Surprise Surprise

by Fluttering_Ashes

Rating: everyone
Tags: Random, Pinkie Pie, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Other, Comedy
Length: 6076

Set after the events of Too Many Pinkie Pies and the implications of repeated cloning.

When you photocopy a picture, it's never quite as clear as the original, when you copy that copy, it's even more distorted. What happens when you do this to a living, breathing pony?

Published 2014-12-05 07:30:02 UTC
Last updated 2015-08-06 03:30:16 UTC

Chapter 1

I’m not really sure how many ponies remember their very very first birthday.Some ponies might just barely remember their first birthday party; the lights, the cake, the games, the confusion, the presents...especially the presents, but not many ponies remember their very first birthday, the one that comes a year before the first party. That was always weird to me, why not have a party on the very first birthday? Maybe they didn’t think it was a good day, I mean, everypony would be tired, and at least two of the ponies would be very sticky, and the birthday pony wouldn’t have any friends yet to invite to the party! Anyways, where was I...oh yeah, my first birthday.

I remember the day perfectly. I remember the dark, and the quiet, and I remember the light coming for me, and the voice coming along with it. I was scared, at first, but I pushed my way into the light, following the voice.It was muffled and sorta echoy at first but as I got closer I could finally hear exactly what she was saying.
“-not to be scared at the prospect of being doubly mared” Just as she finished speaking, I opened my eyes, finding myself staring into another set of eyes, just like mine. These eyes were blue, and surrounded by pink, and the look they gave looked...confused.

“I...I think this one’s broken” The pink pony said, drawing away, just enough for me to spot the rest of the pink ponies all clustered around us. They were all staring at me, and I didn’t really like it. My wings buzzed gently against my side as the room became quiet. Several faces,all pink, looked at me with those same bright blue eyes. Finally a voice broke out from somewhere in the corner of the cave. “She’s not a Pinkie!”

Blinking, I tried find where that shout had come from, just as another one rang through the air. “Yeah! She’s broken!”
Suddenly the mob of pink ponies began to cry out “Broken Pinkie! Broken Pinkie!” They swarmed forward, like one single pink cotton candy mass looking to gobble me up.I did the only thing I could really think of doing; I took off.With my wings buzzing I jumped straight up in the air
“Get her!” “We have to fix her, I’ll get some paint!” “Yeah! And I’ll get something to pin her wings down!” “Fix her! Fix her!”

Several ponies jumped trying to catch me, but I was already off, out of the hole in the wall, through the brambles behind it, and into the forest.

I don’t know how long I was flying, but I eventually had to land. My wings were tired and stiff, and achey. “ Not used to this” I managed to puff as I settled back down on the forest floor.

I started to walk, not quite sure where I was going. Why had they attacked me like that? Were all ponies supposed to be pink and poofy? What was so different about me? I looked down at myself...I definitely wasn’t pink, unless you considered white a really really really light shade of pink. I suppose you could if you really put your mind to it, but then you’d have to consider it a really really really light shade of almost every color...which it kinda was. I plucked a bit of my mane out, to get a look at it a bit better. Yellow, most certainly not pink, no matter what way you tried to look at it. I sighed and sat down on my haunches, giving my wings a little shuffle. That was another thing, I realized then, none of the pink ponies had wings! Are wings weird? Was I the only pony ever to have wings? What if there was some author of my life mandating that I had to have wings! Or there might even be a fanclub somewhere that got all mad because wings were on my back! They’d say it was the end of everything and start screaming at the one guy to take the wings back and then they’d blame him for everything bad that happened after that!...No that was just silly.

As I began to consider the possibilities these limbs could bring, I began to feel a rumbling from the ground beneath my hooves. I listened, super hard. It was faintl at first but it started growing steadily louder, a steady pounding of hooves and chanting. “Fun! Fun! Fun! Fun!”

With a little yelp I quickly jumped into the nearest tree I could find as the pink mob of the ponies that had attacked me went past, some bouncing, some running, some cartwheeling, one riding another and smacking her behind with a stick. I waited until the very last pony had passed by before I lowered myself from the tree. Whatever was happening that was so fun, I wanted no part of it. Those Pink Ponies were crazy! Turning abruptly I headed deeper into the woods.

I wandered through the woods for ages. The sun rose and set several time as I walked, I tried to eat some of the plants I found...but many of them didn’t really taste very good. There was this one berry I tried that made me throw up, so I tried to steer clear of berries after that! Time had a funny way of passing in the woods; one moment could pass really really super slow, so slow that you could watch the grass and leaves slloooowly bend one way as the wind picked up. Other times, it passed super fast! One day seemed to shoot by so fast it was like one end of the sky was playing a game of catch with the sun! But during that whole time I had seen no other ponies in the woods.

That all changed the day I found the orchard...which was...well..today. I had gotten to a part of the woods I had never been to before, a place where the trees thinned and I could see the sky a lot better. It was still dark out when I found it so I got a nice little view of the stars, and the moon, and the orchard! I knew these trees were different, they didn’t look like any trees I had seen back in the woods; their leaves were a different shape, they didn’t have any animals making noises from them, and they were just...oddly straight, no broken or weirdly pointed branches on them. So I got real curious and started to get closer. At first i thought the trees were filled with more of those berries, like the disgusting ones that made me all barfy, but upon closer inspection I realized these things weren’t squishy enough to be the ucky berries. I hopped into the tree, and settled down on one of the branches, picking one of the red things at random. I sniffed, then cautiously I took a bite. The taste that washed over my tongue was by far the most delicious thing I had ever tasted! Before long the red thing was completely gone, so I grabbed another...and another. I was so busy munchin’ and crunchin’, I hardly noticed the sun come up, and I certainly didn’t hear the hoofsteps. I did feel the tree suddenly shake though when the hooves hit it’s trunk. The hard to chew cores of my breakfast fell first.

“What in tarna-!” I heard from below just as I lost my grip on the branch and followed the cores...well not exactly follow. The cores landed all nice and neat in a bucket, I landed on the pony who kicked the tree! We both sat there groanin’ for a bit. I got up as quick as I could, looking at the pony who had kicked the tree. She wasn’t pink either! Ha! I knew the pink ponies were weird! But whether she was pink or not didn’t really matter to me in that moment. Ponies, at least the ponies I had met, were strange creatures that probably wanted to tear my wings off! I tried to bolt, and I got a few trees away before I heard a “Hold on there missy!” Something caught my tail and before I could do a thing I was yanked backwards. The orange pony was quick to tie my hooves together wrapping the rest of the rope around my barrel, keeping my wings pinned. I whined and squirmed as she looked down at me, keeping one of her front hooves on my tummy to keep me down, the other one grabbing her hat off the grass. She seemed to be thinking really hard about something; she was getting all frowny, and her eyes were darting all over, from my face, to the tree I had been snacking in, to the forest, to my butt, and then back to my face again. She chewed her lip for a second or two before she finally started talking.

“Now listen here, sugar cube. Ah’m right sorry for hogtying ya, but ah cain’t just let ya leave without a word.” She talked funny, not like the pink ponies at all! Wait...did she just say she’d let me go if I said a word?
“Sassafras! That's your word, time to lemme out!” I piped up brightly. The orange pony smiled and gently patted my head.
“Not what Ah meant, sugarcube. Ah got someplace Ah wanna show ya first. Ah want to introduce ya to a friend of mine so’s she can ask ya a few questions.” I frowned...new ponies made me nervous. This orange funny talkin’ pony seemed nice and all, but I didn’t really know if I could trust her friend. With that in mind, I asked the only real question that mattered at the moment.
“Will it be fun there?”
The look on her face was exactly the same one that was on mine when I tried to eat that slimy green plant a few days ago by the river.
“Ah cain’t promise that, but it should be...somethin’” Somethings weren’t always good, but I decided to risk it. After all, just cause the orange pony didn’t promise it’d be fun didn’t mean it wasn’t gonna be!
“Okay!” I said happily, hopping up and putting all four of my bound hooves on the ground. I tippyhoofed towards the gate I had hopped over earlier this morning. “Lets go!”
The orange pony chuckled “Now hold on there, lemme untie ya!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I had never ever ever thought I’d ever see a place like Ponyville. Places that were made of wood but weren’t trees, ponies dressed in funny hats and robes coming out to grab a paper, ponies with stands selling funny shaped plants, and just all the ponies in general! Ponies with pointy things on their heads, ponies with wings like mine, ponies with hats, ponies with no hats, tall ponies and short ponies, young ponies, old ponies, ponies riding things, ponies carrying things, ponies all over the place! Applejack (that was my orange pony’s name, Applejack, she introduced herself after we left!) lead me through the town, eventually coming to a stop to the biggest tree in town. I never seen a tree like that one either, trees weren’t supposed to have doors on them! Was it one of the buildings trying to be a tree, or a tree trying to be a building? I wasn’t sure...maybe I’d ask later.

Applejack knocked her hoof against the door of the tree, then we waited...after a few moments she knocked again and again we waited. When she lifted her hoof to knock a third time, the door burst open. A grumpy little lizard with a blue night cap on glared up at Applejack. “AJ, do you have any idea what time it is! It’s barely light out!”

I have never ever seen anything as cute as this lizard thing in all my life! I shot passed Applejack and lifted him up, giving him a cuddle. “Daww! Cute cranky lizard thingy!”

Applejack took the little guy from my hooves and explained “That...would be the reason why ah’m here this early.” She explained. I blinked and tilted my head to one side.

“...I’ll go get Twilight.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And that brings us allllll the way up to now! Twilight, or as I like to call her, big-word-mcgee, had taken one look at me before she dragged me down into her basement and started poking at me, and asking me questions, and hooking me up to weird beeping machines. Applejack was right, it wasn’t very fun,but it was something. All the stuff in that room made so many funny noises and blinked but the purple pony wouldn’t let me play with anything! Sorta fun...but not really, it was hard to explain. After a while Spike, the little cranky lizard thing that I had met at the door, knocked on the door again. “Twilight...umm…” He glanced at me...he had a funny look on his face. Was there something on my face?...Well there was...one of those sticky suction cups from the scribble machine, but that wasn't all that strange since I was down here.

He looked up at Twilight and pointed straight up to the ceiling. I looked up too, just to try to catch a glimpse at what he was pointing at. It must’ve gone, but Twilight seemed to understand his meaning way better than I did...either that or she had x-ray vision...that’d be really cool!

“You’re going to have to wait here, okay?” She told me. I huffed and slowly sank back into my chair, next to the scribbling machine. The unicorn walked out and quietly shut the door behind her. It didn’t take too long for me to get bored. This weird tingly feeling in my ears seemed to be telling me something...The longer I looked at the door the unicorn and the lizard had just left out of the harder the tingling got. There was somethin’ going on that I needed to figure out. So..keeping as quiet as possible, I got up from the chair, and scooted my way over to the door. I pressed my ear to the wood, muffled voices reaching my ear from the other side.

“-if I could, I wouldn’t” Said a voice I immediately identified as Twilight. A new voice was quick to answer her

“What?! But you said if we found another one-” the raspy voice was silenced by Twilight’s.

“I said if we found another one we’d send her back, but she’s not like them! The magic of the mirror pool copied Pinkie’s genome the first few times with 95% accuracy! The others were almost exactly like her, she’s...not.”

“I don’t get it…” The raspy voice admitted after a pause.

“Whenever a pony is cloned like that it’ll make an almost exact copy. If one of the copies copied itself there’d be a much higher chance of mutation, and the copies just kept making more of themselves. It’s quite likely that her DNA was damaged to such a degree that the pool had to substitute the missing strands with any residual pieces it had in it.”

“...Am Ah the only one who understood none of that?” Asked Applejack’s drawl. Twilight huffed. “It means, she’s not a clone, she’s closer to a blood relative or maybe even-”

“I want to see her.” That voice was new...it sounded familiar but I really couldn’t place it. She sounded...strange, like she was doing a wobbly dance between excited, nervous, and scared….there had to be a word for that...nervoscaricited...wait they were talking again!

“Are...are you sure?” Twilight asked “I mean both of you might sh-”

“I’m sure” The seriousness didn’t suit her voice at all. It was like trying to fit a round peg into triangle shaped hole, or a fish trying to fly...though flying fish did that so maybe that wasn’t a good example. Hoofsteps started to draw closer to the door! I was gonna be found out! With a squeak and a buzz of my wings I quickly returned to my chair and pretended to be looking at the scribbling machine’s trail of paper. The door opened quietly, the hinges squeaking softly. I looked up as Twilight walked back in.

“Hiya!” I said cheerfully, trying to pretend like I hadn’t heard what they were talking about. Twilight looked nervous, quietly rubbing the back of her head with her hoof.

“Uh..Hi...So...you know how I promised to introduce you to the rest of my friends?” I nodded in response. She gulps “Well...one of them wanted to meet you right now” She shuffled her hooves for a moment before she slowly stepped out of the way of the door. What slowly made it’s way inside made my insides freeze. The poofy pink mane, the bright blue eyes, the pink fur, and the three balloons on her flank were unmistakable; I had been found by one of the pink ones! I was so scared I couldn’t move, even as the pink pony approached, step by step, ready to pounce on me! She took a deep breath and said, in a shakey voice. “I’m sorry for missing your birthday!” She leaps forward suddenly, wrapping her forelegs around me.

“I mean what kinda a pony am I! I missed my own family’s birthday! Her very first birthday! I shoulda been there with balloons and streamers, and cake, and punch, and more cake, and-”

“But you were there! You were there a buncha times! There were, like, a whole herd of yous all squeezed into that little itty bitty cave!”

“Nononono! That wasn’t me! That was me! And...oh this is so confusing.”

“Tell me about it” Said the blue winged pony standing in the doorway.

Well it all started when I got out of the poo-!” Both the pink mare and I began to explain at once We blinked and looked at each other.
"Maybe you should explain" We said at once, yet again. "No you!...Hehe, it's like an echo. Wooo...wooo..." There was a slight pause before Spike muttered “Yeah...that’s not creepy at all…”

“Why don’t we start over?” The pink mare suggested.

“Okay! Lets see...I was sitting here, and you can come back in, and I can almost p-”

“Nope, that’s not what I meant! Here, lemme start” She stepped back “I’m Pinkie Pie and I’m your big sister!”

“Well technically speaking.” Twilight said, taking a step forward “She has a little over half of your genes, so a much closer comparison, family-wise, would make you her mo-” In a flash the blue pony darted forward and slapped her hoof over Twilight’s mouth.

“Ix-nay, Twilight, Ix-nay!”

I glance at Pinkie and whisper “Why is Twilight talking about pants?” Pinkie’s answer was a quiet shrug, before offering her hoof. I looked at her, then at her hoof, then back at her.

“Are you crazy?” I asked, truly and utterly astonished by her. She looked a bit nervous again, slowly putting her hoof down. “W-what?” She squeaked. Did I really need to explain this to her? I mean it was kinda obvious!

“Sisters don’t shake hooves! Sisters gotta hug!” I quickly hugged my sister, a chorus of “aww”s filling the room, accompanied by the gagging sounds of a baby dragon.

“Oh there’s so much to do!” Pinkie said suddenly “I gotta write Maud and tell her about you! She’ll be so excited! I betcha she’ll drop everything to come visit! Oh! And we gotta throw you a birthday party! And a welcome to Ponyville party! Oh and I gotta throw myself a Yay-I-gotta-new-sister party! And I gotta write mom anddad and tell them an- Ohohohoh! We gotta figure out what we’re gonna call ya! We can’t have “The new pony who we haven’t figured out what to name yet” On the invitations!”

“This is certainly going to be a surprise for your parents, darling” Said the white unicorn next to Applejack “ I mean what are a they supposed to think when they find out their daughter had a ch-” Applejack suddenly nudged her side, the unicorn winced. “A...chance encounter with extended family”
Something the white pony...wait I’m the white pony…something the white unicorn said caught my attention. “Hey...wait a minute!”
Pinkie was smiling openly at me, but everypony else seemed a little nervous.
“Surprise! I like that name! I wanna be a Surprise!” Everyone let out a breath, just as Pinkie sucked a huge one down in a gasp.
“Surprise? Surprise!” A devious grin passed over her face “Surprise, are you pondering what I’m pondering?”
“I believe I am Pinkie, but how are we ever gonna convince the llama to wear the lederhosen?” Pinkie giggled, patting my head
“No silly-willy! I got the perfect name for your party! We’ll combine all the parties together and we’ll call it a Surprise Party!”
“Pinkie Pie, you’re a genius!” I cried, hugging my new sister tightly around the barrel.
Twilight and Applejack glanced at once another. I could’ve swore I heard Applejack mutter “Twi...what have we just done?”

Author's Note

Okay guys, one of those good news, bad news situations. First the bad, the new chapter for Through the Night won't be up until later next week, I'm adjusting to a new job so there's gonna be a bit of a transition phase, but the good news is I'm really kicking myself into high gear when it comes to actually writing it, so make of that what you will. In the mean time, I made you guys this story to tide you over until the next chapter! Below is a link to a poll, and I encourage everyone to vote whether or not this one shot deserves to be a series. As always I love to hear from you all and I thank you all for being so patient with me! Have a good week and I hope you enjoyed the story! ^^

http://vote.pollcode.com/82899457

Chapter the second

The cakes weren’t very welcoming at first. Oh! Sorry, I mean the owners of the bakery, Mr. and Mrs. Cake, not the cake cakes. The cake cakes were great! They just sat there decorated in bright colorful icing and watched me pass by. But anywho, Mr and Mrs. Cake didn’t really welcome me at first. They looked at my big sister then at me, and they looked back and forth real quick for a really really long time before

Mrs. Cake said. “Pinkie, can we talk to you in the other room?”

“Sure!” Pinkie said, patting my head lightly. “You stay right here! Okay sis?” She pointed to the rug I was currently standing on. I nodded and quietly sat down to wait. The waiting took forever! Waiting was booooring! It didn’t take long before my sitting became slumping, and my slumpin’ became laying on my back and staring up at the ceiling. A noise caught my attention not long after that and I rolled over. Sitting in two chairs, blinking at me were two of the teeny tiniest ponies I had ever seen! I bounced up and made a beeline for the counter to get a better look. Wait, do bees make lines? How would a beeline look? Would it look like the bee or would it look like a letter B or...oh now I’m confused. I’ll have to ask Pinkie about that later!

Anyway!The tiny ponies seemed just as confused as the bigger ponies Pinkie had left with. One was a grayish yellow sorta color, with a brown mane that was shaped weird, sorta pointy and going back, almost reminded me of a swirl in the middle of one of the cakes I saw. He had wings like I did! The other one was a much brighter yellow, with an orange mane and a blue bow, she was a unicorn like that white and purple pony from early.

The little filly cocked her head to one side, while the pegasus cocked his head the other.

“Pinkie?” One asked

“Pie?” The other finished. A sudden pain hit my chest...at first I thought the kids had slipped me some ucky barfy berries without me realizing or something, but the hurt got better a second later and then I got this warm fuzzy feelin’. They thought I was my big sis! As cute as it was, I had to correct them.

“Nonono” I chided gently “Not Pinkie. My name’s Surprise!” This just seemed to confuse them more. I held out my hoof for the tiny ponies to shake, but this only seemed to make things bad. The little one with the orange hair started sniffling, tears fillin’ up her eyes. Yuh oh! Why was this bad! The purple pony had said this is what ya did when you met somepony new! I musta did it wrong! Or that purple pony lied to me...but she didn’t seem like...oh right, crying filly!

“Nope, he-hey! Don’t do that! Look! Surprise is funny like Pinkie!” I looked around for something to show just how fun I was! Bowl? Had food in it, useless. Rug? Too scary, they’ll think I’m a ghost. Bag of Flour? Last resort. Wings...Better try it!

“See look!” I said, covering my face with my wings.

“Where’d Surprise go!”I peeked out between a few feathers, watching the two for a moment before I spread the wings apart.

“There she is!” The two jumped, then, just as quickly, they began to laugh and squeal. I did it again, hiding my face with my wings, then bursting out of the little ball I had made myself into.

“Awww” I wheeled around as I heard the gentle coo of two mares, one was my big sis, naturally, and the other was Mrs. Cake, both of whom were staring with big grins on their faces. Mr. Cake just seemed...puzzled? Confused? Something like that. Unsure maybe.

“Did you two find a new friend?” Asked Mrs. Cake, trotting forward and gently stroking the filly’s hair.

“Sir” said the filly

“Pwise!”Said the colt. Both mares awwed again as heat rushed to my cheeks.

“Come on!” Cried Pinkie, grabbing me by the hoof and dragging me to the stairs.

“I’ll show you our room! Oh oh! Wait till you meet Gummy! He’ll just flip when he sees you!” I waved at the two giggling foals in their high chairs as I was pulled away. Pinkie grinned at me as we made the first landing.

“Now!” Called the voice of Mister Cake. “I don’t wanna hear any roughhousing up there girls!”

“Don’t worry Mister Cake!” Pinkie shouted over her shoulder “We’ll be good!”

“Does this mean we can’t make a pillow fort?” I mouthed to Pinkie. Pinkie put a hoof to her lips, then mimed locking her lips with a key and tossing it away. We were not to discuss it out loud until we got into the bedroom.

“You lucky duck, you! It took me a month to get them to remember my name! How’d you do it? Did you have candy with ya? Oh! It was the Flour sack wasn’t it! Oh I bet it was candy with the flour sack!” She then grabbed me by the shoulders, and held me extra close, staring deep into my eyes in the way she did when she usually has something vastly important to say. At least I assumed that what it was. That’s what I would do at least.

“Surprise” She whispered gravely “Don’t ever do the flour trick during bath time! No matter how much they cry! It gets messy! Just give them a rubber ducky!” I blinked.

“Duckies can be made of rubber? Where do rubber duckies come from Pinkie? Does a mama rubber ducky and a daddy rubber duc-” Pinkie’s hoof found it’s way to my mouth before I could finish my question on the biology of bathroom waterfowl.

“Rated E!” She cried in a panic“Rated E!” Without another word the pink pony lead me into our new room.

“We’re gonna have the Surprise party day after tomorrow! The cakes said we could have it here! Isn’t that great? Spike helped me send out all the invitations while Twilight was finishing her exam on ya!” I grumbled and rubbed my upper foreleg.

“She’s way too pokey with those things some times”

“Oh I know! She’s like one of my super duperist best friends ever, but when she’s gotta know somethin’ she sooo doesn’t skimp on the pokey things! I remember this one time she tried t-” Just as the interesting story was about to start, something small and green lept from it’s hiding place and flew at my face. I won’t deny, I was incredibly brave about it.

“Eeek! Frog on my face! Frog on my face!” See? Such bravery has not been seen in Equestria before or since!

“That’s not a frog, silly willy. That’s just Gummy!” I opened my eyes to find a pair of the most adorable big purple eyes staring right back at me, the gator suspended by his mouth from my snout, drool running from his gums onto me. He let out a delighted hiss, and popped himself off, latching onto my mane instead, his little tail swishing.

“Aww! He likes me!” I giggled, gently bopping his head.

“Yup! Real lady’s gator! Any way where was I?”

“Party?” I suggested helpfully

“Oh yeah! The super funerific party! Spike helped me send invitations to Mom and Dad and the sisters! Oh, our sisters, ya got three of ‘em now! Well I guuuess you had three of ‘em before, you just didn’t know it. But you know it now so you got three of them now so they’ll be coming soon!” She paused and looked expectantly out of the window.

“Huh...usually I’m a lot better with my timing then that…”

“Oh oh lemme try!” I cried eagerly, stepping next to the window.

“Gee, I wonder when I’ll get to meet my new sisters!” I waited...and waited…and nothing happened. Well something sorta happened. Gummy let go of my mane to enjoy the view from the window sill. He just stood there, on the window, staring off at the town, taking a second to lick his eyeball. What a talented little guy he was! I gave him another pat.

“Let a master show ya how it’s done” Pinkie said with a posh tone, polishing her hoof on her coat. She leaned her back against the window frame, resting her head on the back of her hooves and talking in a very loud whisper.
“Gee. I don’t know when they’ll get here! I mean, I sure hope they’re not late!” She then turned to me, with an expression that said ‘I’m really acting super hard to be upset right now’

“I’m sorry Surprise, it looks like we’ll-” Suddenly a loud crash erupted from outside the window “Oh there she is!” Said Pinkie, dropping her act at once.

I peeked past Pinkie’s poofy mane to spy a gray mare climbing off a rock the size of a cart, paying no mind to the ponies staring at her. She wore a dark blue dress, her mane was flat and purple, and she was stuffing a colorful invitation into her collar. Pinkie was bouncing on the tips of her hooves.

“Eeee! My best sister friend is gonna meet my newest sister friend! This is gonna be so awesome!” She grabbed me by the hoof, and dragged me down the stairs to meet the mare at the door.

“Maud!” Squealed Pinkie, throwing her fore legs around the pony. Since I was clinging hard to sis’s hoof, I ended up with the hoof around the back of the pony, Maud’s neck. I blinked, glanced around, gave a tiny shrug at Pinkie, and hugged the back of Maud’s head.

“Hello Pinkie” Said Maud, in a steady voice, which I gotta say must be really hard to do when you got two ponies on your neck. But Maud was solid muscle. Solid as a rock some might say...heh, I get it.

“And you must be Surprise”

“Hehe! Maudie is great at guessing games!” Pinkie beamed with pride.

“Yup! That’s me!” I said happily, as my new sister reached back and picked me off her neck, holding me upside down before her. We blinked at each other, Pinkie grinning from ear to ear, Maud just looking neutral and quiet. I didn't like the quiet...it made me antsy, and I don't like being antsy. Antsy is a thing only ants should be, a Surprise like myself should only be pony...y. Or surprising...surprising sounds better. I glanced between my two sisters before I decided to break the silence.

“Wanna come inside and help us set up for the party? We can make candy!” A small smile tugged at Maud’s lips. Jackpot!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I left the room with the latest batch of rock candy, balancing it on my head. I didn’t know rocks could be candy, truthfully. Had I known that I would’ve eaten a ton more rocks while I was out in the Everfree! I dumped the supplies bucket next to the table we were puttin’ all the candy on, and began to sort it out by color. This party was gonna be the best party I’ve ever had! Well...it was the first party I’ve ever had so it had to be, but it was gonna be the best because my whole family was gonna be there and that was gonna be amazing! I couldn’t wait to meet my ma and poppa! And the twins! Four new sisters! It was so exciting! But I was real nervous too...maybe we should make a word for that.

I made my way back to kitchen where Pinkie and Maud were hard at work making candy. I really wanted to surprise them, Maud was a hard mare to sneak up on but I really wanted to make her jump at least once! I waited at the door for the perfect moment to strike.

“Be honest with me, Pinkie” I heard Maud say.

“Hmm?” Answered Pinkie.

“It was that Cheese stallion, wasn’t it?”

“Huh?” Pinke sounded confused, and I didn’t blame her. Cheese stallion? Who ever heard of a pony made of cheese! That was silly!

“That’s who her father is. Then something happened to make her grow up.” Maud pressed on. Who were they talkin’ about?

“Huh?” Pinkie said again. There was silence for a moment before Pinkie said.

“Oh. Oooooh! Oh. Nope! That didn’t happen! Cheesy is just a friend. Besides! She’s our sister, silly! Thats all there is to it!” Oh my gosh! They were talking about one of our sisters! I leaned in, close, peeking in through the key hole. Maud’s back was to the door, and she was making her past it. Past my hiding spot. I grinned, stuffed a hoof into my mouth to keep quiet, and quietly bounced on the spot.

“You know.” Maud was saying

“Most ponies are going to think she’s-” Now! I leaped out from behind the door

“Surprise!” I squealed. Pinkie squeaked and fell over, I grinned at Maud, noticing a drop of sugary, syrupy goodness from the pot she was holding on the floor.

“Hehe! I got her!” I giggled, Pinkie snickered, wrapping her foreleg around Maud’s shoulder.

“Hehe, she got you good, Maud! I never saw you so freaked!” Pinkie teased. Maud’s expression hadn’t changed. I guess I’d learn to see the differences eventually. Maud nodded just once, and carried the rapidly hardening lump of sugary goodness to one of the tables. She dumped out the solid cube of rainbow colored rock candy, waited a few seconds and then tapped it with her hoof. The whole thing shattered and we had a new batch of rainbow colored candy shards for the table! How was I gonna sort this out!

“You know Surprise” Maud said, turning around to face me.

“The family will want to know where you came from. Father will ask a lot of questions...what are you planning on telling him?”

I smiled and trotted over with my empty bucket, pushing all of the hard candy into it as I spoke. “Oh that’s easy! I’ll just tell him the truth! I’ll tell him I was born when these crazy pink ponies that looked like sis pulled me out of a hole in the ground filled up with magic pond water!”

Off to do more candy sorting! I trotted out of the room.