Walking a Tightrope - A Surprise Days Story

Walking a Tightrope

The author's preferred edition

A "Surprise Days" Story

by NoGiantRobots1983

Chapter Three

Pinkie's Party and the Days Following

~Let's Begin!~

Tightrope had eaten in silence, glancing uncomfortably at the blue earth pony who had unwillingly joined them.  Blue Gallop did not eat, in fact he had this feeling about him as if he was not aware of his surroundings.  He tended to mumble, and strange words came to his mouth ever-so-often.  For this reason, Surprise had preferred them all to sit at a booth outdoors, and in the furthest corner, where few were likely to overhear.

Something like thirty minutes from the moment he was blasted with the happiness gun, Blue gave the first signs that he was coming around.  He mumbled something about recognizing the diner, and then full awareness kicked in and he hurriedly looked around.  Seeing familiar faces, he asked Surprise, "How did I get here?"

"Raydence carried you," Surprise answered.

"Oh," Blue lazily oh'ed, but then glanced around and asked, "And where is that... guy, anyhow?"

"In the Everfree Forest, catching his din-din.  Humans are meat-eaters, you see."

"Ah," Blue Gallop nodded.  Surprise directed the stallion's attention to a plate of hay that had been laid in front of him, and the stallion seemed hesitant about eating it, but after a moment he tore into it greedily, as if he had been famished.  Surprise had explained to Tightrope beforehand that the effects of the Marle-gun tend to make its victims feel hungry once it wears off.  Tightrope could sympathize with Blue, and wondered for a moment if the grown-up had ever suffered the kind of absolute starvation that nearly cost Tightrope his own life.

That brought the little one's mind back to thirty minutes ago.  He had asked Surprise, why did you save him?  Surprise had answered, Because the sun rises every morning.  What bothered Tightrope most about that answer was that he had the strangest feeling that someone else had said the exact same thing to him before... in a time and place that was just on the edge of his memory...

He shrugged, and sipped his juice through a straw.

Outside the restaurant, the gang met up with Raydence, who immediately said, "I think it's about time for the party.  Are we still going?"

"Fancy you remembering that," Surprise answered with a smirk.

"Don't read too much into it," the human knelt and pointed like a parent reprimanding a child, but Surprise didn't appear bothered at all.  She instead let out a short chuckle, and then the four were on their way to that big building that looked like a cake, a place these ponies called "Sugarcube Corner."

It had been darkening outside, which was perhaps why the bright lights and primary colors threw Tightrope off at first.  He noted a strange feeling, as if he had somehow become lighter, but he didn't quite know what this was called.  His first reaction was to take a slow glance around, taking in the place around him.  Many ponies had gathered in this confined space where balloons lined the ceiling, and zig-zagging strands of fabric floated down from on high.  Strange high-pitched sounds came to his ears, mixed with cheers and chatter.  In a corner, he saw ponies playing a game that seemed to involve putting their hooves on colored dots.  In another corner, they were trying to pin a tail on a picture of a donkey.  There were more games and groups going on, but Tightrope couldn't make out the specifics of all of them.

"RADEY-WADEY!"

The cry reached Tightrope's ears in time for him to jump away as a pink ball flew into the human's arms, knocking him backwards and almost out the door.  Tightrope had recognized the voice, and impulsively didn't want to be anywhere near its source.  Especially since Pinkie seemed to have an interest in the human that was rather dissimilar to Tightrope's own academic interest, and knowing that somehow made him uncomfortable, although he couldn't say why.

Surprise tapped Tightrope on the shoulder, and whispered, "We better go somewhere else."

Tightrope couldn't agree more, and willingly followed Surprise to the bar, which was in the very back.  He was a little bothered to see that Blue Gallop was also still with them.

Surprise and Blue took a seat at the bar.  Tightrope almost did as well, but immediately a voice called out to him.  He turned his head and saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders.  Willingly, he ran over to them and said, "H-hello!"

"We didn't expect to see you again so soon!"  Apple Bloom greeted.

Scootaloo added, "Yeah, Surprise doesn't usually come to Pinkie's parties."

Sweetie Belle explained in a whisper, "They don't really get along."

"Really?"  Tightrope glanced back at Surprise with a skeptical look, "They seemed to get along fine earlier."  Then he glanced back towards the girls, "I don't blame her though, that Pinkie is scary."

Scootaloo answered, "Aww, she's not so bad.  Anyway, have you seen the games they've got set up?"

"I saw one, that one with the colored dots--"

"Come on!"  Scootaloo said without letting him finished, and the four--Tightrope half-reluctantly, feeling things were moving too fast--went to the side where the colored-dots game was being played.

The rules involved somepony spinning the hands of a board that vaguely resembled a clock.  Each quarter represented a hoof, and each contained four colors.  Each player, in turn, would have to put the hoof the spinner chose on the color the spinner chose.  The last one to lose their balance and fall was the winner.

Tightrope did not do well.  He was the first to fall in the first round he played, and in the second.  He wanted to stop, but the girls just couldn't get enough.  On the third go, he managed to outlast Sweetie Belle but nopony else.  On the fourth go, things went better.  The only pony who outlasted him that time was Scootaloo.

What was it they thought was so great about falling all over each other, again and again?  Tightrope couldn't tell, but he had been the first to call for a fifth round.

Surprise gave Sugarcube Corner credit, their strawberry milkshakes were good.

She glanced sideways, where Blue Gallop was slowly working his way through a cup of ice cream, seeming to stare into it.  In a low voice, Surprise suggested, "You know, there's plenty of mares here.  Maybe you'll find your miracle romance."

"Maybe," Blue agreed with his mouth, but his eyes only lazily followed the spoon he lifted a scoop of ice cream with.  He didn't even eat that scoop though, instead dropping it back into the cup and watching it fall, again and again.

All the sudden, "PINKIE GLOMP!"

Blue Gallop gasped and stiffened as he found a pair of pink forehooves wrapped around him.  He had barely enough sense to turn and look, and then choked out, "Pinkie!  What are you doing?"

"Aww!"  Pinkie answered, "You looked so sad!  So I thought I'd cheer you up!"

A lightbulb went off in Surprise's head, and she said, "Your timing couldn't be better!  Blue Gallop here was just saying he'd like to party more but didn't know where to start."

Pinkie's face beamed with the force of a thousand fireflies!  Speaking to Blue, she said with a thousand enthusiasms, "Well don't you worry!  Madame Pinkie will show you the basics!  Come on!"

"B-b-but..." Blue Gallop began to object, but did not have the will to stay where he was and refuse to join in, and thus reluctantly followed Pinkie wherever she led.

And Surprise thought to herself, If that pony can't turn him around, then maybe death is all that awaits him.

Almost as soon as Blue left, Raydence took his seat, wearing a face like he had just survived a battlefield.  He didn't even notice the ice cream until Surprise pointed it out.  Ray had never liked sweets, and so pushed it away.  Surprise hoped Blue wouldn't mind if she ate it.

"Your date is off with another man," Surprise teased in a low voice.

Raydence glanced around to see if he could spot Pinkie in the crowd, and then he faced forward, then upward and clutched his chest in a mock-dramatic fashion, "Alas, I am heartbroken!"  He saw one of the Cakes coming, and added, "Forsooth, I will go and win back my girl... after I have a slice of chocolate cake."

One chocolate cake came right up, and Raydence ate slowly, in small chunks.  After finishing a bite (like a good human, he never spoke with his mouth full) Raydence told Surprise, "Actually, I had a small hand in setting them up."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I told Pinkie that Blue was feeling, well, blue.  She's the smile pony, so... yeah."

"Ahh."  Surprise rested her head on her left hoof, smirked knowingly at the human.

"Only catch was, she demanded a kiss."

Surprise raised her eyebrows for a moment, and then her face returned to that knowing smirk.

Raydence continued, "But, I haggled it down to just a kiss on the cheek.  That's not too much to ask."

Surprise drank a bit of milkshake, then said seriously, "But you know... maybe you ought to actually start dating."

"Heh, right.  In a town where I'm the only human."

"Hey--"

"I know, I know.  Back home, interspecies was all over the place.  It just never sat well with me, that's all."

Surprise sighed, "Well, now that these ponies know humans exist, I'm sure importation will happen soon.  Not that you ever showed much interest in human women, either," she added as an aside.  After a beat, she then said, "But you know, if you keep putting it off, you'll wind up in my situation someday."

"Not likely."

"That's what I used to think, too."

"Yeah, yeah."

Surprise thought of pressing the matter, but decided not to.  This was just not the right time, or the proper place.  Such serious matters were best discussed at home, in privacy.  Those were all excuses, the truth was that Surprise had foreseen that Raydence might possibly say besides, you got what you wanted--

She pushed that thought from her mind.  Tightrope was not her child, and he never would be.  Not so long as there was a chance of his real mother being alive.  Surprise struggled to push that thought from her mind too, for it was simply a terrible thing to think, a terrible wish to want granted.  Surely she wasn't so desperate for a child that she would gladly steal someone else's!

Perhaps Raydence had the right idea after all.

Surprise returned to her milkshake, determined to forget these thoughts.  If nothing else, she would at least be the best babysitter ever!

"Hey, Blue!"  Twilight greeted on the street the next afternoon.  "I saw you at Pinkie's party last night."

"Y-y-y-you did?"  Blue replied with his characteristic stutter, and yet Twilight didn't think he looked nervous.  If anything, he looked... about as happy as he did the time Surprise put the idea of a miracle romance in his mind.  "W-well, I was there... Surprise brought me, you see."

"You and Pinkie spent a lot of time together."

"Y-y-yes, she showed me the ropes."  Blue answered innocently, and then he realized what Twilight was getting at and added, "Oh, its nothing like that.  Pinkie Pie isn't my miracle romance."

"Pinkie's as eligible as anypony."

"Yes, but... how do I put it... it would be like being in love with my kid sister, if you understand me."

Twilight did.  This actually was not the first time she had heard this sentiment expressed, and perhaps it would not be the last.

Twilight found herself thinking of the phrase "kid sister" later that day, when she had her back on the library floor, trying to break away from the vicious tickling assault of the pink pony.  Yes, she could certainly see Pinkie as a kid sister.  Then again, Twilight herself was somepony's kid sister, and it didn't make her any less of an eligible bachelorette.

How she was able to have these thoughts while laughing to high heavens and struggling to return the assault was anypony's guess.

As it happened, Twilight's salvation came in the form of Rainbow Dash, who came into the library, stopped to watch with a cautious curiosity, and then asked, "Am I interrupting anything?"

Pinkie stopped, and glanced sidelong at Twilight, who glanced back.  Conspiratorial smiles came to the two mares faces, and suddenly Pinkie pounced on Dash, now including the pegasus in their little game!

Caught with sudden laughter, Dash struggled to say, "Oh, that's how you want it, huh?  Take this!"  And for the first time since the tickle-melee started, somepony managed to get the upper hoof on Pinkie and put her back to the floor.  Dash demanded playfully, "Say uncle!"

"Never!"

"Say Rainbow Dash is awesome!"

Twilight stood aside for a moment, wondering which pony's side she should take.  However, the question was driven from her mind when the front door opened again, and in walked the local curiosity.  Raydence took a passing glance at the two tickling mares, leaned down next to Dash and said, "Easy, huggy pony.  Don't give Pinkie the hiccups!"

"I am not the huggy pony!"  Rainbow Dash waved her hoof at him.  If she had hands, her fist would be clenched, but Twilight didn't feel any genuine malice coming from the cyan she-pony.  In fact, Twilight had nursed a sense over the last two months or so that Rainbow Dash actually liked the teasing, and just didn't want to admit it.  And, as silly and filly-ish as the notion was, she actually felt like Raydence and Rainbow Dash would make a good couple (although she wouldn't tell Pinkie that).

"Hey Raydence!"  Twilight greeted him, "Looking for anything in particular?"

"Actually yes," Raydence stood straight up and was now mostly-business, although he still sneakily petted Rainbow Dash's main twice before she batted his hand away, almost seemingly like a cat when she did so.  Raydence added, "Surprise asked me to pick up a book she let you borrow.  If your finished."

"Oh!"  Twilight perked up.  "Yes, it was very interesting!  Hold on, I think I left it on my nightstand."

Twilight's horn glowed, and she teleported to her bedroom, startling Spike (who, of course, had just woken up).

"Wah!"  he jumped out of his bed, and then climbed back in.  "Why can't you just walk, like a normal pony?"

"Sorry, Spike.  I felt like exercising my magic."  Twilight immediately looked to her nightstand.  "Ah, there it is!"

"What's going on?"

"Raydence is here--"

"Oh."  Spike delivered with a clear note of disapproval.

"--To pick up a book Surprise let me borrow."  Twilight finished.  She chuckled a bit, and said, "Don't worry, Rarity still likes you more."

"That's good," Spike yawned, and curled up back in bed.

The unicorn teleported back to the main room of the library, and handed the book to Raydence with a "Here you go!  Tell Surprise I said thanks!"

Raydence glanced down at the book, and then he held the book up in front of him, his good-natured expression having taken an aspect of mild awe.  "Huh, fancy seeing one of these here."

Rainbow Dash hovered beside his shoulder.  "Classics of Ahmerite Short Literature.  What's an Ahmerite?"

"A person from Ahmer," Raydence answered casually.

"And where is that?"

Twilight Sparkle then said, "I'd like to visit it sometime.  It sounds interesting!"

The way Raydence glanced at her made Twilight feel as if she had said something wrong.  Raydence still had a good-natured look about him, he didn't seem bothered, but there was just something there that hadn't been there before.

"Ahmer doesn't exist anymore," he told the ponies shortly.

"Oh," Twilight parked her rumped and looked up at the human, hoping he'd answer her next question.  "What happened to them?"

Raydence took a breath, and said, "It would take a historian to explain all the details, but the way I understood it, they went crazy or something after the Rift opened.  I've mentioned the Rift before, right?"  The three mares in the room all nodded.  Twilight couldn't remember whether she had heard about it from Raydence or Surprise, but she knew the entire story of the Rift and how Humania and Ponia had once been separate worlds.  Reassured, Raydence went on, "Ahmerites didn't believe in magic, and it was a foundation of their culture or something.  Then the Rift opened and Dream Valley was their new neighbor... actually, I'm not quite sure how that led to Ahmer's downfall.  You'll have to ask Surprise."

Twilight sighed with resignation.  "Okay."

Just as Ray was heading out the door, he stopped, and considered the book again, "I do remember one thing.  Apparently, most of the things Ahmerites write are propoganda of some sort.  So anything you remember from this book, take it with a grain of salt."

With that, he left.

Twilight's glance immediately went towards Pinkie.  The party pony looked as if she was sad to see the human go, like she had wanted him to stay longer.  Twilight was about to say something, when suddenly Pinkie turned and tickle-glomped her!  The wrestle had resumed!

Tightrope sighed.  Somehow, his sigh was still audible over the pitter-patter of raindrops hitting the roof.  He was staring out the window, and Surprise came to stare with him.  She said nothing, but the colt somehow sensed she wanted an answer.  Or maybe he just wanted to say something.

"I... was kinda hoping we'd get to go to the park again."

It was strange, he reflected, that he liked the park so much.  The toys there were the silliest things in concept.  Ponies go up and down, ponies swing left and right, ponies ride around in circles or climb on bars.  And yet, somehow, he couldn't help wanting to go there and do that again and again.  He had first gone there four days ago, but still each visit felt like the first time.  Especially when the girls were there.

Perhaps picking up on his feelings, Surprise pulled her hoof away on her own.  She sighed, "I don't like the rain much either."

Tightrope glanced back, and saw Raydence laying on the sofa, apparently asleep, but it was hard to tell due to how his mane covered his eyes. "And I bet the human is hungry," he commented, knowing Raydence was a meat-eater and he couldn't very well catch food on a day like this.

"Nah," Raydence answered, shifting a little.  Sleepily he added, "I saw the weather schedule and caught extra food ahead of time."

"I hope it doesn't rot."

"Stuff doesn't rot in the inventory screen.  Not sure how it works, but anything you take out is exactly the same as when you put it in."

"Null-time," Tightrope mouthed the term with a little bit of awe.  The gears began turning in his mind, and Tightrope turned his head to the side, toward the plain wooden wall.  He wasn't looking at the wall, though.  He was looking for an X, a small, transparent X that was supposed to be just at the corner of his vision.  At least, that was the method Raydence had explained to him, sometime during the four days now that he had lived with this family.

Seeing nothing, Tightrope blinked twice, rapidly.  There was still nothing, so he blinked again, and again.  He literally had nothing better to do, so he might as well... wait a minute!

This time he blinked, and something was different.  There was a patch, a barely noticable blur, and the more Tightrope focused on it the more it took on the shape of an X!

Without hesitation, the little guy touched it.  It felt as though he had pressed a button, and in that exact instant the X expanded into a blue-grid screen in space!  He had done it!  He had an inventory screen!

All the sudden there was clapping from the only other people in the room. Surprise said, "Oh, this looks like cause for celebration!"

"In the rain?"  Raydence asked.

"We can half-celebrate tonight and half tomorrow!  I know!  Let's have a celebration in the park!"

Tightrope glanced at the pegasus.  Of course, he felt like this was a personal accomplishment, that it amazed him that others would consider it so highly.  "This is cause for celebration?"  He asked.

"Of course!  Opening your first inventory screen... it's like a birthday party!"

Tightrope blinked.  "Ponies celebrate their birthdays?  Or is that a Dream Valley thing?"

Surprise paused, just as she was about to scruffle his mane, and once more Tightrope felt like he had said something... wrong.  As usual, almost immediately Surprise regained her composure, hugged him and said, "Oh don't be silly, every pony celebrates their birthday, once a year!"

Tightrope felt like saying something, but the words died in his throat.  Somehow, he liked the thought that others shared his enthusiasm.  It didn't matter to him that it seemed like a small reason to celebrate, as long as it meant going to the park again, and getting together with the girls.  But that was tomorrow.  Right now, he was wrapped up in the enthusiasm of having a new device to use.  Tightrope had heard the analogy "kid with a new toy" before, and for the first time he understood what it meant.

"Now I need something to put in it!"  He said.

"Oh, try this!"  Surprise handed him a set of Jenga blocks.  Tightrope placed them in, and they became a flat image filling one box on the grid.  Tightrope looked for something else.

Next, Surprise handed him a slinky.  Tightrope wiggled it in his hooves, because what else do you do with a slinky?  And then he made it walk into the inventory screen, where its upside-down half-donut shape became the next flat item in the grid.

Surprise suggested, "Something bigger!"  And then handed Tightrope the box to Shark Attack.  Big as this box was, the minute he placed it inside it became just another graphic.

Tightrope was not aware that his tail was shaking like a puppy's.  He immediately stepped forward, leaned on the sill of the space-window, and stuck his head in.  On reflex, Surprise grabbed his haunches and pulled him back.

"No no," she said gently, "It's not a good idea to stick half your body in the inventory screen."

"I just wanted to see what it looked like.  On the inside, I mean."

"Think of an endless expanse of blue grid."  Surprise answered.

Tightrope sat down and looked at her curiously.  "How do you know?"

Raydence sat up, "Yeah, Surprise, this is news to me too."

For once, Surprise looked like she was on the spot, and a little shy about it.  "Okay, okay, embarrassing story time.  When I was four, I got stuck in my own inventory screen.  I leaned in, like you did, and I tripped and fell, and it closed behind me.  Fortunately, my sister saw what happened and told my parents.  They went to see a Can Opener"--Surprise took a moment to explain this Dream Valley term--"And they got me out."

"Wow," Tightrope was suddenly interested.  "What was it like?"

"I didn't get much time to look around, to tell you the truth.  You see, it's as you said:  There's no time in there.  So to me, it looked like the opening closed and then opened a second later.  But my parents said I had been in there for a couple of hours.

"But keep in mind," Surprise added to her story, "That was in Dream Valley.  You're the first Equestria pony to ever open an inventory screen, and neither Raydence nor I have any Can Opener capabilities.  If you got stuck... it's very likely we'd never be able to get you out."

Tightrope glanced at his inventory screen with a new respect.  It was cool to stick things in it, but Tightrope realized he really wouldn't want to be stuck there for all eternity.  He briefly wondered what it would be like if he never got out, and the thought chilled him.

Yet as he pressed the X and closed the screen, his chills were replaced by a slightly-revived enthusiasm.  He was the first Equestria Pony to open an inventory screen, and they were going to celebrate it!  The mere thought of that made the little guy so excited he couldn't wait!

Suffice to say, the next day came, the park was open, the girls were there, and Surprise very publicly announced that they were celebrating a special accomplishment.  Tightrope publicly demonstrated his new ability, although he had to be talked into it because having a large audience made him nervous.  Yet when he did it, and they all gasped, and then clapped, he somehow felt... safer?  More secure?  Then Twilight Sparkle came to the front and said, "Amazing!  How did you do that?"

As he stuttered out an explanation, Tightrope realized that on some level, he liked this.  He didn't know what he liked, or why, but he hoped that, in the future, there would be more things to celebrate.

That girl Pinkie Pie was starting to make a little more sense.

To be continued...