Pinkie's Surprise Quest

by Shaded Changeling

Epilogue: Pinkie's Deliveries

Pinkie was glad that she managed to find Surprise’s Hive, she wasn’t sure how long it would have taken, but she knew they would find them. The only question was when.

And now that Surprise was going to the Hive, hopefully he was going to feel better, even if he would have to be away for a few days or even a week. But right now, Pinkie needed to do a couple things before beginning her plans.

The first stop was Canterlot, to tell Pupa what was going on before she decided to drag Eupha out of the building by herself. Something Pinkie thought she could do with no trouble.

As soon as the train stopped, Pinkie rushed towards the exits, quickly going through a check before running through the city, apologizing a few times for almost running into ponies. As she rushed up to the castle’s gate, she stopped on a dime and teetered back and forth a little in front of the Guards. “Hello.”

The two guards looked at each other and then back at Pinkie.

“I came by earlier today to talk to Queen Pupa, but I wasn’t sure if you would remember me but I am here to see her with information that she asked me to get her.” She smiled.

The two Guards looked at each other and sighed. “Yes, we remember. Crimson Lance told us to be on the lookout. She is currently working with Celestia, just follow us.”

Pinkie was led up to and through the castle, saying hi to a few of the staff around the castle, as she walked, she looked around at the walls again, trying to find more interesting things around the halls. She even recognized the one stone that was slightly darker than the others.

It didn’t take long for her to find everything, and by that point she was already standing in front of a pair of large ornate doors. One of the Guards walked in for a few seconds before stepping back out of the room. He nodded to the two Door Guards who lit their horns as the door was opened and Pinkie walked in.

Both Celestia and Crimson Lance were sitting at the end of a table, Crimson with her head flat against the table, a paper floating in front of her face as she bit on a quill. “Give me some good news, Pie.” Crimson said without even looking at Pinkie. “Because I cannot handle anymore paperwork without something good happening.” She sighed. “Chrysalis… You better pay me back for this…” She mumbled.

Celestia put down her paperwork, looking much more at home doing it, and smiled at Pinkie. “Hello, Pinkie. Pupa told me that you and Surprise were going to see if Eupha really was located in Manehatten.”

“Yes, Princess. And we did find her!”

The response from Crimson was instant. She straightened up from the table, her fur pressed down on the side of her face; she turned to look at Pinkie with wide eyes. “What did she say?”

“Well, she told me to tell you that she is coming out of hiding, but she still wants her identity to be a secret. Since she doesn’t want everyone to be scared of her and her job.”

Celestia nodded. “Yes, Pupa told me what you believed she did.”

Pupa hoof-pumped the air. “Finally! I’ve spent nearly a quarter of my reign looking for her.” She slumped back in the chair. “Now I can put this chapter of my life behind me. I still wonder how you managed to find her that easily… But I guess that what the others say is true. Never underestimate Pinkie.”

Pinkie Pie smiled and giggled. “Yup. And Surprise is going back to the Hive for a bit to get used to the Hive Mind and then come back. He wants to go and get a feel for the connection so that he wouldn’t feel lonely anymore since he would always have Changelings to talk to.”

Crimson nodded. “Makes sense… Lone Changelings are often times desperate and seek that mental connection. They often try to get other Changelings to connect to them, and only a few accept the loss.” She looked down at the papers. “Well! I need to go and tell the other Queens. So I don’t think I’ll have the time to finish up the rest of Chrysalis’ paperwork. Guess she’ll just have to do that when she come back.” She pushed herself away from the table and quickly walked out of the room, a small smirk on her face.

Celestia shook her head, a small grin on her face. “She’s been trying to get out of this for hours. I thank you, Pinkie Pie, for bringing this information to us. But I assume you would like to get home as soon as possible, and I believe that the train leaves in a half-hour. You are welcome to stay or leave if you wish.”

“That’s all right, Princess. I do kind of need to get back home, Eupha gave me something to give to Twilight, and then I need to send a very important letter.”

Celestia nodded. “Very well, you may leave whenever you like.”

Pinkie nodded and turned, beginning to walk down the hall, speeding up as she walked before running down the halls exiting the castle and rushing to get on the train. She went through the usual issues at a train station before getting on the train and heading back towards Ponyville.

By the time she got off the train the moon was already rose into the air. She ran towards Sugar Cube Corner quietly sneaking through the building as to not disturb Mr. and Mrs. Cake.

As she climbed up to her bedroom, she removed her saddlebags and placed them on the floor, pulling out her notebook, inside the front cover was a number of envelopes and pieces of paper, she took one out and grabbed a pen, lying down in her bed as she looked at the blank paper. “Now… What to say…”

---

The next day, Pinkie woke up early, well, earlier than usual, and headed to the Ponyville Post Office to send the letter, hoping Surprise would get it. As she walked out of the post-office, she decided to walk over to the Train Station since Twilight was going to be there today. You may ask how she knew, in fact I asked myself, she responded with: “I read the other story.”

When she reached the station, the train skidded to a halt, letting out a hiss. As the Lavender Unicorn and purple dragon stepped off, Pinkie pulled a party Popper, making a bang of confetti shoot over them causing Twilight to jump slightly.

“Pinkie! You scared me.” Twilight said, looking up at the Pink Pony, currently hanging by her hind legs on the rafters.

Pinkie giggled. “Sorry, Twilight.”

“What are you even doing up there?”

“Up where?” Pinkie asked standing next to her.

Twilight looked at Pinkie, and then back to where she was, then back at Pinkie. “What?”

“So how was your trip?” Pinkie asked. shrugging off the question.

“Well… I guess it was good. I learned quite a bit about the Artist Hive, and about the Princesses of the Changelings. I’m just glad that I got a nice and calm outing after… The last one…” She shivered a bit. “Now, I need to get back to the library… I have to get all of this information down into the Master Copy. I’m hoping to get another request for a Hive visit within the next two weeks.”

“Did anything wacky happen?” Pinkie asked.

Twilight nodded. “There was a very strange section of the Hive that took influence from Discord of all ponies.”

“Ooo… Were the clouds there?” Pinkie asked.

Twilight sighed. “Yes… The clouds were there.”

Pinkie’s smile grew. “Ooo… I need to go some time. Do you think Queen Tettix would let me?”

“Maybe… But I…” She blinked. “Wait, how did you know her name was…”

“It’s not important. You said that there was another thing?”

Twilight looked over Pinkie. “Yeeess… When I got back, I decided to try and give Queen Chrysalis another questioning. Luckily she had just come back from Trottingham. There was a group of Changelings that were thinking of trying to take the town hostage for ransom in order to get Ceymi and Spine released. Though from what she said, an old Exile had made it his home, a little weird since Trottingham is pretty isolated, but he sent a message to Chrysalis and she came flying.”

“Oh really…” Pinkie rubbed her chin. “Did she happen to tell you the name of this Changeling?”

Twilight looked down at Spike. “Did you happen to catch it?”

“Nope, I was still waking up.” Spike replied. “Something with an A…”

“Well anyway, he’s staying with Chrysalis in the castle for a little while so that the incident could blow over.”

Pinkie rubbed her chin again. “Interesting…”

Twilight and Spike looked at each other. “Pinkie, did you have something you wanted to tell us?”

Pinkie blinked. “Oh Yes!” She reached into her saddlebag and pulled out the envelope. “Letter from Queen Eupha.”

Twilight’s eyes widened as she looked at the letter. "Wait… Eupha? Queen? Letter?”

“Mm-hmm.” Pinkie said as she passed the letter to the Unicorn. “She gave it to me after I found her, it has everything you should need in it.”

Twilight looked between the letter and Pinkie. Her mental machine trying to crank out a possible sequence of events that led to it sitting in her hoof, before the only command that causes those cogs to slow popped up. “Never Question Pinkie Pie.”

She sighed. “Thank you, Pinkie… I’ll look at this as soon as possible.”

“Okie Dokie, Loki!” She hopped down the street, heading back to Sugar Cube Corner. Once there, she went back up to her room, pulling out another envelope and letter. “Now then…” She sat down on her bed, with Gummy standing on the pillows. “How do I explain this, Gummy?”

Gummy gave one of his growling clicks and fell to his side as the pressure of the bed caused the pillow to tilt a bit.

“Hmmm…. Great idea, Gummy! I’ll just tell him.” Pinkie began writing out the letter. Once she finished, she reached over and grabbed one of her pink invitation cards, writing out the information before sticking both the letter and the invitation into the envelope. She smiled as she grabbed the letter and rushed out the front door to the post office, hoping to get there before the mail was sent out.

---

“Cheer up, Surprise.” Eggshell said as the two walked off the train. She was a beige earth pony with a swirling cream and white mane. “I’m sorry that we couldn’t find him.”

Surprise sighed. “I just don’t know why he would leave… He loved it there…” His head was hung low, he had been happy to be heading back to that town; he hoped that he would see him again.

“Well… The rest of the week wasn’t too bad was it?” Eggshell asked.

Surprise shook his head. “It was great. I can’t believe how quickly I got used to it.”

Eggshell smiled. “I’m glad about that. I would have felt terrible if the entire visit was almost pointless due to that setback.”

Surprise nodded. “Thank you again for helping me get used to this. I know it must have been a pain…”

Eggshell giggled. “No, no. It was fine. I was glad to help. Anything to help out a fellow Changeling.” She looked around the town. “So this is your home?”

Surprise nodded. “The first city I’m going to be able to stay in. I’m still really happy that Pinkie Pie brought me into the family. I just wish I had found my actual family…”

Eggshell put her hoof on Surprise’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’ll keep looking. We want to see you three united again. We haven’t had much time to check, been busy helping all the nymphs and that weird incident at the development section.”

The two of them continued to talk as they walked, coming up to the Gingerbread house. “You live here?” Eggshell asked.

“Yup, I live upstairs. It makes it easy to get to work everyday.” Surprise chuckled.

The two of them walked up to the doors, and Surprise pulled open the door, walking inside to be greeted by a BANG a rain of confetti and a loud “SURPRISE!”

Surprise jumped a little, but quickly recovered before hitting the floor, taking a deep sigh of relief as he looked at the small collection of ponies and a couple Changelings there. Surprise smiled at the group as Pinkie appeared next to him.

“Hi, Pinkie!”

“Hi, Surprise. Who’s this?” She asked looking at Eggshell.

“That’s Eggshell, she taught me to use the Hive Mind. Along with caring for the Nymphs.”

“A pleasure to finally meet you, Pinkie.” Eggshell said, holding out a hoof. Pinkie grabbed it and shook it.

“Thank you for helping Surprise, I was hoping you would be back today since this was when I had everyone plan the party. But I have a really big surprise for you.” She said, smiling at Surprise.

Surprise looked at Pinkie in confusion. “What do you mean, Pinkie?”

Pinkie smiled as she looked over at what looked like the oldest of the ponies there. Surprise did as well, and he couldn’t recognize the pony, the pony walked up to him and smiled. “Hey, kid.”

Surprise’s wings went slack for a moment as his jaw dropped. He looked at the old pony, his ears and eyes trying to decide which one was lying to him. He knew that voice. He couldn’t forget that voice. “A-Ardent?”

The pony smiled as a green wisp of flame covered him, replacing him with the familiar Changeling. “How have you-oof.”

Surprise pulled Ardent into a hug; his eyes were dripping a few tears as he smiled. “It’s great to see you again, Ardent. I tried t visit you before, but you weren’t there. I thought you had been attacked, or died, or… Or…” He felt Ardent reciprocate the hug. “I’m glad to see you again.”

“Same here, kid. And by the looks of it, you’ve grown into quite the Changeling.”

Surprise nodded as he wiped his eyes. “B-but how are you here? Where did you go?”

Ardent smiled. “I think that’s a discussion for when we are more alone.” He said. “For now, let’s just enjoy the party, you can tell me all about your adventures around Equestria later.”

Surprise nodded, embracing Ardent again as the ponies and Changelings around the room just let the two reunite. After a few seconds, they released the hug and walked into the building.

Pinkie smiled, looking over at Eggshell, whose jaw had dropped at the sight of the Changeling. Pinkie patted her on the back before leading her into the party. “I’ll explain everything if you want.”

Author's Note:

And thus, it is done. Now then, to the real thing probably a lot of you have been waiting for. Next up on my list of writing is the Hive of Eupha herself... God have mercy on my sanity...

Comments

[Razzy]

D'awwww... I'm so happy for surprise.

... The next hive is going to seriously test Twilight's sanity.

[neosuduno]

7313483 And the author's, do not forget that. The fourth wall will not protect anyone.

[CodenameWA]

A cute reunion. Glad it ended on that happy note.

And Twilight's brain has the right command prompt. Not to question the pie

[Masquerade_Malek]

I do wish I could see Shades Post-Converted happenings. Shade, Meadow, Sunspot aka Echo, and Twilight. Would go very nicely after this story as far as timing would go story wise. Anyway, I absolutely loved the story. Ya did that thing with my hearts emotions again. Excellent job sir!

Your Friend
King Sombra, The Reformed

[PaulAsaran]

You can has review!

[Starlight Nova]

Why make Surprise male when she is canonically female?