Pinkie's Surprise Quest

by Shaded Changeling

Hive or Bust

Surprise was fidgeting around, he couldn’t help it. There were two main reasons why, he wanted to meet with the Queen and his Hive and he was nervous about entering the city. It wasn’t as bad as with Canterlot, since he had been to Manehatten before, but it was still present.

As Surprise looked out of the window, he saw the buildings in the distance, the large body of water and the bridges. He let out a sigh. Manehatten had been a good town for him to stay in, plenty of ponies, plenty of small alleyways and areas to hide them for the day. Plenty of escape routes too.

He had spent a long time there he wasn’t sure how long. But seeing those tall buildings reminded him what he went through, and what he had now.

“Hey, Surprise, you getting hungry?” Pinkie asked, looking at the catalogue again.

“A little bit. You want an apple?”

“Yes please.” Surprise reached into his saddlebag and found the bag of apples, taking out two of them while tossing one to Pinkie. They both took big bites out of the apples, before Pinkie put the catalogue away. “So… I’ve been wondering. What are you planning to do if it turns out they are your Hive?”

Surprise blinked. “I… I don’t know…”

“Didn’t think that far ahead did we?”

No… I didn’t…

“Well?”

Surprise sighed. “I… I guess I could go back to them…”

Pinkie nodded. “I would understand. Just make sure you write.” Pinkie replied.

“But… I don’t know if I want to…” Surprise continued. “You’re the first pony who opened up to me. And… You’re like my family now. Look what you did for me. How many other ponies would honestly do this for a Changeling?”

“I just thought that you deserved to meet them, it’s what any good friend would do.”

Surprise smiled as he bit into the apple again, then put it down and pounced onto Pinkie, wrapping her in a hug. “You know that you are like my sister for doing this.” Surprise’s eyes widened. “Oh my Queen! I could have a sister!” Surprise jumped off Pinkie. “I could have a Brother! I never even thought about that! What do I say to them? How would they react? Would I even know if they were my brothers? Oh Celestia! What if I have a twin?”

Pinkie put her hoof on his shoulder. “Let’s work on just finding them first.”

Surprise took a deep breath. “Right, need to make sure they are around before worry… WHAT IF I’M AN UNCLE?” Surprise fell to the ground, his eye twitching slightly.

Pinkie giggled before walking over to Surprise and lifting him up, dusting him off. “Take deep breaths, Surprise. We’ll deal with that later.” Surprise nodded.

“Now… I think I just need to… Eat a bit and… Do you have any water?”

Pinkie reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a bottle of water. Surprise took a drink from it before reaching back over for his apple taking another big bite out of it. “So, what do you want to do first?” Pinkie asked. “We could go to get some lunch when we arrive, or we could head straight there. What do you want to do?”

“I… Think it would be best to just head there right away. See if we can catch her before she goes somewhere… You do know the address right?”

Pinkie nodded. “Shouldn’t be too difficult to find them, I’ve got the catalogue right here. It has their address on it.”

Surprise sighed. “Hopefully we don’t get separated again.”

“Don’t worry, I made sure not to get the bottomless soda, AND I went before we got on the train. I should be fine.”

Surprise nodded as he looked at the buildings around the train as it slowed. Pinkie grabbed her saddlebag and put it on, waiting for Surprise as the train came to a halt.

The two stepped off of the train, looking around the city curiously. Pinkie walked over to an information booth to get a map, and Surprise looked at the familiar streets. Taking a deep breath as he smelt the familiar atmosphere around him. He missed some of the days he spent here, some of them were easier than others, but he enjoyed them regardless.

Pinkie walked back over, a map in her front hooves. “So, if we go this way, it looks like it is the shortest route.”

Surprise looked at the map. “No… There should be a small alleyway here that should cut the time in half…”

Pinkie looked at Surprise. “I didn’t know you had a knowledge of Manehatten.”

“Well… I spent time here… But I can tell you that later.” Surprise said. “If we go through here… Maybe… five minutes?”

“But what if we go this way… The other way leads us to the back of the building, and then we would have to go to the other side of the street and circle around.”

Surprise blinked and looked at the map again. “Oh… You’re right.” He said. “I guess you should lead the way then.”

“Okie dokie, Loki.” Pinkie said, grabbing the map and beginning to lead Surprise through the crowds, all the while, Surprise’s mind began to wander back to his time in Manehatten.

Hey, do you remember our first day here?

“How could I forget…”

Surprise let out a small sigh as he thought back to that day.

---

I can do this… I can do this… Surprise thought to himself as he looked through the leaves at the tall city nearby. Just go in, grab somepony, and go.

Surprise sighed. “That’s an awful lot of lights though…” The city was lit up in so many ways, the big buildings all lit up, the streetlights all on and casting cones of light on the street below. Even the sky was lit up with the strange multi-colored beams in the air.

“What would Ardent say…” Surprise said.

“Direct approach is too risky, getting seen in the skies is too dangerous. It might be best to try and disguise as an animal at first.”

“I don’t have the energy…” Surprise mumbled.

“Well, coming at night was the best idea, could manage to confuse them. Though they would find out soon enough.”

Surprise shook his head. “I need some food… I’ll have to risk it…”

“Just stay out of sight. You get found, you’re in trouble.”

Surprise nodded as he slunk back into the bushes, slowly creeping along as he looked for the best place to move through. Finding a section of bushes he could dodge in between. As he neared the city, he looked out at the lighted streets, seeing a dark alley nearby, he rushed across the area and into the alley. “Now what?” He looked around the alley.

“Try to keep out of sight.”

Surprise looked out at the lit street, and then looked at the dark wall behind him. He let out a breath as he walked up to the wall, planting his hoof on it and letting a small amount of magic flow through it, sticking it to the wall. He lifted his hind legs and stuck those to the wall before beginning to climb up.

“The roofs are risky, stay away from the edge.”

“I know…” Surprise mumbled, focusing on the wall. As he reached the top, he flipped over the edge, landing on his hooves and looked around.

The sky was covered with stars and the moon’s face glowing down on him as he walked across the top of the building. “So… How do I do this again?”

He walked towards the edge of one of the buildings, lay down, and then took a deep breath, focusing on everything around him. He looked around, looking for the bright yellow flames around him. As he looked, he found the source of the biggest flame, located by a big opening in the buildings. Guess I’m going there.

“Just stay out of sight.”

Surprise crept away from the top of the square building, quickly running towards the edge of the building and jumping across the flat roof. Continuing to run until he found himself near the flame.

“We are going to have to cross the street.”

Surprise sighed as he crept towards the edge, looking down at the street. There were a few ponies around, but nothing really too… “HEY! What are you doing up here?”

Surprise squeaked as he turned to look at the source of the voice, a Stallion was standing in a doorway leading down to the building. “Get over here you little…”

Surprise stood up in alarm, his wings flying open as he jumped off the edge of the building, buzzing his wings to get across the gap, looking down to see a couple of ponies looking up at him. He sped up his wings so he could get to the other side quickly. As he landed, he looked back over towards the other side of the street, seeing the Stallion raising his hoof and shaking it. “Nice stealth job…”

“I don’t see you doing any better.” Surprise hissed.

“You don’t see me getting caught at all.”

Surprise sighed. “Do you think they recognized me as a Changeling?”

"Not sure. Might have just thought you were a Pegasus. No point worrying about it, we need food.”

Surprise nodded, he looked around and saw that the flames were only a little ways away. All he had to do was hop another building and climb down.

Surprise grinned as he walked over to the edge, walked back, and ran up to the edge, jumping across the gap. He walked over to the edge, looking down at the dark alley. He smiled as he saw no ponies and began to climb down the walls. As he reached the bottom, he looked around.

“Are you sure that this? I don’t see any ponies…”

“Relax; I’m sure there is nothing wrong… It’s just over here.” Surprise looked over at the source of the flame; strangely it looked like it was coming from behind a trashcan. He walked up to it and shifted around, looking behind it to see a small box. He grabbed the box and looked inside.

Inside were a number of small spherical crystals, each one glowing a bright yellow to him. Surprise licked his lips at the sight; there must have been several times the amount of joy that he ever got on his own. He picked up one of the gems, tossing it into his mouth and chewing it, feeling the Joy rush over him, filling him up as the warmth spread. He let out a chirp as he was filled up.

A loud clang brought him out of his trance. He turned around quickly to see a Unicorn staring at him, a pot on the ground in front of her as she stared in shock at the Changeling. “Uh…”

“RUN!”

Surprise didn’t need to be told again, he dropped the crystal and made a mad dash at the pony, dodging around before continuing to run.

“Wait!” the pony shouted turning and running after Surprise. Who didn’t hear what she said as he ran quickly into a forested patch in the middle of the city. He quickly ran through it and found a large tree, dashing up it and clinging to a higher up branch. He stopped shaking and just listened to the pounding of his heart, he heard the Pony run under him.

“Wait! Come back. I just want to talk to you!” The Unicorn ran past the tree, still looking for him.

Surprise spent the majority of that night hanging on that tree, waiting for the pony to leave. He wasn’t sure how long he stayed there, but the sun was up, and he found a lot of ponies that day, as he was a squirrel.

---

“Surprise?” Pinkie said, snapping in front of Surprise’s eyes, causing him to blink as he returned to the current time.

“Yeah?” Surprise asked.

“We’re here.” Pinkie said, pointing up at the large building, full of windows with the name Party Ballistics Incorporated on a sign above the doors. “What were you thinking about?”

Surprise shook his head. “Nothing… Just my time here before.”

Pinkie nodded. “Well, this is the moment of truth. Last chance to turn back?”

Surprise would be lying if he said he wasn’t thinking about running. Bolting away and never coming back… But he had gotten this far, and giving up now would only make the feelings worse. The only way to get over this was to see her. “I’m going in…”

Pinkie smiled as the two of them walked into the building, seeing the insides of the building. It was a fairly normal looking office building. The walls were off-white with a number of chairs around the area, and an orange Unicorn was sitting behind a reception desk.

As the two entered the Unicorn looked up from his work and cleared his throat. “May I assist you two in some way?” He said with a smile.

Pinkie walked up to him. “We would like to speak with the owner.”

“Do you have an appointment?” The Stallion asked.

“Well… No.” Pinkie admitted. "But I would like to bring a complaint directly to her in regards to the Mark Six Party Cannon.”

“Well, I can send your complaint to Manufacturing and they can see if they can fix the issue. If you would just allow us to have the Cannon variant and your address, we would happily replace it with the repairs present, free of charge.”

Pinkie rubbed her chin. “Well…” She shook her head. “No… I’m sorry, but we really need to see her.”

The Stallion raised an eyebrow. “For what reason?”

“It’s personal… and kind of important. You see, we travelled all the way from Ponyville to speak with her, and we won’t leave until we do.”

“Yes… Well, please give me your names.”

“Why?” Surprise asked. “Are you going to let us in?”

“No, I simply need to tell Miss Face who she should file the restraining order against.”

Pinkie frowned. “That’s not very nice…”

The Stallion sighed. “It’s a joke; I’m going to ask my Boss if she knows you. Maybe she could let you see her. I can’t do that without your names.”

“Pinkamena Diane Pie.” Pinkie replied. “And this is Surprise!” She reached over and pulled Surprise up to her. “Like I said, it is really important.”

“I’ll see if she’ll let you up, feel free to take a seat. It should only be a few minutes.”

Pinkie walked over to one of the chairs and sat down. Surprise decided to sit down on the chair next to her. “Do you think we’ll get in?”

“We should, Straight Face knows my name, I buy everything they produce, I’ve even been sent a couple letters by them saying how grateful they are.”

Surprise turned to look over at the Stallion as he wrote down a note on a piece of paper, when he was finished, he carefully folded the paper into a plane, lifting it up and inspecting it before tossing it. The airplane flew towards the two of them before tilting and turning in an arc before flying up a small chute.

Surprise blinked for a few seconds. “Wait… What?”

Pinkie just looked over at the chute. “Paper plane. The enchantment was made to help with memos getting spread across the office. Not many can use Spike and Celestia’s magic letter system.”

“Huh… I guess that makes sense…” Surprise said as another plane flew through the chute, flying in a circle before landing on the reception desk.

The Stallion picked up the plane and unfolded it, reading through it. He cleared his throat and then looked over at Pinkie. “Miss Pie, Straight Face will gladly see you now, her office is on the top floor. Stairs are to your right.”

Pinkie nodded as she stood up from her chair, Surprise following behind as they walked past the reception desk. Walking through another set of door, Surprise saw the rather blank bottom floor. It was a large room, without much in the ways of decoration or change. The only real interesting thing was the wooden floor, which looked like that of a gym. Surprise was led over towards another door, housing a large number of stairs.

“Is this really the only way up?” Surprise asked.

“Well, I heard they were going to put an elevator in for normal use, right now they just have one for the prototypes of cannons and inventions and that kind of stuff.”

Surprise nodded as they both began climbing the stairs. “How many floors are there?”

“Ten.” Pinkie replied. “The first floor is just reception and a big ol’ party room. We’ll climb these things in no time.”

Surprise nodded as they began walking up the stairs. Surprise looked around the blank walls in the staircase, giving him nothing to look at but the dark blue stairs with small circular raises to help with the grip. As he climbed each step, he got a strange exhilaration and nervousness. The best summary would be one internal conversation that he had around the fifth floor.
‘I’m finally going to meet her!’

“What if it isn’t her?”

‘I’ve finally found them!’

“Did I?”

‘I’ve never been this exited!’

“What if she doesn’t want me?”

‘Of course she would want me! I’m part of her family.’

“Then why didn’t she look for us?”

Surprise’s internal conflict continued, climbing each step slowly becoming a monumental achievement for him. He was going to find her, Pinkie had helped, she was the reason he was finally going to meet his Queen. He had to think of a way to repay her for that, after he got over the shaking legs.

By the time he had reached the final step, he was almost unable to walk due to the shaking in his hooves. His internal conflict continuing even as Pinkie started mutedly talking to him, he simply nodded and followed her into the room beyond.

Inside the floor was a small waiting room, a secretary sitting behind a desk, her small dark blue glasses on her head as she read a letter. The secretary was a dark yellow Earth pony with Amber eyes, as the two of them walked in; she glanced over at the two. “Ah, Miss Pie, Straight Face is waiting to talk to you and your friend.”

“She is just through there, right?” Pinkie asked, pointing at the door behind the secretary.

“Yes, she was quite interested to hear what our best customer has to say. Especially since you became a hero of Equestria.”

“Well, I can’t wait to finally meet her myself.”

The secretary nodded and went back to reading through the letters. Pinkie walked up to the door, turning back to Surprise. “Are you ready?”

Surprise took a deep breath, letting his legs sit still for a few minutes before nodding. Pinkie smiled back at him as she pushed open the door.

As the door slowly opened, Surprise’s heart began pounding with anticipation, every other sound cut out as his heart pounded in his ears, watching the opening door, thoughts swirling in his head, words he would say, tales to tell, what his Queen even looked like. As the door revealed more of the room beyond, Surprise’s entire body began to tighten up. He saw the window beyond, the corner of a desk, a potted plant and then…

He felt his heart fall.

Sitting behind the desk, clearly radiating an emotion of curiosity was a gray earth pony, her mane done into a bun behind her head. Her brown glasses over her blue eyes as she read over a couple papers in her hooves. As the door fully opened, the Earth pony looked over at them over her glasses and placed the papers on the desk. “Ah, Miss Pie. So good to finally meet you.”

Surprise hung his head as he walked in, Pinkie right next to him. “Hello!” Pinkie said, hopping up to the desk.

“My secretary told me you had an issue to report with the Mark Six,” The Earth Pony said. “I do hope that it was not a false statement, I have quite the schedule to keep.”

“Well, I did want to ask something…”

“Go right ahead, I have ten minutes.”

“Why are you releasing the cannons this soon?” Pinkie asked. “And why didn’t I get one?”

“Miss Pie, I understand that under my mother you were the top priority when it came to testing the newest products, however I believe that it is quite the risk sending you prototype explosive devices. These cannons were sent to those that paid before the cannon’s release. I did not wish to deal with the lawsuit that would have followed. Now what is the issue? I could have sworn I checked each and every cannon for…”

“Well the problem is that, I honestly have nothing to complain about.” Pinkie replied. “I just needed to see you really badly.”

“Oh?” Straight Face said. “And why is that?”

“Well, you see, we have a sneaking suspicion that you aren’t quite who you say you are…”

“Really?” Straight face replied, an air of sarcasm in her voice. “Then who am I?”

“Well, we actually think you are a Changeling Queen.” Pinkie said, smiling innocently.

Straight Face frowned. “You’re joking…” She looked between her and Surprise, stopping to look at Surprise. “Please tell me she is joking.”

Surprise shook his head.

Straight Face looked back over at Pinkie. “Would you care to explain where this assumption came from?”

Pinkie smiled. “Certainly.” She reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a blue notebook and a bubble pipe. “Well, I’m sure that you are aware of the Changeling Queens inside of Canterlot.”

“Who isn’t?” Straight replied. “It’s only one of the biggest news stories of the past month. How does that relate to me though?”

“Well, my friend, Surprise, here is a Changeling, but his Hive went missing a long time ago. But recently he has been feeling really sad and wants to find them, but since he never saw the Hive, we can’t go there. I found out that he was feeling bad about it a day ago. So I started thinking about how I could help cheer him up.”

“A noble gesture.” Straight replied. “But what led you to me?”

“Well, when I was thinking about how to make him happy, I thought that I could go and ask one of the Queens inside of Canterlot to see if they know anything.” Pinkie flipped through the notebook. “And so we did go and we talked to Queen Pupa.”

Straight was not impressed; she raised an eyebrow curiously but allowed Pinkie to continue, most likely trying to see how far she is willing to go.

“And so, when we went to see her, we had a talk about Surprise’s Hive and the Queen. She told us about how they had been trying to find the Hive and Queen by looking all over Equestria. There were only three places they hadn’t properly checked: Los Pegasus, Griffonstone, aaaaaaaand…”

Straight Face blinked a bit. “Manehatten?” She asked confused.

“Yupperunni!” Pinkie smiled.

“Yes… Well, if you haven’t noticed, Miss Pie, Manehatten is quite the city, how do you know that the Queen isn’t simply a baker, or even just a street cleaner?”

Pinkie’s smile widened. “I’m glad you asked.” She blew into the bubble pipe, making a few bubbles float out of the pipe. “Well, it turns out that the Queens recently had a meeting in Canterlot, and while Surprise’s Queen wasn’t there, she did send something.”

“Oh?” Straight Face replied. “And what would that be?”

Pinkie reached back into her bag, pulling out the catalogue of Party Ballistics Incorporated, she opened the catalogue to a page showing the Party Hat Poppers. “She sent THESE!” She pushed the catalogue up to Straight, who twitched slightly. “How do you explain that? The Party Hat Poppers were only just recently shown in the latest catalogue AND they aren’t to be released for months! How else could the Queen get a hold of these?”

Straight Face twitched as she looked at the page. She then closed her eyes while taking a deep breath and holding it in before letting out the breath, holding her professional attitude. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Miss Pie, I will be interrogating everypony within the development team. Rest assured that I will rectify this issue, if it indeed turns out that one of my employees have been stealing products, know that they will be punished for it.”

Pinkie rubbed her chin. “So… You didn’t notice when five of your experimental products went missing?”

Straight Face sighed. “No, I do not overlook every product that is released. I trust my employees and any issues are supposed to be handled by those that oversee the employees, my expertise is in cannons. My mother helped me with that.”

Pinkie rubbed her chin. “Interesting…” She blew a few more bubbles with her pipe.

“Well… This has been an interesting meeting, however I need to leave and…” Straight Face began to stand up, but Pinkie interjected.

“Well, there was one more thing that Pupa mentioned about Queen Eupha,” Pinkie said.

Straight Face let out a resigned sigh and sat back down. “And what was that?”

Pinkie got up and walked around the chair for a minute before putting her elbow on the desk. “Well, one thing she mentioned was that she was an amazing actor, even by Changeling Standards. What was it she said, Surprise?”

Surprise looked at Pinkie Pie and blinked before realizing she was talking to him. “Uh…Was it… The Emotion thing?”

“Yes. What was it she said again?”

“Umm… She said that Eupha is able to…” His eyes widened, “project emotions…”

“And… There is one thing that she said Eupha. One thing that she could never resist…” Pinkie said. “Something that always made her crack a smile, and that thing, will determine if you really are who you say you are.”

Straight Face raised an eyebrow. “And that would be?”

Pinkie smiled and lifted her tail, planting it on her chair before hopping on top of it, as she landed, a farting sound was emitted from beneath her.

Surprise looked over at Straight Face, who tried to keep an expression off her face, but the side of her mouth twitched a few times before slowly growing as she tried to stifle her laughs. She eventually let out a short snort before raising her hoof up to her mouth. After a few seconds of trying to hold it, she let out a laugh and slammed her hooves over her mouth.

Pinkie smirked. “As I thought.”

Straight Face sighed. “Curse my sense of humor…” She said. “Fine… I’ll admit it… You caught me.”

Surprise began grinning as his wings opened slightly.

“Now what do you plan to do with that information?” Straight Face asked. “Do you plan to go to the other Queens and tell them where I am?”

Pinkie blew a few more bubbles with her pipe. “Not exactly…”

Straight Face raised an eyebrow. “Then enlighten me.”

“Well, I was really curious why you just left Equestria. And why you left poor Surprise here all by himself.” Pinkie grabbed Surprise and pulled him over to her.

Straight Face sighed. “I think this is a discussion best held in private.”

The door opened as the Secretary walked in. “You requested me?”

“Yes, Invoice, I did.” Straight Face sighed. “Please clear my schedule, and tell anypony that I may have had meetings with, that I am taking care of personal ordeals.”

“Of course, Miss Face.” She replied, walking out of the room. When she was gone, Straight Face stood up and walked over to the side of the room, pulling on a rope that caused a blind to fall over the windows, sealing the room off from the outside world. She walked over to her desk, taking off her glasses and placing them on the table. “These aren’t my favorite things to wear, I don’t actually need them, but it helps confuse the rest of the Queens.”

She sat back down in her chair; her blue eyes turned a chartreuse color as she looked back at the two of them. “So, what do you want to know?”

Author's Note:

Would have had this up sooner... But something knocked the power and WI-Fi out for what seemed like an hour...

Comments

[Razzy]

Wooo, they found her! Can't wait to see what she says.

You dropped the o in of a few times.