To Her Surprise

by Askesalsa

The Twitch

She would get up every morning to a world of dark clouds with a sunny smile. She would dance with her sisters, help out her father, and talk with her mother. She loved every day she woke up to, because her life had changed in just that direction. It was still the same old farm, and the same old family, but it shone in a different light, cast by the brilliant grin of a snow white pegasus.

Every chance she had she would run off to play with Surprise. She would finish her work in the fields and hug her family goodbye for the time the breaks took, after which she would gallop at top speed to Sugarcube Corner where she was met by Surprise and Cup Cake, sometimes even Firefly, and they would welcome her with sheer pleasure. The breaks would then be spent by Pinkie and Surprise alone. Surprise would teach her everything she knew, of dancing and laughing and singing and playing. Every single game the white pegasus had ever learned or created herself was hammered into the pink filly’s head, and she loved every bit of it.

But of course there were times where they could not be together. Sometimes Surprise was busy, sometimes it was Pinkie. Pinkie would sometimes have to work extra hard in the fields, moving the rocks about should unexpected changes in the air happen. Surprise was on the other hoof busy with her work. She was a thunder pegasus after all, and she would have to meet up with the other pegasi to prepare for the season’s storm. This storm was always a major event for Equestria. It would cover up everything, villages, forests, and even the rock farms, leaving both her and Pinkie to be too busy to meet up during that particular event.

---

They had just finished digging the rocks deep enough into the ground for them not to get blown away with the strong winds. Little cloth tents covered each and every top of stone, protecting the precious gems from the harvest ruining rainwater, and the tents themselves were nailed to the dry ground, so only a tornado of unfathomable power would be able to move them even an inch. Everything was ready for the oncoming storm, and the Pies could relax safe and sound in the comfort of their house.

Her father was the last to enter the house, momentarily increasing the volume of the gusts as he opened and closed the door. He had just finished planting the magical lightning rod on the roof, making sure to protect the family from more than simple rain. He did a quick and exaggerated shiver, showing the rest of the family just how chilly it was outside, and bopped his hat off his head, hanging it on the coatrack. Now he too was ready to join in on the homely coziness.

They had the fireplace lit and a few lanterns as well. The normal darkness of Pie Fields was even more overwhelming now than usually, due to the fact that the thunderclouds would rule for the entire night, and endless amounts of rain would blur the view of the fields when the storm would cross their little house. Inkamina and Blinkamina was playing with the dices of their already unpacked board game, trying their best to find a way to cheat with them in preparation for family time. Meanwhile, Pinkie held her mother’s yarn straight between her hooves so it would not slip as she knitted her a deep red sweater for the winter. The wind rattled a bit on the windows and the dim sound of thunder in the distance told of the hard work of Surprise and the other thunder pegasi. Smiles were present on everypony in the house, and their breathing was steady and safe. No worries in the Pie residence.

“So, is everypony ready for game night?” Clyde enthusiastically asked the living room as he entered.

“Yay!” said Blinkamina with her hooves in the air.

“Yippy!” said Inkamina while doing the same.

Pinkie Pie and her mother shared a laugh over the cuteness of the younger ponies. The gray mare then nodded to the pink filly, signaling that she could let go of the yarn for now. Pinkie did so carefully, not wanting to somehow mess up their work so far. But she did not hesitate with jumping up on the sofa as soon as she had put it down, continuing over the back of it and storming into the kitchen, almost tripping over her father as she passed him. He only chuckled heartily at his daughter’s energy though.

“Anypony else want something from the kitchen?” Pinkie politely asked the rest of her family. She was already digging her snout through the cabinet, looking eagerly for the bag of candy that she got from Cup Cake a few days before.

“I’m good here,” Sue Pie replied from where she sat. “But make sure to bring some for your sisters too, ok?”

“Okie dokie lokie!” Pinkie heartily answered, and she giggled when she heard the loud cheers of her innocent siblings. When she finally found the bag, she pulled it out with her teeth and emptied its contents into a bowl on the kitchen table. It filled to the brim, but she had no trouble throwing it into the air, catching it on her back without dropping a single piece of sugar. Yet another trait she had acquired from her white mentor.

When she came back into the living room, everypony sat ready, smiling as they looked at her with anticipation. Blinkamina even went as far as to drool at the mere sight of the sugar in the bowl. A loud crack sounded from the outside, making the same drooling pony do a little jump in surprise, and Pinkie could not help but think that was something the white mare had done on purpose, even though she was nowhere near the farm. It did mean that the storm had gotten closer though.

“All right, who’s first?” she said with a smile as she placed her flank on the pillow between her sisters.

“Can I go first?” Blinkamina asked with pleading eyes directed at Sue.

The gray mare easily succumbed to the irresistible gaze. She tilted her head to the side with a warm smile. “Of course you can, sweetheart, since you asked so nicely.”

On Pinkie’s other side sat Inkamina, and she was fondling the ivory cubes. She had probably not heard anything that had been said, but she did notice that Sue was sweetly signaling for her to give up her playthings. Luckily, she did not seem to mind, and reached towards her sister on the other side of Pinkie as far as she could. This was not far enough, however, so Pinkie had to help her on the way. With a swift movement, she gave her dice-holding sister a tap under the stretched hoof, launching the spotted ivory into the air where she caught them with the other and presented it to her other sister with a smile. It seemed to have amazed them, as they both sat with sparkling eyes and mouth-open smiles when Blinkamina accepted the offering.

Though the game itself was quiet, the storm outside providing the background noise, everypony was satisfied playing it. The occasional joke and question broke the still silence, but other than that they just enjoyed the simple company of each other. But all of a sudden, just as the dices reached Clyde and he was about to throw them, something happened to Pinkie. A strange sensation in her lower region, her tail began vibrating rapidly. It was forceful enough for her whole body to shake along and her family looked at her with puzzled expressions. She had no idea herself what was going on, so her own face showed just as much confusion as she watched her flank from over her shoulder. The thunder and flashes outside their window broke the stillness of the dark and the silence of the rain every now and then, yet for some reason Pinkie found that the ones that occurred while her tail was shivering had an eerie feel to them. It was a strange, unnatural sensation.

It stopped in the blink of an eye. Just as random as it had appeared, as random it went away. She looked at it for a few seconds, expecting for it to somehow restart, though it never did. Instead, she simply looked back up at her family and shrugged her shoulders.

“What was that?” her father asked, scratching his cheek.

But Pinkie could only explain with another shrug and a curious tone of voice. “I don’t know. I’ve never felt like that before.”

“Well, your mane and tail are a little unusual these days,” Sue Pie explained with a snigger. “Perhaps they get the same kind of shivers the rest of your body does. I know the thought of this rain alone is enough to make me shiver at least.”

Pinkie giggled as well, and her sisters joined in only because she was giggling. “I guess you’re right. Let’s get on with the game, shall we?”

Clyde Pie gave his pink daughter a quick smile before turning his attention back to the board game. He put on a very serious face, as if his luck would become better if he concentrated really hard. The rest of the family sat patiently waiting for him to throw the cubes, smiling as they watched his hooves move the cups they were held in. They rolled over the table, sporting two eyes that looked at the stallion as if he was a loser, and he burst out laughing at the sight.

“Well, luck just isn’t with me tonight,” he said through the deep sounds of joy.

They continued the rest of the game. They continued to enjoy the night. They continued to laugh all the way until bedtime, not caring a bit about the minor things, just like how Surprise would have done it.

---

When the sky had once again cleared, the sun had risen, and her break from rock farming had arrived, it was time to trot back to Ponyville to meet that certain pony. Pinkie skipped happily over the dirt of the wasteland, making splashy noises with every hop as the storm had turned the dry dust into wet mud. She waved her parents goodbye and they waved to her in turn before they all walked into the house for a nice family lunch.

Ponyville looked pretty much the same as always. Though there were a few lose branches lying spread on the street, and puddles of mud and water alike randomly spread out along the road, everything seemed to be in order after the storm. Most ponies carried out their daily duties as they always did, whistling and chatting with their neighbors on this nice summer day. But every once in a while, the pink filly took notice of some less than happy faces, and some of the voices she overheard had a disturbed tone to them. It made her wonder a bit, but she mostly cast it aside as soon as she skipped by them. Some ponies are more sensitive to stormy weather than others, after all.

She reached Sugarcube Corner, the tasty bakery that still stood tall. The tiles were shining from the late night wash, and the wooden parts of it had turned a little darker from the wetness, but otherwise it was the same. Yet Pinkie could not help but hesitate a little at the doorstep. One thing was off about what she saw on the door: The sign said ‘closed’. She knew that a bakery had to close every now and then, but that it would be closed at this time of the day and at this time of the week was rather odd. She reached out her hoof, slowly turned the doorknob, and waited for the click of the door before she pushed it open. The bell rang her welcome, but the silence inside was much too irregular to believe.

But somepony was home. She could tell by a strange creaking sound coming from the kitchen. Silently tip-hoofing over to the doorway, she took a look inside to see what was going on. The creaking sound apparently came from one of the chairs, on which Firefly was sitting, gently rocking back and forth by pushing her hind leg against the table. On the opposite side of her sat Cup Cake, hooves in her lap, and she did not move a single muscle. They both bore grim expressions, their gazes looking past the table they were directed at, and the shade on the coat under their eyes dark, their eyes similarly shining wet.

Firefly was the first to notice the filly in the doorway. Though Pinkie tried to keep her presence silent, her breathing had become nervous and loud enough to be noticeable in this utter noise of the quiet. The pink pegasus brought a hoof before her mouth, straightening her posture on the chair as she quietly uttered to herself, “Oh no.”

This made Cup Cake raise her head to the doorway as well. The light cerulean mare shook her head slowly, and she narrowed her eyes in a way that made the tears that formed in their corners overflow and start running down her cheeks. “Oh, Pinkie, dear,” she said with a motherly whisper. “I’m so sorry.”

The pink filly instinctively took a few slow steps back. The way these two ponies acted made her fear the worst, but she still shook her head in denial. Her eyes were wide open and her lower lip was trembling, terror present in every inch of her face. “What’s going on?”

“I’m really, really sorry,” Cup Cake repeated. She got off the chair and took a few steps towards the pink filly that was still backing away. She reached out to her, but soon bit her bottom lip and retracted her hoof to her chest, her eyes now on the floor just beneath her.

“What’s going on?” Pinkie repeated her words as well, her voice trembling and higher than before.

“There’s been an accident,” Firefly said with a low voice from the table. Pinkie looked at her and saw a couple of serious eyes, narrowed in what seemed to be a sort of anger. “It’s Surprise.”

The pupils in Pinkie’s eyes retracted, and the wet tears that were forming made them glare with the light of the kitchen. She looked back at Cup Cake in some hope that she would see something different, but the light cerulean mare was sitting with the same pained expression as before. Both the filly’s and the baker’s bodies were shaking, but the only thing shaking on the pegasus’ body was her hooves, now in her lap.

“They told us this morning,” Firefly continued. “She was putting the finishing touch on some of the clouds, but she got careless with one of them. It backfired and sent a burst of electricity through her.” She took a moment to breathe, but seemed to find it hard to do so. Tears were forming in her sockets as well, and she gritted her teeth in obvious anger and a misplaced self-loathing. “She fell. They say that’s what killed her.”

“What do you mean, ‘killed her’?” Pinkie asked silently, and the two ponies looked at her. For a moment they all stared across the room, not saying anything to break this deadly silence. She asked again, but this time with much more force and volume, her body shaking as she shouted, “What do you mean, ‘killed her’!?”

Cup Cake finally broke into complete tears. She covered her face with her hooves, sobbing audibly and letting the drops darken the cerulean on her coat. Pinkie watched this while panting heavily. The oxygen in the air could not properly find its way into her lungs. She was choking on her own pain, but she was not yet crying. She was too far from believing what was going on to cry.

“I’m really sorry, Pinkie,” Firefly said, the only pony who kept up a semi-calm appearance. “I wish there was something I-.”

“This isn’t funny!” the pink filly cried out into the room, interrupting the, to her, useless things that Firefly was saying. Her throat hurt from the sheer force of her screaming, but that did not stop her from keeping it up. “This isn’t funny, Surprise! Just come out!”

“Pinkie-.” Firefly tried to intervene with a calming voice as she rose from the chair and slowly walked towards her.

But the filly continued, disregarding the pegasus, and she screamed her throat hoarse, “Come out, Surprise! I know you’re hiding somewhere! It’s not funny, so just come out!”

“Pinkie-.”

“Come out!!!”

“Pinkie!” the pegasus finally raised her voice, and she finally caught the screaming filly’s attention. Pinkie looked at her through tearful eyes, breathless and trembling all over. Firefly too was trembling. She stood in a defensive position, her teeth barred and her tears trailing down her cheeks. She was able to catch her breath after a moment, and wiped away the tears on one of those cheeks. “She’s not going to come out!” she said with a calmer voice, though still hard from the tension. “She’s gone. I’m really sorry to tell you, but she’s gone.”

“But…” Pinkie whimpered. “… Where is she?”

“She’s at-,” Firefly started, but she was interrupted by the tear choked voice of the light cerulean mare.

“You shouldn’t see her!” was what Cup Cake said with this voice. She had stopped her sobbing, but tears were still present in her eyes and her voice was still sad and low, almost a whisper. “You shouldn’t see her, Pinkie. It’s not good for you.”

“But I wanna see her!” Pinkie argued. “Why can’t I see her!?”

“Because you’re just a filly!” said the baker with a surprisingly stern voice. It was definitely painful for her to say this, but she maintained the sternness the whole time. “You’re too young, Pinkie. We’ve seen her already and... You really shouldn’t see her.”

“But I wanna see her!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. She stood panting with her tears flowing along her floor-directed snout from which they dropped to the floor, making little dark marks on the hardwood.

The silence filled the room, everypony avoiding eye contact with each other. The two adults were almost apologetic. They stood still as if somepony were scolding them, yet they kept up their maturity as if they were holding on to the secret they were being scolded for having. After a minute, it was Cup Cake who broke the silence with her own whisper, “I’m sorry.”

“Why…?” the pink filly said quietly to herself, but she looked up and repeated the word to the room. “Why?”

But all the light cerulean mare could do was to say the same thing again. “I’m sorry, Pinkie.”

“This can’t happen.” Pinkie was once again backing away. Her mane was beginning to change form on her head, but she was far too busy to notice. It lost its puffy feel, straightening out to the same hairdo that she had prior to holding the party for her parents.

The two ponies were watching with worried eyes with each step she took. They were sad too, but somehow that did not matter to Pinkie at this moment. She was the one who was hurting the most. She was the one who had lost everything with the death of the pony she admired the most. It hurt just to stay in the bakery, and after a while it became too much for her. She ran.

She could hear Firefly call out to her, telling her to wait, and she could hear Cup Cake tell the pegasus to let her go as she stormed out the door. She galloped through the village, the houses and ponies she passed nothing but a blur to her. With every step she took, she could feel the tears flowing with more and more intensity. Her sobbing became louder and she found it hard to breathe, yet she had to keep on running. She had to get away from it.

After getting halfway through the village, she suddenly had to brake when she almost hit a random brown stallion in front of her. He looked at her with wide eyes, seeming rather confused when he noticed just how much the filly was crying. Though a complete stranger, his heart was kind enough for him not to ignore a crying child, and with a puzzled tone he asked, “What’s wrong, kid?”

This was all it took. Pinkie could not hold it in any longer. She needed something to grab on to, so she jumped forwards and embraced this random stranger in a tight hug. Shaking, the filly cried as loud as she could, her tears running down her cheeks and further down the stallion’s coat. She pulled herself into him, though he was clearly unsure whether he should hug back, instead only stroking her mane slightly with one hoof as she let her emotions out.

“She’s gone!” she cried, and the ponies on the street gathered around, sending her worried looks and exchanging words of pity between each other while they watched her cry on. “She’s really gone! I don’t want this! I want her back! I want her back!”

“I’m sorry, kid,” the stallion said with a low, unsure voice.

“Please! somepony! Anypony!” she cried even louder, almost screaming. “I want her back! Give her back!”

This was how it went on until she cried herself to sleep. She did not know exactly how she got home, nor did she know how she had reached her bed. But she did know that it was not a dream. This kind of pain could not be a nightmare alone. Surprise was really gone. That pony that had opened her entire world was dead and gone, and there was nothing she could do about it. It made everything meaningless. The only thing she wanted was to pull the sheets above her head and stay in bed forever.

Comments

[Duplex Fields]

Bridge to Cloudsdale up in here. By the numbers Killed For A Caldecott. And despite my cynicism at these facts, every tear I've shed for this story is genuine. Why do I read these just before bedtime?

[videogamehunter]

I knew this was coming.

[Csquared08]

Why did I have to ask about the Sad tag last chapter? Why!?

[winterdragon]

R.I.P. Surprise may you always live on in our hearts