//------------------------------// // Afterparty Blues // Story: A Show Full of Surprises // by Soothing Stone //------------------------------// Sunset still couldn’t believe there was an actual Pinkie Pie clone in Sugarcube Corner. And she was in a full-blown pony disguise hidden right in front of everypony. Her first thought was to go straight to Twilight and tell her what she just discovered. Then again, doing so in the middle of a party might not be the best idea. She peeked her head back out the door. The party remained normal enough, at least for a party thrown by Pinkie. Of course, the first ponies she saw were the two ponies she saw in her vision, Trixie and ‘Surprise’. They looked like they were having a good time. At least, Surprise was. Surprise kept bouncing off her tail like it was made out of rubber. Sometimes, she would bounce off the walls, and she had a giant smile on her face the whole time. However, Trixie was unmoved. Oh sure, she was smiling as well, but she wasn’t joining in on the festivities. She remained in her seat with Starlight.  Noting that, Surprise landed perfectly on her hooves in front of them. “What’s wrong, Trixie? Are you bored? Unhappy? We could do something else. Would that make you happy?” The whole time, Sunset sat back and observed the pegasus. She still felt like an idiot for not seeing it earlier. Surprise had the exact same mane and tail style as Pinkie, and she also defied the laws of physics, just because. They even had the same voice. How is it that Twilight looked right at Surprise and didn’t get it earlier? “Oh no, Trixie is never upset or unhappy,” Trixie responded. “She just doesn’t do dancing. All those moves, ugh, it’s like I was born with four left hooves!”  “Oh.” Surprise’s mane deflated a little bit. “Hmm... maybe there’s something else we can do.” She scanned the area with her eyes, and she spotted rows and rows of cakes nearby. “We could eat cake together! Does that sound fun?” “Ooooh, that I can do!” Pinkie rushed in and picked up a cake of her own, one covered with maybe a little too much vanilla frosting. Without further adieu, she dropped it off at their table. “Go ahead and eat up!” There were already plates and silverware on the table, as if she knew this was going to happen today.  “You know what, you go ahead,” Starlight noted. Despite that, she cut up a couple of pieces for Trixie and Surprise and handed them off to her friends. “I had a big dinner.” The whole time, she noticed Sunset standing nearby, not saying much. “You okay? You left in a hurry.”  Sunset gulped; she didn’t want to be put on the spot like this. Not when she knew what she just learned, at least. “Yeah, I’m okay. Just some stomach issues. You girls mind if I leave for now? I don’t wanna drag things down like that. See you guys around?” “Not at all! It was nice meeting you!” Surprise dug her face into the slice of cake, and it was uncanny how she even ate like Pinkie, something that really stood out to Sunset. “See ya.” Sunset would close the door behind her as she left, and she was going to have a lot to think about.  Meanwhile, Surprise kept mindlessly eating at her cake, and she was so quick, Pinkie was debating if she needed to make more cakes soon. In comparison, Trixie was slow and careful with her bites, almost reminding her of a proper Canterlot mare. Although, it would stand out to the pegasus how Starlight was merely staring at the cake. “It’s okay if you wanna eat some, too,” Surprise pointed out. “There’s enough for all three of us, and friends share, right?”  Starlight blinked. “You want to be my friend even though we just met?” She laughed from the thought. “Are you sure you and Pinkie aren’t long lost sisters? You’d be more like her than, you know, her actual sisters.”  The thought made Surprise stop in the middle of her bite. In fact, she came close to choking it out. “Heh heh heh, maybe! That would be a silly thought...” Her eyes drifted along to Pinkie, and the pink mare was already baking another cake. Please tell me she doesn’t know... “By the way, Trixie, what did you think of that Fire Trail spell they had going on?” Starlight inquired. “You said it could come in handy for your shows.” “It’s astounding. It’s beyond brilliant! Trixie must have it for her next show! I just have to figure out how to use it without burning my assistant to a crisp. I plan to keep her around, after all.”  Despite the niceties Trixie was offering her, Surprise felt her mane deflate a little more. The way Trixie and Starlight talked to each other so casually, it made her wonder things. “What do you mean?” “Well, it’s a spell that leaves trails of fire everywhere,” said Starlight. “It was originally meant for self defense, but some magicians have used it for shows recently.” “And since the Great and Powerful Trixie is the greatest magician of them all, she must use it!” Trixie exclaimed, and then she snarfed down another slice of cake. Off to the kitchen, Pinkie could spot it all the way from there. “Hey, Surprise, can you help me with the cake? I wanna get your thoughts about what kind of icing to use.” “Okay.” With a weight to her step, Surprise used her wings to hover over to the kitchen. She heard Trixie and Starlight chat away behind her shoulder, deflating her mane even more.  Once she got to the kitchen, it came as no surprise that it was just as massive as every other room in Sugarcube Corner. Down there, Pinkie had a freshly baked lemon cake, along with two vials of lemon and vanilla frosting. She was staring at the cake like it was a work of art, and just as deserving of attention as one. Yet, that wasn’t her main focus once Surprise came in. “You’re afraid that Trixie doesn’t really want to be your friend, even though you really want her to be your friend?” Surprise blinked. “How did you know?” “Er, Pinkie Sense or something like that.” Pinkie grabbed two spoons, gave one spoon vanilla frosting and the other lemon, and handed them over to Surprise for testing. “Don’t worry about it. She loves you!” Surprise sighed and tested out both flavors. “Lemon’s better. I’m just scared that Starlight is going to take Trixie away from me. I know that’s selfish, but Trixie means so much to me!” Pinkie nodded and started to frost the cake with lemon icing. “Let me guess. Is she so close to you as a friend, it’s like having a sister?” “Exactly! She helped me in a really rough spot, and I love doing those shows with her. I just want things to stay the way they are between us. But, I don’t know. She’s doing so well with Starlight...” Pinkie shifted around to use her mane to grab the frosting and set it over the cake, and she patted Surprise on the back. “Starlight likes you, too. And didn’t you say you wanted to make new friends?” “Yeah. I just hope Trixie’s still my friend.” “I think she will. Just give it a chance! And everypony usually has two or more friends. Ooooh, what if all three of you are friends?” “Then that would be like...” Surprise somehow counted things on her front hooves. “Like nine friendship possibilities. Because that means Trixie has two friends in me and Starlight, I’m friends with Starlight and Trixie, and Starlight has friends in me and Trixie! Whew, talk about tough math.” Pinkie giggled and patted Surprise on the back. “It comes with time.” She picked up the cake and rested it on her back. “Come on, there’s still a party to look forward to!”  Surprise sighed a bit. “Yeah. And I do wanna have fun with my friends...” ***** As soon as the coast was clear, Sunset made a beeline over to Twilight’s castle. Her mind was racing with thoughts, namely, what to do about all of this. Should she say anything? Was it best to simply let it be? No. Something was at work here, and she had to do something about it. It wouldn’t take long for her to arrive at Twilight’s castle. She checked around the rooms to figure out where the library was. With how rarely she came over here, she had a hard time figuring out which room led to what around here. No matter. She was still going to try. However, she bumped into the purple alicorn herself. Twilight had a few books at her disposal, of course, along with a cup of coffee. “Sunset? What are you doing here?” Sunset flinched. “I could ask the same about you. I thought you were at the party.” “Yeah, but I just remembered I had some stuff to rearrange back here, and I was getting a little tired, so I left early. In fact, I was just about to start a study session. If you like, you can join, too.” Sunset was astonished by the amount of books, but she shook her head. “That’s fine. I was actually looking for the central library around here. Do you know where it is from here?” “The central library? I suppose it would be hard to find from here. Just take the first door on the left, then the second door on the right, and you’ll see it up front.” Twilight sipped at her mug. “Which book are you looking for?” Sunset was hesitant to show her hoof so quickly, when she didn’t even know all the facts herself. “Just browsing. I know you have a massive library.” She went on her way, but she stopped and turned to Twilight. “What do you know about Surprise?” “Is that what this is about? Well, I just met her. I know she works for Trixie and they’re friends. Somehow, she reminds me a lot about Pinkie. You know, high energy, bounces around, things like that. Why do you ask?” “Just wanted to make sure.” Sunset knew Twilight would be a little weirded out, but she still went on her way. She remembered Twilight’s instructions and went down the halls of Twilight’s castle. Surely, she would have something resembling answers up ahead. Soon enough, she ended up in Twilight’s library. Just as she remembered, it was a massive library with hundreds, likely thousands of books. She had no idea where to start, but she knew what she was looking for. She just needed to dig her hooves in and get to work. So she began to flip through all the books about magical artifacts and such. It would take her a while before she felt like she was even remotely close to her goal. There were just so many books to flip through. At least she had magic on her side, making it easy to search them all. However, one book stood out to her. She wasn’t sure if it was what she was looking for, so she sat down with it and searched it over. Then she came to one passage, and she knew this was it. It had to be. Now lost to history, the Mirror Pool was notorious in the early days of Luna’s banishment. It was said that a pony could stare at it and cite a poem, and out would come a clone of the pony from the lake. The clone would resemble the original in several ways. Over time, it was discovered that the clone had its own traits. Rather than be an identical clone of the original, it would have only the base traits of the original’s personality. Say, if a pony was violent but also showed restraint when needed, the clone would mercilessly attack anypony nearby.  As a result, it was decreed that the Mirror Pool would be sealed off from the rest of the world. It is still believed to exist near the land that would later become Ponyville, but nopony knows its exact location. Given the lack of reports on it, and no signs of its existence in centuries, some believe it might have just been a myth… “So that’s what’s going on. Surprise really is a clone of Pinkie... but she doesn’t seem to be a ‘base’ version of her, either,” Sunset noted. “But Twilight and the others don’t know, and of course Trixie wouldn’t tell them.” And yet, she was left speechless after her own little notes. What was she supposed to do about this? Tell Twilight? Send Surprise back to the Mirror Pool? She had no idea. This was going to take some time to figure out.