Author's Note

This story was born from an idea of trying to write a story about split-personality disorder. I kept feeling like I was flubbing it up, so I litterally split Pinkie into her G1 equivalent. I canned it because- honestly, I just didn't like the way I was writing Surprise.

Surprise Walks the Two Worlds

T’was late at night, not a filly stirring. The wind blew quietly through the glistening castle as all ponies were sleeping.

There, sitting upon a chair, reading a book, was a purple alicorn named Twilight Sparkle. She used her magic to flip the page, the candle bringing her light burning dangerously dim. From afar, the only features lit up were her muzzle, eyes, left ear, and horn.

Then, like a ghost in the night, the wick sputtered and spent it’s supply, draping darkness’s blanket across the library. Twilight heaved a sigh, mentally placing her page number in her mind. It was a beat or two while she decided what to do next, when suddenly, the sound of a crashing window broke her stupor.

Eyes suddenly split wide awake as she scanned the library, heartrate ever increasing. The glass hit the floor, creating a sound not too disimilar from a cascade of rain on a stormy night. Slowly, Twilight prepared every defensive spell she knew, channeling her magic through her horn. She cast a light spell, creating a purple glow across the castle floor.

She scanned each room, using her princess training like a true soldier. At this moment, she really wished she asked for guards at her palace. In every room, she found nothing. Not a peep, nor a shingle out of place. Everything was exactly as she left it. Even Spike seemed to be snoring through the event. She shook her head as she closed the door to Spike’s room.

Eventually, she came to the door she wished she hadn’t. In the long hallway, this seemed to be the last door to be the culprit. Even more scarily, it was the door that lead to the room containing a magical gateway, disguised as a simple mirror. It lead to another world, full of critters called ‘humans’ and the like. Twilight pushed her defensive magical spells to the forefront of her mind, and pushed open the door with a hoof.

On the ground, shattered into a million pieces, was the mirror. Her only direct access to the human world- gone. And she hadn’t even said goodbye.

Twilight shook her head, directing her attention to yet another mystery.

The sound of the shattering of glass was from the mirror. That much was obvious. So that begged the question into why the nearby window was also shattered. And why there was no glass on the ground from said window.

Twilight leaned out of the window, being sure to avoid any broken glass. There was her answer. There was no broken glass near or from the window, because the window broke outwards.

Something had gotten out.

The wind howled a ghostly melody. It seemingly rolled off of the Everfree, infecting the entire town. Although it wasn’t Nightmare Night yet, it sure seemed like the town was in the mood. Posters hung for the next freakshow, lights dangling from house to house. There were certianly pockets of activities, as it wasn’t like the entire town was asleep. Here, there were ponies dancing to festive music. There, there were ponies drinking spiked cider for their own bemusement.

A white pegasus made sure to avoid these areas. Her coat was becoming stained with blood, specifically around her front hooves, dragging lines behind her as she hovered a solid foot above the ground. A nearby pony, walking from presumably a bar, gave her a friendly wave. With a forced smile, she returned the wave.

She loved making ponies happy. It was her special talent, after all. Even in the most dire circumstances, if a pony were to wave, she would wave back. And right now, this seemed pretty dire.

She was in a completely unfamiliar town, surrounded by unfamiliar ponies, in an unfamiliar land, and quite possibly in an unfamiliar world. This was, by definition, the most dire situation. Not to mention the bleeding, which she seemed to be able to ignore less and less as the pain in her hooves only flared up more and more.

Her friend, Twilight, told her to stay away from the creatures of this world. She said that she might not know their customs, greetings, language, or even whether they were friendly to them or not. But- from a cursory glance, they not only looked identical to where she came from, all of the shop signs looked like legible language. There was one about muffins, there was one about quills and sofas. It all seemed pretty stock standard from where she came from.

But the true differences were the subtleties. She looked up, and what she saw wasn’t her night sky. It wasn’t the night sky she grew up under. It was completely different. Not a single constellation nor star was in the same place. Everypony’s Cutiemarks were larger, and less complicated. Although hers was simple, being five balloons, she knew her friends would stick out like a sore thumb.

Whatever Twilight said, she had to swallow her pride, and ask for help. No matter how terrible it would be.

Another nearby pony waved as she flew by. With a sickly gulp, she turned around and flew towards him.

“Hello?” She asked in a suspicously meek voice. The stallion, being brown with a spiky mane, turned and looked at her. She couldn’t make out much of his face due to the darkness, but she could atleast tell his eyebrow was raised.

“Hello, my dear.” He said, slightly slurred. “How might I help you?” He asked. She almost put a hoof to her nose, smelling the alchohol emitting from his breath.

“H-Hey. So- I had a bit of an accident. I’m new here, and I broke a window.” She held out her hooves. “Do you know of anypony that could help with this?” The stallion looked down. There was perhaps a twitch of the head, and any sluriness that was once covering his voice suddenly vanished.

“Great wickering stallions!” He said at an above-room voice. “Are you okay?”

“Me? Oh, I’m fine.” She said. “What about you?”

“My dear, I would recommend you-” He looked around for a moment, spotting a nearby building. “Go knock on that door. There’s a really nice mare in there named Pinkie Pie. I’m sure you’ve already met her. She’s great with her hooves, and can help fix you up in a giffy!”

“Thank you.” She said, starting to hover away. “It was nice meeting you!”

“My pleasure.” He said. “My name is Doc. What’s yours?”

“Surprise.” She said, turning towards the building as the stallion trotted away.

The building he pointed to was a large, towering place. It stood taller than nearly every other building in the vicinity. It’s walls were similar to a gingerbread house, support struts made of candycane as the roof looked like it was practically melting chocolate.

She took a deep breath, flew towards the door, and knocked.

The thing about knocking with cut hooves… it hurts. Surprise let out a gasp of pain in the middle of her third knock, flying back aways and holding her hoof close to her chest. With a little nursing, it wasn’t out of the question that she forgot she had knocked in the first place. When she heard the door open, she instantly flipped and turned around.

It was a tall, lanky stallion. His hair was frayed orange, and his coat was a darker yellow. His green eyes looked tired as he stared Suprise up and down.

“Err- may I help you?” He asked in a customer-service esk-tone.

“Oh- sorry to bother you, sir.” Surprise apolagized. The porch light shone down on her, highlighting her own blonde mane as she flapped in the wind. “I asked a stallion over there, and he said I should come here!”

The stallion raised his eyebrow, still staring at her.

“Come here for what?” He finally asked.

“Oh! Right.” She said sheepishly, taking her hooves out from behind her back. “He said I could get some help here?”

“Geesh!” The stallion said, taking a sudden step back. “What happened? Did you take a dive from a window?”

“Yes.” Surprise deadpanned. “The stallion said a pony named Pinkie Pie could help me.”

“Oh, of course!” He said, taking a step back and clearing the door. “Come on in!”

“Thank you.” She said, flying through the unobstructed door. Inside, it was obvious the place was a parlor of some kind. Empty display cases sat near the side, and a till was left open with nothing in it. A few dim lights were on, giving the place a more than spooky vibe.

“Are you alright?” A new voice asked. Surprise turned, meeting the careful gaze of a slightly pudgy blue mare with a pink, ice-cream swirl of a mane.

“Oh- uhh- yes, thank you.” Surprise said, dipping her head. “I appreaciate the concern. It doesn’t hurt.” She lied.

“Oh well, that’s just fine then.” She smiled. “My name is Cup Cake. That was Carrot Cake.”

“Nice to meet you.” Surprise held up her sliced hoof. “I would bump hooves, but- you know.”

“Oh, not a problem, dear.” She said. “You can take a seat if you’d like.”

“Oh, thank you.” Surprise said, landing onto a seat near a table. She debated putting her hooves on the table, but eventually decided against it, wanting to keep her new friend’s table as clean as possible.

The stallion came back, telling Surprise that the Pinkie Pie was gathering some equipment first. Then, Cup cake offered her a glass of water, to which she generously accepted. She used her wings to take a sip.

“Don’t worry, Doctor Pinkie is on the case!”

That voice…

Sounded awfully familiar.

Surprise tilted her head, taking in the full sight.

It was a pink pony, true to her name. Her mane was poofy, and she wore a huge smile. It was a matter of moments where Surprise’s eyes tilted down to her Cutiemark. It was almost identical to hers. Except instead of five balloons, it was three. Now that she noticed her Cutiemark, her mane was styled almost identically to her own.

“What may be the problem- wo-o-oah!” Pinkie exclaimed, looking down at her hooves. “That doesn’t look too good! Don’t worry, I’ll have you fixed in no time!” Pinkie began working on her hooves.

Surprise stared in surprise as she worked, surprisingly painlessly, on her hooves. The poofy mane, the cutiemark, even the wide smile on her face. She looked… She looked so similar to herself.

“So.” Surprise started. “What do you- uhm- do?”

“Me?” Pinkie asked, her mouth tightening a bandadge. “I throw parties!”

Surprise felt even more unsure.

“Yup!” She spit out the fabric. “Ponyville’s premiere party planner!”

Ponyville. That was the location of her home, too. This place kept getting weirder and weirder.

“So. What do you do?”

“Huh? Oh- I plan parties.” Surprise said. It wasn’t two seconds until she had realized her mistake. Pinkie temporarily stopped wrapping her hooves and looked up at her with a surprised look.

“This is getting weird.” Carrot Cake said, breaking silence finally. “I mean- you two look like clones!”

“Heey- did you, by chance,

“My name is Surprise, and I think I’m you from another dimension.”

The silence that followed was short lived.

“What?” Pinkie yelled. “That’s super-awesome! Double Pinkies? Can you imagine what we could do? We could throw like- the biggest party ever!”