I can’t believe you’d trust the word of a complete stranger over your friends.”

“That’s enough!” Twilight cut in, the room fell silent, and Surprise was now standing just out of view around the corner. “Spike, Pinkie is not some master of deceit; she is just Pinkie Pie, random and unpredictable.”

Spike didn’t respond, Surprise wondered what she was thinking, no doubt he’s beginning to figure out I lied.

“And Rainbow Dash, what exactly did happen between you and Surprise?” Twilight asked.

“Nothing happened,” Dash replied, her voice now low but still frustrated, “I don’t understand what she’s thinking. One day she just dropped out of contact without any explanation.”

“Well clearly she thinks something did happen,” Twilight said exasperatedly, “and clearly it has something to do with Pinkie Pie.”

“She can’t genuinely believe we replaced her, can she?” Dash asked, sounding more bewildered than angry now.

“I don’t know, to be honest, it sounds like she knows herself you didn’t.” Surprise raised an eyebrow at this, “last night it didn’t escape my notice, she tried so hard not to get along with Pinkie, maybe she did genuinely believe she had been replaced, but now she can’t accept the truth without also accepting that she is solely the cause for whatever has been troubling her. These extreme measures she’s taking, they’re probably just her attempting to maintain the lie in her own mind, so she doesn’t have to consider the possibility of her being wrong when presented with evidence to suggest that.”

Surprise began stepping backwards, her mind was reeling again, it’s my fault, I drove my friends away, Pinkie didn’t do anything wrong.

She stumbled up the stairs, rushing for the balcony, all these years of loneliness, of bitterness; I’m the only one to blame…

She reached the balcony and took off as quickly as possible; no doubt her inconspicuous escape had alerted the others to her presence in the library.

No! I won’t accept it, not yet.

She began speeding towards the opposite edge of town, in the direction of a house she’s passed on her original reconnaissance of Ponyville.

There’s only one Pony whose word I can’t trust at this point.

Arriving at her destination she galloped up the path, not even stopping to take in her surroundings. She reached the door and without a moments hesitation began to hammer on it with her face.

OW! Why in Tartarus do I keep doing that?

Rubbing her sore face she heard the door open, the faint sound over various animals coming from within. She looked up to see the oh so familiar face staring back at her.

“Surprise?” she asked incredulously, “what are you doing here?”

“Hey Fluttershy,” Surprise responded, forcing a smile, “can I come in?”

Chapter 8

Fluttershy busied herself with the feeding of her many animal companions as Surprise lay curled up on her sofa, occasionally Fluttershy would glance down at her, she had looked sad back in Cloudsdale, but now…

“Did you ever wonder how I got my cutie mark?” Surprise asked, breaking the silence and causing Fluttershy to cock her head questioningly.

“Well of course, who didn’t,” she admitted, “after all, I don’t think there’s ever been another pony to get one so early.”

Surprise smirked, “no, that’s true.”

Fluttershy came over and sat opposite her, waiting for her to continue in her own time.

“we get our cutie marks when we discover what makes us special, what kind of pony we’re destined to be,” she said at last, she sounded strange, her voice devoid of all emotion, “I learned pretty early who I was destined to be, I saw it in my dreams.”

Fluttershy still didn’t respond, she was wondering why Surprise was telling her all this now.

“It’s the one thing I can’t figure out,” she said, almost to herself rather than Fluttershy, “do you think, I let you go?”

The question threw Fluttershy off, it had come completely out of the blue, she simply stammered in response, Surprise wasn’t meeting her eye. Taking a moment to breathe and regain her composure, she reworded her answer.

“It wasn’t an easy decision to leave Cloudsdale, much less ask Dash to come with me,” she began, “but it me feel better, it made us feel better, that we wouldn’t lose you and the others.”

Surprise looked up now, her eyes focused but still very distant.

“We were so excited to get letters from you,” she continued, “to know you hadn’t forgotten about us. But then one day, they just stopped. We kept writing but you never wrote back, we thought you’d forgotten about us.”

Surprise made a choking sound, like she was trying to sigh while holding back tears, “you never replaced me, did you?”

“Of course not!” Fluttershy exclaimed, “Nobody could replace you.”

Surprise turned away again, who was I kidding, it was all my fault, but there’s still one mystery…

“The dreams I had,” Surprise said at last still not looking at Fluttershy, “they were of us. You, me, Rainbow Dash, and three others.

“We didn’t know them at the time, but they were our friends, and together we’d do great things,” she looked around at Fluttershy who was staring confused at her, “we were the elements of harmony, I was laughter, it’s the only thing that doesn’t make sense.”

“But Pinkie Pie is…” Fluttershy began but Surprise cut her off.

“I know! It was my fault I lost my friends, but that doesn’t change what I know in my heart,” she insisted, “I was supposed to be the element of laughter and now Pinkie is, why?”

Fluttershy didn’t answer for a moment, letting the awkward silence drag out, when she did her voice was quiet and unsure, “I don’t know Surprise, I don’t even know why you had those dreams, I certainly didn’t, and I don’t know that any of the others did.”

Surprise sighed and rubbed her tired eyes, but Fluttershy wasn’t done. “But what I do know is that I’m not the one you need to talk to.”

Surprise knew what she meant, and she knew she was right, but she didn’t know if she was ready.

If I don’t face this now, I might never salvage m lost friendships… I have to try.

Surprise pulled herself off the sofa and stood up shakily, Fluttershy put a hoof on her shoulder to balance her.

“I’m sorry Fluttershy,” Surprise said sincerely, “I’m a terrible friend.”

There was a brief moment of silence before Fluttershy replied, “I forgive you.”

Surprise stared at her; she stared back looking deadly serious.

“Thanks Fluttershy,” Surprise said quietly.

“What are friends for?” she replied leading the way out of the cottage. Surprise smiled how I’ve missed you Fluttershy.

The journey back into Ponyville lasted a seemingly long time. The streets were oddly deserted, the neighbourhoods eerily quiet. All Surprise heard was the clip clop of her and Fluttershy’s hooves and her own heavy breathing as they made a beeline for their destination, the final destination.

While all buildings in Ponyville stood out as unusually bright and colourful, Sugarcube Corner quite literally took the cake, especially considering it looked just like one. As it loomed ever closer Surprise felt her heart hammering in her chest, as if it were trying to burst out of her rib cage and escape the inevitable fate. Surprise couldn’t boast to predict what would become of this visit, but whatever was going to happen, it would end this all one way or another. She reached the front door step like she was ascending the steps to the gallows. With a final look over her shoulder to Fluttershy who gave her an encouraging nod, she inhaled deeply, and pushed the door open…

“… and that’s how Equestria was made,” finished Pinkie Pie triumphantly. Shinning Armour and Soarin stared back at her blankly. They each exchanged a brief look before Shining finally broke the uncomfortable silence.

“None of that really happened, did it Pinkie Pie?”

“Nope,” she said, still sounding pleased with herself.

“I can’t believe we just sat through all that,” Shining said slamming his face into the table.

“It’s Pinkie Pie, what were we expecting?” Soarin suggested with a deadpan look on his face.

“True,” Shining agreed, “if it had been anyone else we might have believed this was going to have a serious ending.”

Chapter 8.5

“SURPRISE!”

Surprise was knocked off her hooves by the force of the shout, and would have been sent flying from Sugarcube Corner if not for Fluttershy who managed to catch and steady her. After an energetic shaking of her head, Surprise was sufficiently able to stand on her own and look into the open doorway of the bakery. There stood a very excited pink pony, with an impossibly huge smile plastered onto her face, one which simply emanated happiness

“Pinkie, what in Equestria was that for?” Surprise asked stepping forward, her feelings of anxiety momentarily forgotten.

“its your surprise ‘welcome to Ponyville’ party,” she explained leading them inside, “and boy were you surprised… well you are Surprise, but for a moment you were super duper surprised, and I thought ‘wow, I really made Surprise surprised’, and then I wondered if doing so allowed you to surpass your natural limitations and ascend to an even higher being, and then I wondered if that was even your final form.”

Not a word Pinkie had said after party had been acknowledged by Surprise who now stood in the main shop, half decorated with only five, very displeased guests.

“Oh yeah, sorry about it being so slap dash,” Pinkie said notching the state of the room, “but ‘someponies’ wouldn’t give me peace to work.”

Rainbow Dash snorted at this comment while Twilight and Spike just frowned, the other two ponies in the room exchanged confused glances, clearly they had only been given the barest possible details.

“Pinkie,” Surprise started with a sigh, “I don’t think this is a good time for a party.”

The change in Pinkie’s demeanour sent a shiver up Surprise’s spine, the words had barely left her mouth when Pinkie shot her a look that could scare Nightmare Moon and hissed “there’s always time for parties”. The change had been so sudden and was gone as quickly as it had come on that Surprise was unsure if it had really happened or not, but before she could think about it any further Twilight spoke up.

“Regardless Pinkie,” she said stepping forward, “some things need to be discussed first.”

Surprise glanced back at Fluttershy who remained firmly at her back; a single determined look from her was enough to motivate Surprise to begin.

“Rainbow Dash,” said Pegasus shot her a glare, but didn’t interrupt, “… I’m sorry.”

He words felt hollow as they passed Surprise’s lips, she meant them with all her heart, but two words hardly made up for what she did, and Rainbow seemed to think so too.

“You’re sorry?” she spat, “is that all you have to say?”

“No,” Surprise said not meeting her eyes, “I don’t expect you to forgive me; I just wanted the opportunity to explain.”

“Then explain,” Dash commanded, Surprised inhaled sharply.

“It was after graduation,” she began; all those gathered gave confused looks, clearly unsure where she was going with this. “I was so happy, not for the reasons you’d expect, I actually couldn’t care less about qualifications.

“It was because I was finally going to be able to fulfil my promise to you,” Surprise risked a glance up at Dash, who now looked genuinely intrigued, her anger seemingly dissipated. “It took all my self-control to stop myself writing to tell you I was moving to Ponyville, I wanted to surprise you, it is my name after all.”

The corner of Dash’s mouth twitched and her eyes became unfocused for a second and Surprise could see the nostalgia in them.

When the silence stretched on Twilight chipped in, “but you didn’t, what happened?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Surprise said with a bark of bitter laughter, “I came to find Rainbow and Fluttershy, they were in meadow, but they weren’t alone.”

“That’s what this is about?” Dash asked incredulously, “you saw us with Pinkie once and you assumed we had replaced you?”

Surprise glanced over at Pinkie, who had been unusually silent during the conversation; she had an unreadable expression on her face, so much for wanting to be my friend.

“Not exactly,” Surprise hesitated, this was the complicated part, “truth is, if it had been any other pony, I probably wouldn’t have thought twice about it… but as soon as I saw Pinkie, I…”

She trailed off, unable to finish. It was at that moment that Pinkie stepped forward.

“Surprise,” she said, in an uncharacteristically gentle voice, “if I did something to you, I’m really sorry.”

The words rang in Surprise’s ears and before she could help it she burst into laughter, real laughter, the kind only Pinkie Pie could bring out in a pony who’d spent so many years being miserable.

All the ponies gathered looked outraged; clearly they got the wrong impression

“Pinkie, you have nothing to be sorry for,” Surprise said, smiling for the first time that day, “and the fact that you would even think this could in any way be your fault just goes to show what an amazing pony you are… and why they’re lucky to have you as a friend.”

Surprise looked between Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, and then over Twilight, Spike and the other two she knew to be Applejack and Rarity.

“No, you did nothing wrong,” Surprise took a breath, no more beating around the bush, “the reason I thought I had been replaced, was because I was supposed to be the element of laughter.”

The silence that followed this statement seemed to drag on forever, only Fluttershy wasn’t completely dumbfounded by this sudden revelation, even Spike looked stunned.

“But… how is that even possible?” Twilight stammered, just as flabbergasted as the rest of them.

“when I was a filly I had dreams, dreams where I met you all,” Surprise began panning once more over the assembled ponies, “in these dreams I saw us come together to vanquish threats like Nightmare Moon and Discord. We were the Elements of Harmony; we were destined to be friends before we ever met.

“At least… that’s what my dreams told me,” Surprise said, her voice dropping to a whisper, “I stopped having them after I saw Pinkie with Dash and Fluttershy, that’s why I thought I’d been replaced.”

“Oh Surprise…” everypony looked over at Twilight who had whispered.

“hang on a sec,” Applejack said, having remained nothing more than a background pony up until that point, “are you sayin’ this makes sense to you Sugarcube? ‘cause ah don’t remember havin’ any dreams an ah don’t think any of you did either.”

“I’m afraid to say, I think I know exactly what this is,” Twilight said hesitantly, “just one question first. In the dreams, were you looking down on yourself or were you looking from your own perspective?

“My own perspective, why?” Surprise asked, her heart was racing at the prospect of finally understanding her dreams.

“Then I know what the confusion is, and I’m sorry Surprise, but you were never one of the Elements of Harmony,” Twilight said, sounding as if it hurt her to even say. Surprise felt like a stone had been dropped in her torso.

“What? Then what did they mean? What am I if not an element?” Surprise asked desperately, Twilight inhaled before continuing

“You’re a prophet.”

Seriously, these long drawn out silences are becoming a bit too frequent. When Surprise remained paralysed by this revelation and was clearly not going to speak up, Twilight continued.

“Princess Celestia told me about this shortly after we first took up the elements, certain individuals come along who have the unusual ability to predict the future through their dreams, they do this by inserting themselves into the representation by using a host deemed similar enough to them for their spirits to link, they’re known as prophets.

“You were never dreaming about yourself as the Element of Laughter, you were seeing the future from Pinkie’s perspective.”

“But I got my cutie mark after the dreams first began,” Surprise whispered looking down at the balloons on her flank, “I ‘thought’ I realised my destiny that day, but know you’re telling me it was a mistake?”

“I’m sorry Surprise,” Twilight said again, pity etched in her face, “nopony in your position could have been expected to handle it any better.”

Surprise looked down at her hooves, she felt empty.

“My life has been a lie, and I threw away my closest friends for nothing.”

Suddenly she felt a hoof on her shoulder, and looked up slowly expecting to see Fluttershy. Instead Rainbow Dash was standing in front of her, all traces of anger washed away.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” her voice sounded hoarse, Surprise shook her head in response.

“I don’t know, I really don’t.” she brushed Dash’s hoof off and turned away, “like I said, I know you can never forgive me, I couldn’t really forgive myself, but you know the truth, so I’ll just get out of your mane now.”

“Do you know why I’m the Element of Loyalty?”

Surprise froze in her tracks towards the door, Dash’s question taking her completely by… surprise.

“It’s because I never walk out on a friend,” she said closing the distance between them, “you’re my friend, and I won’t leave you behind again.”

“Me neither,” whispered the gentle voice of Fluttershy from her side. Pinkie Pie bounced forward.

“There can always be two elements of laughter,” she said leaning in invasively close, “there is never too much laughter in the world.

Then at once, Twilight, Applejack and Rarity stepped forward.

“Like I said in Cloudsdale, any friend of Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, is a friend of ours, and I stick by that.”

Last to approach was Spike, which sent a pang of guilt through Surprise

“Spike, I’m so sorry I lied to you.”

But Spike just laughed, “Forgiven, don’t be so sappy, really it’s my fault for being so gullible.”

With that Surprise let out a burst of laughter as they all embraced, she didn’t even realise the tears that had started running down her face until that moment.

“Now if everypony is done making up,” Pinkie Pie announced, “then it is time, to Par-Tay!”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Surprise said beaming, her jaw hurt from smiling so much but she didn’t care, she was happy, truly happy. As the party kicked off they were soon joined by Ditzy and Dinky, the former apologising for their late arrival claiming ‘she just didn’t know what went wrong’.

Amidst the dancing, the games and most of all the laughing, Surprise quickly lost track of time, and all too quickly it was nightfall and the party was beginning to dissipate.

“Sorry girls,” Ditzy said with a snoozing Dinky on her back, “but I really must get this filly to bed.”

Surprise realised that was her cue to excuse herself as well, but before she could say anything, Pinkie spoke up.

“No worries Ditzy, I can put Surprise up for the night, it’s no problem.”

And that was how an hour later; Sugarcube Corner was completely empty bar the pink earth pony and the white Pegasus. Surprise tied up the black rubbish bag of party supplies she was holding, between the two of them, clearing up was easy.

“Do you resent me for everything that’s happened?” Pinkie asked out of nowhere.

“Funny, I’ve actually been trying to ask you that very question for an hour now,” Surprise replied.

They turned to face one another, “no I don’t resent you,” Surprise said, “in fact I’m angry at myself for not giving you a chance all those years ago, I could have had a great friend.”

“You took the words right out of my mouth,” Pinkie responded bridging the gap between them. She then raised a hoof and offered her widest smile, one Surprise returned easily. As the two ponies bumped hooves they both made the same statement simultaneously.

“Friends forever!”