Perhaps

Chapter 5: Through Another’s Eyes

Author’s Note: I can’t sleep tonight, so I managed to occupy my time finishing this chapter!! More to come :D

Dear Diary:

When they first arrived in Ponyville, I was just glad to have other Pegasi around. The older one was obviously engrossed in watching the filly stumble around, though I could tell somehow that his laughing was forced. I assumed she was his daughter, and maybe his wife had just died, so I understood why watching the little one would be hard for him. He kept telling her not to go too far. I’ll never forget the first time I actually heard his voice.

“I don’t have to listen to you,” the filly yelled.

The colt sighed heavily. “Rain, I’m going to count to 3, and you had better be back he—wait, Rain!! Don’t touch that! It’s not yours!”

“Rain” had spotted, and was now carrying, my saddlebags on her back. I couldn’t help but burst out laughing; she was just curious. As he ran over, I looked at him sympathetically, wondering how he was dealing with her.

“I am so sorry about her,” he said. “She’s too curious for her own good…just wait until she can fly.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at this. “Really…is it going to be that bad?”

“If she’s anything like I was, then this place doesn’t stand a chance.”

I decided to broach what had to be the most uncomfortable subject for him.

“So, where’s her mother?”

“She’s, uh, not around.” There was a twinge of pain at this.

“Well, I’m sorry about that,” I said with as much feeling as I thought was necessary. “I guess it’s been hard for you. Was there anyone else where you lived?”

“Well,” he thought. “There was the population of Cloudsdale…”

I laughed again. “I meant--”

“I know what you meant,” he said calmly. “It was just the three of us.”

“I suppose you loved her very much.”

He looked up quickly. “That’s open for debate, actually.”

“Oh.” I wasn’t expecting that one. “But, you are, um, Rain’s father, right?”

“Uh…” He looked at me, disconcerted. Then, all of a sudden, he burst out laughing. I looked around; ponies were staring at him like he had three heads. They couldn’t understand, not that he was laughing at something I said, but that it took so long for him to. I guess this was also the calmest I’d ever been when meeting someone new to Ponyville, so I deserved the looks I was undoubtedly getting before he started laughing so hard.

After about 5 minutes, he got back up and decides that he could finally answer my question from earlier.

“I’m her brother. Name’s Lightning Runner, and hers is Rainbow Dash, by the way. Rain is just my name for her.”

“Oh!” That made more sense. “I’m Surprise, the resident party pony here. If you see anypony giving me a weird look, that’s because I’m normally really talkative and stuff.”

He blinked. “Okay, I guess that makes sense. By the way, Rain won’t ever calm down unless she gets something with some amount of sugar in it. Do you know where I can get that?”

“Are you kidding? I work at Sugarcube Corner!!! I’ll give you a discount on whatever you need there!”

“Oh,” he said, surprised at the offer. “Well, alright! Thanks!!”

We walked to Sugarcube Corner slowly, Lightning having to stop frequently to stop Rainbow Dash from getting into something. He kept joking that he wouldn’t mind if she could never fly. I knew he would never really wish that upon her; being a Pegasus myself, I could only imagine what she would go through if she couldn’t fly. Just talking to him made me understand why they relocated after their mom died. He was haunted, with a kind of “thousand-yard stare” quality to his voice of which I can’t imagine the origins.

When we got to the sweet shop, Rainbow (as she told me call her) went wild at the sight of “so much sugary awesomeness.” Lightning just stood there laughing and telling her to hurry up. After she picked her favorite of the moment, which seemed to be a cupcake shaped like a thunder cloud, I rang them up. As he was handing over the bits for the cupcake, the shop’s owner, Carrot Cake, ran to the door.

“Where you going?” I asked. “Off to see Cup again?”

“Yeah,” he responded, absent-mindedly.

“Alright! See ya!!”

“Uh, yeah. Bye.”

After Mr. Cake left, Lightning looked back.

“Cup?”

“Yeah,” I said. “His girlfriend, Cup Spring. I think he’s going to propose to her soon. They’ve been steady for aver three years, now!”

He smiled, one of those awful forced smiles I’ve already come to expect from him. Obviously, he was uncomfortable with marriage, but I decided not to press the issue, and instead dropped the subject entirely.

“So, how long have you two been here?”

He looked up. “Actually, we just got here this morning. You were the first pony to talk to me here.”

“Really?” I asked. I didn’t expect that at all. “You seem nice enough for others to want to introduce themselves. That’s so mean!”

“Honestly, it’s okay,” he replied submissively. “I don’t care how many friends I make here. I’m glad to have made one, but Rain is really he main reason I’m here. I wanted to move her to a quiet place, and it was easiest to get here than, really, anywhere else.”

Now I see what’s wrong with him: it’s not him or his sister that has him so down, but rather what made them move here.

“What happened?” I know I’m taking a chance with him by asking so much of him so early on, but I decide to, anyway. “What happened to make you guys come here?”

His face told me that I’d gone too far. There was real pain there, real horror. It told stories that I wasn’t sure I would ever want to hear.

“I-I don’t want to ta-alk about it,” he said, his voice breaking halfway through the sentence. Whatever was going through his mind was too painful for him to handle right now, and I dropped it.

After he left, I was able to think straight for the first time in what felt like hours; it had only been around 45 minutes. I decided right then and there that I was going to throw a party for him. I figured a lot of colors would do some good; he didn’t have too much, having a grey coat and black/red mane. His color was depressing enough without that sour personality! I rocketed into the kitchen, determined to make enough cake to feed those two for a year!!

Love Always,
Surprise ^_^

Dear Diary:

Sorry I haven’t written here in so long! I’ve been crazy busy!! Anyway, I’ll pick up where I left off! After about a week had passed, I had somehow managed to organize a party without alerting Lightning or Rainbow!! That’s a record for me!!! Anyway, I asked them to go out to Sweet Apple Acres for an afternoon, and Lightning said they’d be there…after asking where Sweet Apple Acres is. I gave him directions and told him I’d see them there later on.

I went over to SAA right after that to help with the final preparations for the party. Little Applejack was the cutest thing, trying to buck apples with her brother and dad. That filly’s going to be the best bucker around here, I thought, smiling. Their mom, Sweet Apple, saw me and rushed over to direct me to the balloon station and party cannons…a little addition I made when Applejack was born, and a tradition at my parties ever since. After I had checked that they were in working order—a test that left “Big” Macintosh covered in confetti—I decided to fly up and check on the weather. Spitfire, a prodigy at the Cloudsdale Flight Academy, was clearing out some clouds. I’d never seen anypony fly that fast, and she was still just barely more than a filly! Anyway, I found the team leader for the weather guys, and he told me we were doing great.

I went inside to check up on the food afterwards. Granny Smith was practically dancing around the kitchen, keeping track of all the food she was trying to cook simultaneously.

“Granny Smith? You good?”

“Huh?” she said, looking at me. “Oh, it’s you sweetie!! Yeah, the food’s almost done! I can’t wait until that little foal arrives. I’ll finally have a little helper around this cuckoo’s nest! When did you say the tiny thing was due, honey?”

I forced a smile and said it was still a couple months away, my heart breaking a little. Every time I see Granny Smith, her memory and eyes are all a bit worse, and I hated seeing her not being able to distinguish between little grey me and her orange-coated daughter. I went outside and found Sweet Apple.

“Sweetie! Everything seems to be in order here.”

“I know, Surprise. That’s what I’ve been trying to prove here all week long! Honey, what’s wrong? You seem a bit down.”

I look up. “Well, it’s your mom, Granny Smith. She just mistook me for you. Are you sure her memory can keep up with the farm for much longer?”

“Surprise,” she said comfortingly. “You and I both know that my mom’s the most dedicated and loyal pony around here. She’ll be here long after her time should have come, and she knows enough to get by. What gave it away that she thought you were me?”

“She asked how long it is until your foal’s due. I told her it was still another couple months away.”

She laughed a bit. “That’s pretty accurate, actually. She’ll be fine. You know it, I know it, we all know it. Granny is Granny, and that’s that.”

She always had a way of calming me down. I thanked her and went back inside to help Granny Smith finish the food.

About an hour later, Lightning and Rainbow arrived, stunned at the party being thrown. Well, I think it was more the fact that I shoved them into a wheelbarrow and rolled them down the last hill to Sweet Apple Acres, screaming “SURPRISE!!!” the whole way. Once they got over being dizzy and confused about the situation, they started to warm up to the crowd. Rainbow went over and talked to Applejack, the two hitting it off fairly quick from what I saw. When I reached Lightning and he saw me, I saw a smile on his face—a real smile. It was intoxicating to see, him genuinely happy on the outside as well as the inside.

“Did YOU do this?” He asked incredulously.

“Yeah,” I replied. “I saw how miserable you were not having any friends, and that made me sad, because I don’t like seeing other ponies sad, and I like seeing my friends happy. Anyway, since you’re my friend now, I figured I have to throw you a ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party!!!!!! What do you think?”

“Um, no,” he said. I fell apart inside. He doesn’t like it???

“I love it!!!!!”

My smile returned just as fast as it had left. I was relieved that he was enjoying himself, above all.

Love Always,
Surprise ^_^

Dear Diary:

The party was a huge success. I’d say those two silly fillies made tons of friends that afternoon. Lightning was smiling most of the time, and Rainbow had a great time running around with other fillies her age. I think that was really good for her. I decided that I should visit them the day after the party, and crept up to their house, hoping to surprise Lightning when he got up. Somehow, though, he was right there, waiting to welcome me.

“I thought you might show up.”

“What?” I was confused. “How could you figure that? I didn’t tell you anything, did I?”

He laughed. “No, it was really a lucky guess on my part. I saw you flying around and figured you were coming here, since ours is the only cloud-house in the area.”

“Oh,” I muttered. I guess it made sense; I was pretty obvious about where I was going. “Well, no biggie! Just wondering how you’re doing!!”

“I’m fine…do you want something to eat? I was just making some breakfast.”

I was stunned. He was asking me to go into his house. I had no idea what to think of it, so I nodded slowly and walked in behind him.

Nothing really eventful happened. We ate a bit, talked about what we could remember from the party, and I left. I asked him to say hi to Rainbow for me; he said she’d be upset at not getting to see me.

When I got back to my room above Sugarcube Corner, I couldn’t sleep for another two hours; the shop was closed, and I didn’t usually get up that early on break days. When I went downstairs, I was treated to a very awkward situation: Mr. Cake was actually in the process of proposing to Cup, and I kind of walked in on it. Luckily, she was two seconds away from saying “Yes,” so I didn’t ruin the moment completely, at least.

They left to tell their families and friends, and I stayed behind to look after the place, not that it needed looking after today. I just wanted to think for a while. All this, time, I had been trying to suppress my emotions from the 10 days, and I wanted to scream out how I felt.

I wanted the world to hear that I was in love with Lightning Runner.

Love Always,
Surprise ^_^