A Show Full of Surprises

by Soothing Stone

Everypony Has One Bad Show

After all the drama that followed the three ponies on the trail, the rest of the way was surprisingly quiet. Trixie and Starlight would occasionally resume their Magic Duel, but Surprise took full advantage of the clouds to make more sculptures along the way. Oh sure, it might leave another pegasus wondering why the hay there were so many clouds resuming a blue unicorn, but that was the last thing to be worried about on a day like this.

Still, they had a destination to reach. After a little over an hour later, the gates of Canterlot were waiting for them. As much as Trixie didn’t want to toot her horn about simply stepping hoof into this city, she still marveled at the gates. “Finally, a city worthy of Trixie’s exploits.”

“It never gets old, does it?” Starlight said, awestruck. “I just wonder what it was like for Twilight to live here. Do you think it ever gets boring, living in a place like Canterlot?”

“I don’t think so. I fly all the time and that never gets old. There’s always something different about it,” noted Surprise. “Do you think they’ll still like our show?”

“Certainly.” Trixie stepped forward and faced the gates, manned by two unicorn guards. “We demand entrance into the city at once! The Great and Powerful Trixie demands it!”

The guards looked at each other, wondering what kind of authority she had. Spotting it, Surprise came ahead and waved to the guards. “Do you think it’s okay if we go in, please? We’re just here for a show.”

Now that was more like it. The guards used their magic to open the gates right away, and the path was open for all three of them. “What mind trick did you use on them?” Trixie puzzled. “I must know your secret at once.”

“I think it was ‘please’,” Starlight laughed, sticking her tongue out at Trixie. The blue unicorn merely rolled her eyes, and the three of them went into the marvelous city of Canterlot.

Just as much as Surprise remembered, Canterlot was gorgeous, and she could just feel the history radiating from every pore of the place. With the time of the day, it was swarming with ponies, mostly unicorns, all around the streets. She couldn’t help but smile from it all, almost sniffing the air. Somehow, she could smell the magic in the air. It smelled like cotton candy to her.

Since she was the one handling the wagon, Trixie made sure she was never too far away, but she felt Starlight pull her back. “She does seem a lot happier,” Trixie admitted. “You were right. I just had no idea she was that upset.”

“That’s because you think everypony’s as great as you,” Starlight said, booping Trixie on the nose. “It’s okay, though. I used to be the same way. You know, making sure everypony had the same fake cutie mark as me, enslaving a village just so I’d have some friends…”

Trixie blinked her eyes. “Can I take a few notes?”

“Absolutely not. We’re not doing that again. Nope.” Starlight shook her head to get the point even further across Trixie’s head. “Still, we have a show tonight. If you really want to make her day, you could make her the co-star tonight.”

“And what about you? Don’t you want to be under the spotlight, literally? Be the star of the show? It is quite nice under the stars, after all.”

“Me? Nah, I’m fine not being the star every night. Just go ahead and ask her. See how she takes it.”

“Fine.” Trixie rubbed her chin a few times. “Let’s see how it goes.”

While she debated on how to handle it, Surprise was still in the midst of enjoying the sights and sounds around her. All of this waiting for her on the other side of the Mirror Pool, and she had no idea how she lived life before she went to the other side. Well, she knew, but this was so much better.

As much as she didn’t want to think about it, however, she did spot Trixie and Starlight talking to each other. They were so casual, so easy to get along with. That’s what true friendship was like, it had to be. And yet, she realized more and more that she was different from the blue unicorn. Was that a good thing? Bad? She didn’t feel like it was a bad thing like she thought six hours ago, but she still wasn’t sure.

Still, when Trixie came to her, she stood at attention and steadied the wagon’s reins on her back. “Sorry, I got distracted. Where’s a good place for the wagon, you think? I’m sure there’s plenty of totally not creepy alleys to hide this bad boy if we need to.” She noticed how quiet Trixie was. “That’s not like you to stay quiet. Is something wrong?”

“No, Trixie was just thinking of tonight’s show. You weren’t happy with the show in Ponyville, were you?”

Surprise felt her eyes widen. “Who told you?” When she saw Starlight blush and waive nervously, she felt her mane deflate a tiny bit. “Oh. Yeah...”

“Then I know just the thing to fix it, a little change if you will. Tonight won’t be the Great and Powerful Trixie’s Show of Wonders, but the Great and Powerful Trixie’s Show of Wonders, co-starring the marvelous pegasus, Surprise!”

When the thought dawned on her mind, Surprise felt her heart nearly explode. She pulled the reins off her back, took a few steps forward, and fell flat on her belly. Her hindleg twitched around in the air, and her pupils were rolling around in her eye sockets. “M-Me, the co-star? This is real...”

“Uhh, is she okay?” Starlight poked. She was legitimately wondering about preparing a revival spell on the poor pegasus.

“Of course she is,” Trixie boasted. “This is common when Trixie signs an autograph for her most loyal fans. You have nothing to worry about.” She patted Starlight on the head and pulled the wagon’s reins on her back. “She’ll be fine.”

“C-Co-star...” Surprise’s legs were still twitching around in the air.

“If that’s how your fans react to an autograph, they’re a bunch of weirdos,” thought Starlight.

*****

The night finally fell over the city, and the three of them managed to find themselves a nice little corner of Canterlot to set up the show in. Like in Ponyville, they pretty much set up down inside a park area, and there was a nice little crowd as well. Perhaps not as big as Ponyville, given that these ponies were surrounded by magicians and sorcerers, but it would be enough for a big house, either way.

The biggest change to the show, however, might have been the posters themselves. Trixie was front and center on them, as one would expect, but standing behind her was a certain white and yellow pegasus. Starlight was asked if she wanted to be on there, too, but she turned that down.

Either way, Surprise took the moment before showtime to stare at her own face on the posters. It was so thrilling, yet so humbling to be the featured co-star on a show like this. Even if she was pretty much the co-star as Trixie’s assistant, to see this kind of promotion for herself? She couldn’t believe it. Her jaw was even on the floor.

“Never been in the spotlight like this before, have you?” Starlight chimed in.

“Well, I was always Trixie’s assistant after she brought me in, but...” Surprise nearly had to re-attach her jaw to her face. “It’s almost beyond words, you know? I can’t believe it. I just...” She sniffled as she smiled from the sight.

Starlight gave her a pat on the shoulder. “I’m just glad it worked out. You remember what you have to do first, right? I’ll fire Trixie out of the cannon, you grab the net and put it into place. Don’t worry about a miss, I got the right angle for it.”

The instructions reminded Surprise that there was even a show happening in the first place. “Oh right! I’m catching her to start! I gotta get into position!” She was about to run out, but she stopped in her tracks and turned to Starlight. “I heard you could have been the other co-star if you wanted to. Why didn’t you?”

A sigh escaped Starlight’s lips. “Before I met you and Trixie, before Twilight got my head out of my flanks, I used to be the ruler of my own town. Everypony followed me and did everything I told them. And I liked that power for a while. It was great. My own little corner of the world... but it was never enough. When you focus just on having power and attention, there’s no real stopping point. You always want more. And now that I’m just a regular unicorn, one that almost destroyed all of time and space, it’s nice to actually have friends around me because they like me, not because I ordered them to. I think I can afford to stay out of the spotlight if that’s what it means.”

Once she was done, Surprise gave her a quick hug. “And I was afraid you were going to take Trixie away from me. I was so stupid! Pinkie told me that it’s actually possible to have more than one friend, and... she’s right. So now, I’m going to live my life--”

“Hellooooo? Anypony out there?” a voice asked from a distance. As it turned out, a cannon was already set up at the hill overlooking the show. With that voice, there was only one guess as to who it was.

“I almost forgot,” Starlight facehoofed. “We need to get into position. The show’s supposed to start any moment. Break a leg, Surprise.”

“Not literally.” Then Surprise got it. “Oh. Why is that supposed to mean good luck? Isn’t it a bad thing to break your leg?”

“I never got it, either. How about, good luck?”

Surprise smiled and shook hooves with Starlight. “That’s much better. Good luck to you, too! Let’s put on a show they’ll never forget!”

With that out of the way, the two ponies went to their respective spots. Surprise had her instructions, and she knew what to do. Out of the blue, the spotlights lit the stage in a bright light, one that grabbed the attention of the whole audience. Surprise stepped onto the stage, and she knew the reason the audience didn’t question her appearance was from all the posters with her face on it.

Little did she know, however, that there were two other ponies studying her from a balcony nearby, watching and observing her every movement. The purple alicorn watched Surprise carefully, not sure what to make of it. The yellow unicorn, on the other hoof, was a bit anxious. She wouldn’t be sure for a long while if she was doing the right thing.

“Long ago, there was a sorcerer, Starswirl the Bearded,” Surprise began. “He disappeared one day, and since that day, no magician has ever come close to his talents... until now!” Deep down, that certain purple alicorn was about to snap and have the most epic nerd breakdown of all time.

“Fillies and gentlecolts, I introduce to you, The Great and Powerful Trixie!” Right on that cue, an explosion went off behind the crowd’s back. They all turned around to see what it was, and they were blown away by the sight of a blue unicorn sailing through the sky above them. Her cape flapped gracefully in the winds, and a trail of blue magic followed her.

Surprise was quick to do her part of the job. Taking advantage of the crowd looking away from the stage, she set up a net right in the middle of it. It was a large net to boot as well, covering a lot of the set just to be safe. Before she knew it, Trixie bounced right in the middle of the net with grace, bouncing off of it a few times before she set all four hooves down on solid ground.

Trixie stood tall before everypony, lifting her front hooves up as fireworks went off behind her back. Somehow, Surprise was able to pull the net away and set the fireworks off at the same time. What could she say, she was a quick filly these days.

Still, she loved the sights and sounds of everypony applauding Trixie, enjoying it as she soaked it in. “Thank you, thank you! Of course, this glorious entrance wouldn’t have been possible without the help of my wonderful assistant, tonight’s co-star, Surprise!”

For once, Trixie adjusted the spotlight so it landed right on the pegasus. Surprise meeped from the spotlight literally being put on her, and she nervously waved. There was some applause from her, though not as thunderous as it was for Trixie. That was okay with her. Trixie was the true star tonight.

While it was happening, Twilight kept the telescope on Surprise. She pulled the lens away from her eye and gave it over to Sunset. “I don’t know, Sunset. Pinkie’s right, she’s not acting like any of the other Mirror Pool clones. In fact, she’s doing a pretty good job out there.”

“I know, I just figured you should know the truth, that’s all,” Sunset pointed out. “It sounded like you had no idea what was going on.”

“True. And I don’t think it’s a good thing that they kept it a secret.”

While they were debating with each other, the show went on as scheduled. Surprise came out and brought out two boxes onto the stage, opening them up for Trixie to get into. Seeing that trick again, Starlight immediately dashed to the backstage and waited to see if things would go awry like they did last time.

Instead, Surprise was poised as Trixie climbed on board. The pegasus closed the boxes together and brought out a saw. The saw went through the middle of the boxes, seemingly cutting Trixie in half, but this time, Surprise only brought the saw as far as it needed to go. Starlight took a deep breath of relief as the act went as scheduled, with Surprise “showing” Trixie cut down the middle.

The rest of the show was, mercifully, uneventful in terms of potential botches. They did the whole routine as scheduled, from illusion magic to make it look like there were five Trixies, to fireworks, to Surprise being “transformed” into a full blown tiger. A few ponies in the Canterlot crowd mumbled about it, having seen a lot of it, but most were entertained from beginning to end. It sure helped that this was the kind of crowd that adored Trixie’s showmanship.

The whole time, Surprise and Starlight would exchange glances at each other. The whole time, Surprise was so relieved, and it showed all over her face. Starlight was delighted by it, and encouraged Surprise to focus on the performance for the time being. To say that a huge weight came off their shoulders was rather fitting.

Finally, the show came to an end. One last show of fireworks lit up the stage, and Trixie and Surprise alike bowed before the audience. A shower of roses and (most importantly) bits fell down to the stage, and the performance was all done. Starlight did the honors of bringing the curtain down, and Surprise clasped on the floor right away.

“Are you okay?” Trixie poked in. “You didn’t faint from exhaustion, did you?”

“Not... at... all...” Surprise trailed off. “I’m just so happy right now. That was my favorite performance, ever! Tell me it was good. It wasn’t just me, was it?”

“No, it’s not just you,” said Starlight. “I loved it, too. I think we should all celebrate at one of those fancy restaurants in town. I don’t know if I’ve ever been to one.”

“Trixie has, and they’re all marvelous,” Trixie noted. “However, first things first. Well done, Surprise. Not a single flaw all night. What changed, Trixie wonders?” She saw Surprise open her mouth to explain it, only to stick a hoof in her muzzle. “That was rhetorical. We all know the answer.”

“We do?” Starlight and Surprise asked at the same time.

“Of course. Trixie shined her light on both of you, and now you’re both friends to her. That makes all the difference in the world.”

Starlight rolled her eyes, and Surprise just merely laughed. “That sounds right to me.” Right then, she heard a knock on the door. “I wonder who that could be?” She went up and opened the door.

On the other side, Twilight and Sunset were waiting for her. “Hey, guys.” Twilight started.

“Oh? You’ve come to see us?” Trixie smirked as their guests came backstage. “Have you come to tell us all how great that show was? Greater than anything you’ve ever seen?” She got up in Twilight’s face, to the point where their snouts were pressed together.

“It was a good show, but there’s another reason why we’re here. There’s something we found out that we figure you should know about,” Sunset began. She checked with Twilight, making sure they were on the same page about actually going through with this.

“I don’t understand,” thought Starlight. “What’s going on? You’re about to say something really serious, aren’t you?”

Twilight and Sunset both sighed, and they stepped aside. Surprise was curious what was going to happen, and she was taken off guard when Pinkie walked through the door as well. Pinkie looked deflated, both figuratively and literally with her mane. It was almost as if she saw a ghost.

“We know the truth about you, Surprise,” said Sunset. “We know you came from the Mirror Pool, and you’re a clone of Pinkie Pie.”

“I had no idea,” Pinkie admitted. “I thought they were all gone. But you... I would have never thought. You’re not like the rest at all...”

Even with all the niceties and such, the pupils in Surprise’s eyes shrunk to the size of peas. She remembered Twilight gathering all the clones together just to zap them away if they weren’t the real thing. And now here she was again, revealing that she knew Surprise was a clone.

“I... I... I CAN’T GO BACK!” Her wings spread as wide as they would go, and she crashed through the door. The door almost fell from its hinges as she flew off, not slowing down for anything and everything.

“Surprise, no, wait!” Starlight shouted.

“Stop at once! They’re not going to banish you!” Trixie added on.

Even then, they were already becoming whispers in Surprise’s head. She couldn’t slow down, they’d just banish her back to the Mirror Pool if she did. Within mere seconds, the city of Canterlot shrunk down at her back. Where she was going, she didn’t know. All she knew is that she couldn’t be there anymore.

Trixie, Starlight, her new life as an assistant to the greatest magic show in the world, it was all going to be ripped away from her. She didn’t know how fast she was going, but it wasn’t fast enough. Her eyelids rippled from the intense winds in her eyes, but that wouldn’t slow her down.

She had to hide away from the world, right now. The sooner, the better. She only wished she could stay with Trixie and Starlight, but...

It wouldn’t be long until she was just a speck in the skies, and Trixie and Starlight stared at her.