//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: All The Feels // Story: An Unexpected Surprise // by Salnalus //------------------------------// A few minutes later from that interesting conversation, and Trixie and the new Surprise made their way out of the carriage into Manehatten. They were still just outside the park, though some distance from it. The blue unicorn was simply walking normally, but the white pegasus was tempted to try out her new wings. She did loop-de-loops and flips, and weaved through ponies standing around them, though she was doing everything rather clumsily, most likely an effect of the spell. All of them got rather annoyed, and Trixie just rolled her eyes at the immaturity. “Surprise, front and center!” She pointed her hoof downward at the ground in front of her. As soon as Surprise heard her, she flew back down to the showpony and landed in front of her perfectly, saluting her. “Do not forget, Trixie only gave you those wings as part of your disguise. I can remove them if I so please, so listen to Trixie and do as I say, and you can keep your wings.” “Yes sir, ma’am sir!” Surprise swung her hoof forward, completing her salute. Trixie turned back away from her, and toward the city. “Good, then here's the plan. You agreed to be Trixie's assistant in her magic shows, but Trixie must come up with tricks that can be performed on another pony. Trixie does not get many volunteers for her shows, even when ponies are called out. That is where you come in.” Surprise nodded as if she understood, though Trixie questioned whether or not she could really understand given the simple mind she had being a clone of a rather simple-minded pony. “There must be some sort of library here in this city where Trixie can research some spells to use for magic shows. Go find one, and make haste, so commands Trixie!” she demanded as she stomped her hoof on the ground. Surprise grinned widely and shot up into the air. How can anypony like that mare be so cheery all the time? Trixie thought. If you don't account for a few minutes ago, of course. I can't imagine anypony who could give birth to that hyperactive mess of a pink pony and live with it. Seriously, it's like she has no common sense. Her mind is one hundred percent immaturity and nonsense. If she was this bad now, Trixie can't imagine how she was as a little filly... It wasn't until six seconds later from her clumsy takeoff that she crashed onto the ground face-first. Trixie facehoofed at the foolish performance, and walked up to the ungraceful pegasus. “You embarrass Trixie. Can you not keep yourself up?” Surprise pulled her face up with a hoof, which looked as flat as a pancake. It took a second to form back to normal before Surprise noticed Trixie standing before her. “Woo, that was fun! Can we do it again, can we? Can we? Can we?” “No!” Trixie barked. “You were supposed to be flying up to look for a library in this city. Get back up there and search some more.” Surprise giggled and snorted. “Oh please, I don't need to do that!” Trixie's eye twitched. “What do you mean, you don't need to do that? Are you disobeying Trixie?” “Hold on, I didn't finish. I was going to say I don't need to do that because I already found one! It should be right over in that direction!” She turned to her left and pointed a hoof down the street. “It should be that way for maybe, I don't know... half a mile? Something like that. What are we looking for there? Ooh ooh, is it a bedtime story? A drawing book? A foal's tale?” “Silence!” Trixie held out a hoof to quiet the hyper pony, and it seemed to work. “Trixie shall not have to repeat herself again. We are going there to find some spell books so that Trixie may find something to improve her magic shows.” “Aww, it's going to be just a boring old book, isn't it?” Surprise complained as she crossed her hooves while keeping herself afloat with her wings. She looked pretty annoyed, but it was hard to compare to Trixie's expression. “Just lead the way, or Trixie shall remove your wings.” Surprised gasped, and lowered her ears sadly and worriedly. “I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make things bad. I'll stop.” She turned away, and started flying toward the direction of the library, with Trixie following close behind. Out of all ponies, Trixie couldn't believe that she would actually use this pony to assist her, but in due time, all her work would pay off. After about twenty minutes of walking, or flying in Surprise's case, they stopped at the city library. The white building stood tall before them before one of them spoke to break the silence. “See, what did I tell you? I found the library. I win! Can we play again?” Surprise grinned. “No, this is no game, Surprise. This is serious business. We will go in there, find whatever we can, and get out,” Trixie stated calmly. She wasn't going to let Surprise get the best of her. She was going to stay focused on the task at hand. “Alright, let's go inside. And remember, no goofing off.” She sighed before walking forward. Surprise landed on the ground and folded in her wings, walking forward herself. She was about to head in when a butterfly drifted by her face and flew to her left. She started to follow it until she felt a slight tug on her tail. She looked back to see a purplish glow surrounding it, followed by a voice. “Surprise, stop getting distracted and get in here!” Trixie yelled while releasing her magic on Surprise's tail. She sighed sadly as she walked inside of the large building. Compared to how it looked outside, the library from inside was enormous. It didn't compare to Canterlot's royal library, but it was still rather huge. Thousands of shelves were lined up everywhere, filled with books of just about every subject. It was basically a paradise for just about any librarian. “This library is perfect! Surely, Trixie will find what she needs in here. Now let's look for the section... Surprise?” Trixie looked back to find that Surprise was gone. She mentally facehoofed as her frustration grew. “I swear to Celestia, that pony doesn't know when to listen...” the unicorn groaned. Looking to the right, she saw a faint white blur speed through some of the bookshelves. She followed the blur until she saw Surprise sitting down in a chair by a table reading through a book. “Ooh, there he is!” she exclaimed as she flipped to the next page. After scanning the pages for about five seconds, she spoke again. “There he is! I love this game!” “Put that book back! We are not here to mess around, you oaf.” “Ok ok, sorry.” Surprise got up from her seat and returned the book back to where she found it. Trixie sighed. “Look, Trixie is sorry for trying to be so demanding, but we need to focus and find something that will help Trixie improve her magic shows. Can you do that?” She looked back through the shelves, hoping to find something, and Surprise kept up with her. “Sure I can! Anything for a friend.” Then the unicorn stopped, and looked back at Surprise. If anything, Trixie looked quite surprised herself. “W-What did you just call me?” “A friend.” Surprise replied reassuringly. “Isn't that what we are? Friends?” Trixie didn't get it. Nopony had ever wanted to be her friend before. They always looked at her as just a showpony, and nothing more. Perhaps somepony to admire and look in awe at the amazing magic shows, and other times as somepony who is just rather boastful. But to actually feel as if somepony cared about her enough to be a friend? That couldn't be possible. It was just too ridiculous for Trixie. Surprise noticed Trixie just staring at her with a blank face, and she tilted her head in confusion. “Hello? Equestria to Trixie! Are you ok?” That snapped Trixie back to reality, feeling like she woke up from a brief dream, and a ridiculous one at that. She shook her head to clear it from all previous thoughts. “Right... let's just look for what we came here for.” She started to walk away, but not without those thoughts clouding her mind again. Just what was Trixie feeling? That was never felt before. Was it good? Maybe it was just nothing. She cleared her mind once more as she noticed how all the shelves were arranged. “They are in order by genre, then alphabetically. This section is purely fiction. We are looking for...” She looked around a corner, and spotted a sign above hanging from the ceiling. Trixie beamed upon reading what it said. “There! That's where we'll find the book we need. Come along.” She trotted forward, but Surprise was getting distracted instead. When Trixie looked back, she saw her reading another book, though this one looked even bigger, and she was near a bookshelf of another genre: Myth. “Ooh, genies are cool! Funny how the old ponies called them jinn. I mean, they're genies! But I wonder why they appeared only in... Saddle Arabia? Weird.” The book suddenly glowed that same glow from earlier and placed itself back in the shelf. Surprise looked back at Trixie in a saddened state once more. It was like she wasn't allowed to have fun, and it was no fair. She just followed Trixie again. This time, they kept going until they reached the place Trixie was most likely to find what she needed. “Perfect! Now Surprise, look for any sort of spell that might be of use to Trixie. Stay focused this time, and remember--” “Found one!” Surprise exclaimed surprisingly loudly. Some of the other ponies nearby shushed her as an indicator to keep her voice down. “Whoops, sorry.” She grinned nervously at everypony, who went about their own business afterward. She then turned her attention back toward Trixie, who was searching through the shelves. Her eyes moved up and down and all around, her head moving about to find what she needed. And then her eyes laid upon something that seemed interesting enough. Her horn glowed, and the book slid out of the shelf and floated in front of her and Surprise. “Illusory Compositions: Everything You've Wanted To Know About Illusions. This seems perfect!” The book seemed quite large in Surprise's eyes. “I don't know, Trixie... look at how big it is! I bet it's real boooooring!” “Hush, you,” Trixie demanded. “Trixie intends on learning from this book. I know a lot of illusory magic already, but this book may hold secrets. It might even make me better than Twilight Sparkle!” “Ooh, really? If you can be better than Twilight, it'll make you a legend!” Surprise threw up her forelegs in excitement. “Everypony will know the name, 'The Great and Powerful Trixie! Come see her astounding shows with awe-inspiring tricks and spectacular performances!'” Trixie was imagining it now. Fans cheered her name as she stood above them all, taking in their admiration. Ponies asked for her autograph as she wore a confident expression. Even Twilight was looking up at her with amazement at what she accomplished. It filled Trixie's eyes with stars. “That's it. We are taking this book, and we are going to learn from it. No doubt that this plan Trixie thought of was brilliant. Trixie will become the most powerful unicorn in all of Equestria!” Trixie laughed maniacally, though a little too much. The other ponies shushed her this time, and Surprise made a small giggle at the funny scene. Oh, shush me now, but you will soon be cheering for Trixie later. “Looks like we'll be staying here a while, Surprise,” Trixie stated. “We shall practice these moves, and then Trixie shall be famous. Let us go.” “Ooh wait, what about this book?” Surprise interrupted. “Trixie said you shouldn't be distracted...” Trixie started to say until she laid her eyes on the book the hyper pegasus was holding. It looked pretty ancient, though it seemed very authentic. The title read, Advanced Magic Theories. “Does this seem promising enough?” Surprise asked. “Well... Trixie had her doubts about you. For once, you did something smart.” Surprise grinned widely at the compliment. Trixie led the way to the front of the library while Surprise held the books on her head. How she was able to do that without dropping either of them, Trixie did not know, and would rather not think about lest she be confused about it for the next few minutes. After paying for the renting of the books, the unlikely duo made their way outside and towards the park. Trixie was pretty excited to be able to expand her magical prowess, while Surprise was excited to spend more time with somepony she thought of as her new friend.