Suddenly, Crystal was showered with confetti. Surprised, she turned to look at the pink stranger, who had a big smile on her face and was holding a cannon in her hooves. The room was now littered with confetti, balloons, streamers, and a pink tablecloth that had fallen on the floor.
“SURPRISE!” the earth pony shouted. “Do you like how I re-made my party cannon? Now it's completely silent when it fires off! But I was thinking of changing it so it plays music when I fire it, or maybe it should shoot out a radio that automatically plays music!”
“What are you talking about?” Crystal shouted over the pony's babbling. “Who are you?”
The pink mare stopped talking for a moment, observing Crystal. “I'm Pinkie Pie, and you're Surprise, one of my bestest friends in the world.” She explained seriously, “But why don't you recognize me? And why can other ponies see you?”
“What do you mean, 'other ponies see me'? And I'm not your bestest friend- I just met you a few seconds ago.”
“Of course you're one of my bestest friends.” Pinkie explained, “We met when we were just little fillies on the rock farm! Remember? I saw the rainbow and threw my party, and I saw you out the window so I went to talk with you! I introduced you to my parents but they said they couldn't see you and said that I had an imaginary friend. But you're not imaginary! You're Surprise!”
“Listen, I don't know what you'r-” suddenly, Crystal stopped. Was she about to toss away an opportunity like this? An identity was practically being hoofed to her! “You know what, I think I do remember you.”
Pinkie's smile got even wider. “Really?”
“Really.” Crystal gave a big, fake smile. “But I don't remember much after I got hurt. Can you remind me?”
Pinkie nodded and sat down. She raised a hoof and opened her mouth to speak when the door flung open. “Pinkie!” the nurse from earlier ran in. “What is all this racket?”
“I'm sorry, Nurse Redheart, but I wanted to visit my friend.” Pinkie explained.
The nurse face-hoofed. “Pinkie, you're always causing trouble in this hospital! We've gotten noise complaints every time you visit!”
“I know, I'm sorry.”
“One more recovering patient woken up, and you could very well be kicked out of the hospital.”
Pinkie Pie nodded. “I'll be quiet, I promise.”
“Good.” The Nurse turned and started to trot out the door.
Pinkie sighed and leaned against the party cannon. She accidentally hit the fuse, which seemed to act more like a button, and there was a loud bang. Crystal couldn't see Nurse Redheart under all the confetti, balloons, and the tablecloth, but could tell she was angry.
“Hehe,” Pinkie laughed nervously. “thought I'd fixed the noise.”
Nurse Redheart threw off the tablecloth, revealing her white face; now red with anger. Pinkie choose that moment to flee. “See ya, Surprise!” she called as she ran down the hallway, pursed by the angry nurse.
Crystal face-hoofed. She let the hoof slowly slide down her face before staring at the party cannon. She reached out a hoof and poked the fuse. It silently shot out a cloud of confetti and balloons, making the mess in the room even bigger. “I'm pretending to be the imaginary friend of an insane pony obsessed with parties?” she asked herself out loud. “And she invents cannons that shoot out party supplies?”
She thought about this statement for awhile. “I'm not sure if this will be fun or disastrous.”
-
Pinkie sat at Sugarcube Corner's counter, waiting for customers. She heard the sounds of hooves outside, and perked her ears. She hadn't gotten a customer all day; most came in the morning and she had been off pranking since 6:00 am till 3:00 pm. Except when she had trotted past the hospital window and seen Surprise sitting there. Then she had gone in, talked with her, and been banned from the hospital. But only for a week.
The hoofsteps got closer until finally a yellow hoof opened the door and Fluttershy walked into the bakery. “Hello, Pinkie Pie.” the shy pegasus greeted her friend in her usual quiet voice.
“Hiya, Fluttershy.” Pinkie said, “What can I get ya?”
“Do you have any cherry cupcakes? I promised Angel that I would get him his favorite cupcakes.”
“Cherry cupcakes, comin' right up!” Pinkie trotted off into the kitchen in search of the treats. She opened the cabinet, but found none. She opened a box on the counter, but found none. She opened the fridge, but found none. She went into the storage area, but found none. “I guess I'll just have to make them!”
Fluttershy sat in the main room of Sugarcube Corner, waiting for Pinkie to retrieve the treats. The sight of her pink friend had caused something to occur to her; she looked a lot like the pony she had saved earlier. The colors were off, but she had the same three balloons cutie mark (but all of her's was purple in contrast to Pinkie's yellow and blue) , the same puffy hair and tail, and the same eyes. But the stranger had been white with yellow hair, and had been a pegasus.
Suddenly, Fluttershy heard a clattering from the kitchen and left to investigate. She found Pinkie, covered in red cupcake batter, stuffing a tray into the oven. “Pinkie, you don't have to make a new batch just for me.” the pegasus said, “I could come back later when you have more...”
“No, it's not a problem!” Pinkie insisted, kicking the oven closed. “You're the only customer I've had all day! I was getting bored and I needed something to do, anyways!”
Fluttershy glanced out the door, in the direction of the hospital. “Well, if you're bored, there's a pony at the hospital who looks kinda like you. If she's awake and wouldn't be bothered, you could go visit her...”
“I've already seen her, silly.” Pinkie said. “Her name is Surprise. She's an old friend of mine.”
“You know her already? That's nice.”
Suddenly, a bell rang to signal somepony walking through the door s of Sugarcube Corner. Pinkie trotted out of the kitchen to see who it was.
“Maybe we should ask Twilight Sparkle about it, Muffin.” a gray pegasus said, speaking to a similarly gray unicorn filly. “She might know a spell.”
“That's be great, mom!” the filly bounced excitedly. “Hi, Pinkie Pie!”
“Hi, Dinky!” Pinkie greeted the filly. “Hiya, Derpy!” she greeted the pegasus.
Derpy's yellowish eyes were crossed, but even so she held a normal expression on her face. “Muffins.” she said simply.
“Gotcha.” Pinkie ducked into the kitchen, grabbing a ready-made box full of a dozen muffins. She set it down on the counter in front of Derpy, who took them and dropped them in her saddlebags.
“Hey Pinkie, you're still going to give me baking lessons tomorrow, right?” Dinky asked.
“Of course!” Pinkie ruffled the filly's mane. “You'll make a great baker!”
“She's also going to magic school.” Derpy said proudly, “And I was going to ask Twilight Sparkle to give her a few private lessons, since she's better at magic than any other pony in her class.”
“That's great!” Pinkie clapped her hooves. Then she heard a beeping coming from the kitchen. The oven was done, and this time she wouldn't accidentally start a fire! She hated it when she started a fire because it made the Cakes angry. She didn't like to disappoint the Cakes. “Gotta get that.” she raced into the kitchen, where Fluttershy was still sitting.
Pinkie pulled the tray of cupcakes out of the oven, laying them carefully on the counter. She closed the oven, then grabbed the white frosting. She took the cherry-red cupcakes and started spreading the soft, tasty frosting on them. When she was done making sure they were all perfect, she put away the frosting and grabbed the jar of cherries from the fridge. She then carefully set on in the exact middle of each one.
The earth pony took all the cupcakes out of the tray and put them in a decorative box, tying it securely. “I know how much Angel likes them when they're perfect!” Pinkie explained to Fluttershy, mostly to keep her from telling the party pony not to work so hard for her.
“Thank you.” Fluttershy took the string wrapped around the box in her mouth and walked out the building, towards her cottage.
-
The next day, Nurse Redheart woke Crystal. “Miss Surprise, we'd like you to get ready to leave.”
“Leave?” Crystal mumbled, sleepily. “Leave for where?”
“You explained that you were a friend of Pinkie Pie.” the nurse explained, “Since Pinkie Pie is the only one who knows you, we think that you would be safest with her.”
“Wait, why am I leaving the hospital?” Crystal asked, waking up a bit more.
Redheart sighed. “Without family, a bank, or any money of any kind on you, you can't afford the hospital. Since your injuries are no longer life-threatening, we can't keep you here any longer. We've informed Mr. and Mrs. Cake on how to take care of you. It's all rest and medicine, so you should be fine. Just stay off those wings for at least a week.”
“When do I leave?”
“As soon as the Cakes and Pinkie Pie come to pick you up.” Then the nurse turned to leave the room, mumbling, “And I hope Pinkie will keep quiet, I hope she doesn't forget she's supposed to be banned from the hospital...”
-
“It's okay, Crystal.” the changeling said aloud to herself. She sat up in her bed, waiting. The nurse said that these ponies named the 'Cakes' would be coming any minute. She had no idea who they were, but she knew Pinkie. A little bit. “I'm sure you can keep your cover. I'm sure these... 'Cakes' are nice ponies who won't find out you're not really Pinkie's friend since foalhood.”
Trying to avoid panic, Crystal hopped off her bed and began to pace the room. It was still filled with three tablecloths, at least fifteen balloons, and a ton of confetti. After she tripped the third time, Crystal realized that walking without the sight of her right eye was difficult; no depth perception.
She stepped forward, putting her weight on the hoof on the ground, making sure not to accidentally shift he weight before her hoof was in the correct place. She did the same with the next hoof. And the next hoof. Then she started the cycle over again, trying to get used to walking without all her eyesight.
Suddenly, she heard a voice and nearly fell over. She instinctively tried to fly, but the sharp pain in her wings reminded her that they were broken.
“Are you okay, dear?” asked the voice. Crystal turned around to see two ponies in the doorway. One was a short, blue earth pony mare with a pink, swirly mane and tail. The other was a taller, yellow earth pony stallion with a short, orange mane and tail
“Yes, I'm fine.” Crystal said. It was a lie; her wings were burning like heck.
“I'm Cup Cake and this is my husband, Carrot Cake.” the female introduced herself and the stallion. “We heard you were a friend of Pinkie Pie and that the hospital couldn't care for you anymore, so we came by to pick you up.”
“You're gonna stay with us until you're all better!” a familiar voice shouted. A pink form hopped over Cup and Carrot into the room. It was Pinkie Pie. “It'll be so much fun!”
“Yeah.” Crystal fake-smiled. “Sounds like fun to me.”
“Please tell me you know how to make muffins!” Pinkie said, “I'm teaching a friend of mine's daughter how to bake muffins, and I might need your help!”
Crystal and Pinkie followed the Cakes out of the hospital while they talked. “I really don't know how to bake that well.” Crystal sighed.
Pinkie waved a dismissive hoof. “Oh well, I'll teach ya!”
-
When Crystal finally made her way back to where Pinkie and the Cakes lived; a place called 'Sugarcube Corner', she was surprised. There were pictures of various types of sweets all over the walls and the whole place smelled like cupcakes and sugar.
“This is the main room.” Pinkie said, giving Crystal a tour. “This is where customer come in to order something- or pick up daily orders!” She trotted around the counter of the main room and into another room behind it. Crystal carefully followed, stilling tripping every few steps.
“This is the kitchen where we bake all the yummy treats that everypony buys!” Pinkie said the moment Crystal made it to the door. “Surprise, we used to make so many cupcakes back at the rock farm! I hope you can remember that!”
Crystal smiled awkwardly and nodded. “O-of course I do.” she said, a little too quickly.
Pinkie didn't seem to notice. Instead, she walked out of the kitchen and towards a staircase. Crystal didn't notice, but this time Pinkie slowed to match the changeling's pace. While they walked up the stairs, the Crystal took the time to observe Pinkie. She mane always bounced, even when she was walking normally. Her eyes were very light blue, reminding the her of what newborn changelings' eyes looked like. Of course, her eyes had always been green-ish, like her mother's. In fact, she looked exactly like a smaller version of her mother in her changeling form.
“Hey, Surprise!” Pinkie waved a hoof in front of Crystal's face, bringing her out of her thoughts. “You went real quiet there for a bit!”
“Oh, yeah, I was just thinking.” Crystal faked a smile and trotted forward into the room in front of her. Pinkie followed her. The room seemed to raise the changeling's spirits just by being in it. The walls were a bright pink with balloon and candy stickers all over. Many different party decorations were hung about, despite the fact that no party was going on. A pink mattress with yellow and blue balloon decorations on it was in a corner. Another mattress, this one normal and white, was in the other corner.
“Do you like it?” Pinkie asked, bouncing with excitement. “I just repainted a few days ago! And that's where you're going to sleep.” she pointed at the white mattress. “Don't worry; I put the comfiest blankets on it!”
“It does look comfy.” Crystal said, observing the fluffy blankets as if she was really interested. She didn't care how comfy they were; she just wanted to lay down. Her legs were killing her. She climbed into the bed and lay down, and instantly felt as if she could never sit up again. “Wow! This is comfortable! I don't think I'll ever get up again.” she added jokingly.
“Aww, but you can't just sit in a bed forever.” Pinkie said. “I want to introduce you to all my friends!”
“Maybe later, Pinkie.” Crystal sighed, “For now, I just want to rest.”
Pinkie's smile faded. “Oh... okey doki.” she said. She trotted downstairs, leaving Crystal to lay down.
She seems different than I remember. Pinkie thought. The Surprise I remember would fly upside-down and jump around; she would never be sad or angry, she was always happy. But something seems off about Surprise now. Then she shook her head to dismiss the thoughts. No, of course she's still the same. She's just tired because she got hurt. Maybe I should cheer her up... PARTY!
To be continued...