Pinkie Pie gets taken by Surprise

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.