Rebirth of Magic: In the Mists

by JimmyHook19

I Kept my Watch Forever

I looked in utter surprise at who was standing there. Before me was a red stallion with green eyes and blonde mane and tail. A G5 detractor would have probably called him a Big Mac knockoff, only of course he was nothing like him in personality. In fact, the two characters couldn't have been more different.

My eyes widened. "Sprout?" I said. "What are you doing here?"

Sprout looked back. "Misty?" he asked. "What are you doing here?"

"That's as good a guess as any," I replied, as I sat back down on a nearby rock. There was something important I'd picked up in that conversation, though. Sprout knew who I was despite the fact he shouldn't know me at this point in the story.

There was hope at last! I had found another ally in Equestria! Somepony in the same predicament as me!

"I came looking for Hitch," Sprout said, also sitting down. Seems he'd also picked up on my choice of words and was simply rolling along with it as he went along. No need to state unneeded pleasantries when you can figure out what's going on almost immediately. I sat there in surprise as well, amazed that fortune seemed to be working in my favor once again.

"Well, he went another way," I admitted, sitting back and glancing down a bit. I was feeling pretty confused right now. Inside. I mean, even if he had some messed up views (or probably didn't, if what he'd said implied what I thought it did), he was pretty cute and-

And why was I thinking this? I'd been a guy before all this started! What was going on?

I sat back, trying to process all the confusion in my head, these new sensations and feelings that I couldn't make sense of. I glanced about the mountaintop, seeing the wind continuing to whirl around. This must have been what being a member of Thorin's Company during the search for Erebor must have been like. I'd have said a dragon would have fitted the scene, but there weren't any dragons. At least none I knew of.

"Hey, are you OK?" Sprout asked. "You seem troubled."

I looked at him. "I am currently experiencing emotions and feelings I never thought I'd experience. And I'm here, on top of a mountain, on an alien planet, in the body of a fictional character, talking to another fictional character about how I feel. This is either the greatest comedy or darkest tragedy ever written."

"I know how that feels."

Glad we cleaned that one up. "You do?"

"It's never easy trying to survive in an alien world in the body of a character intended to be a hate sync, and yet I've somehow managed to survive. If you need tips or help with surviving out here, I suggest going against what they expect of you and following your heart instead. That's exactly what I did."

I'm not sure why, but those words made me feel a lot better. "Thanks, Sprout."

"No problem, Misty. Now then, shall we get off this mountain?"

I was more than happy to do that.

---

Well, I sure learned a lot about him as we walked. Seems he'd popped into Maretime Bay some point after Sunny and Izzy had left (or a similar time to me, as Sunny and Izzy had been stuck in the same cell as me only a few hours after my attempt at crown theft auto), and he'd been seemingly teleported here after finding a hat and wearing it before hiding in a tree.

He had it easy compared to me. His may have been tough, but at least he didn't have the agony of being changed and then knocking yourself out. That liquid smelled horrible, after all. I wonder if Opaline ever cleaned it?

Even so, our combined experience of being stuck in a foreign world with things we didn't recognise or lives that were not our own was certainly a familiar refrain. Naturally, it got me thinking as we headed through a grassy pasture.

Who in Equestria wasn't a human? I know we know little about Opaline's past or what she was doing during the events of the movie (which I guess I was finding out first hoof, I guess), but I seriously began to wonder if Opaline was a former human too. I mean, if she was it would explain some things that I observed in her behaviour.

Sprout seemed to be a little more concerned. He'd fought this human guy who had tried to blow up Maretime Bay with some sort of mech suit, and this suit had inflicted a lot of damage on Maretime Bay's outer fields. He'd beaten it with a version of his robot from the movie, and then succesfully lobbied for increased military spending. He did express concern he had started a war, which was understandable. If you want peace, avoid the pinpricks that precede cannon shots, or so Napoleon Bonaparte said.

Maybe that was why Gulfstream timed his coup when he did? Was he concerned an invasion was coming? It didn't justify his actions, but it did give something of a rationale to his actions that I found curious. Was this was being a military leader was always like? Constant paranoia and fear? I could relate to some of that. The impulse to destroy things, less so.

As we continued to make our way down the mountain, we came under attack from these ghost ponies. I'm still trying to process the encounter so can't really give much of a coherent account of the incident, but it was pretty tough going to say the least. I sat there, tired and confused, as we tried to make sense of what had happened.

"That guy knows us," Sprout said, as he looked at me, and stopped for a moment.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"You know, the sun catches your mane really nicely at that angle," Sprout replied.

The original Sprout would never have complemented a unicorn, or helped them. Looks like my prediction about their being two dictators was wrong. This Sprout was... really nice.

I moved onwards, waiting for Sprout to join me as we continued our descent of the mountain into the valley. "So, how did you figure out where any of us were?"

"I figured you'd be heading to Bridlewood, so followed the trail left by somepony and trekked to Bridlewood over the mountains," Sprout replied. "It was pretty good fun, even if it was pretty tough going at times through pegasus and unicorn lands. I certainly had fun. It was quite exciting at points, all the things I did and saw. Enjoyed my runs, as well. And you?"

"Eh, less so. Kinda comes with serving... somepony." I indicated to the locket to give Sprout a hint as to what I meant.

"I understand," Sprout said. "Not easy at all. As I said earlier, a good policy is always to follow your heart and do what you think is right. Sometimes listening to your gut can help."

I looked confused. "The stomach isn't known for its ability to process thoughts and concepts. Incidentally, we ponies can eat meat it seems. Equestrian ponies really are alien, huh?"

Sprout shrugged his shoulders. "Well, if I know anything about this world it's that Equestrian ponies clearly evolved differently to ones back in the other world. Notice how our eyes are on the front of our heads rather than the sides, and our muzzles are shorter?"

Now that he pointed it out, it was interesting. I'd never really taken note of that, to be honest. I guess I was just so used to the characters looking like this that I'd never really given it a second thought after all. If I'd been teleported to the G3 world on the other hand...

No! Don't give the author ideas!

Oh? OK.

Anyway, our journey through the mountains continued downward, which was fun for a bit. The hills were now much more lively, although something that did creep me out was the fact that there was a profound lack of birdsong anywhere. I also hadn't seen any bird in a while, if at all. Why wasn't there any birdsong? Was it because the birds had all gone extinct following the chaos that broke Equestria apart?

Or was there another reason that there was no birdsong? Could it be the place itself?

Sure enough, we soon arrived outside Bridlewood. All I'll say is the others were relieved to see me- and rather surprised to see Sprout, to say the least. But at least something good had happened. The party had been reunited, and we could now push onwards together into Bridlewood and solve this mystery once and for all.

Our world needed us. Our friends needed us. We had to find that last crystal, fit them together, and hope for the best.

Otherwise, we were doomed. And if that had been the case, well, let's just say the ending wouldn't have been pretty.

Author's Note:

And with that.... another week for Misty Brightdawn is in the books. :)

We'll naturally be back to her on a later date, but of course.... we're gonna be switching back to the next character for Phase 3. ^^

Comments

[Comickook]

Again, the work going into the dialogue, characterizations and future chapter set-up were quite well done. REALLY loved this spin on "Misty's" meeting with "Sprout" and, of course, both finding out they were humans turned ponies. The two of them explaining their experience thus far was well done, as was "Misty's" acknowledging "Sprout" was much nicer than the one from the actual film/series, including giving some rather helpful advice.

Definitely looking forward to more of this. "Haven" and "Pipp" in January, "Hitch" and Sprout" in February to wrap up Phase Three and then Phase Four of "Zipp" and "Izzy" in March, and back to "Sunny" and "Misty" in April, "Haven" and "Pipp" again in May and "Hitch" and "Sprout" again in June to wrap up Phase Four.

[JimmyHook19]

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Got that right on so many levels. ^^

[The Blue EM2]

11775956
This series will certainly be keeping me and Jimmy busy for a while.

[hyreia]

Aww. This was a cute chapter! I'm guessing the stuff about ghost ponies is in Sprout's story? Fair enough not describing it then, although a little disappointing. A few sentences maybe? Oh well. Sprout's characterization really surprised me. Totally different! That's refreshing. This was as good as any of an introduction to Sprout. Sprout totally had his own little adventure it seems!

Also "the last crystal"? Did Sunny and Izzy grab the earth pony one while they were still in Maretime Bay? That makes sense if so. I guess I would've known that if I read these in the order they came out.

But yeah, this chapter felt... chipper! I'm excited to have Sprout on board! And the mystery about just who is human and who isn't continues. Misty asking the good questions! She's quickly becoming "my girl" here. I can't really get a feel for Izzy or Sunny in this but I understand now this isn't supposed to be a complete story in of itself but one part to the rest. Without the back and forth and dialogue like we get in this chapter, it can make the story feel empty though. I hardly feel like Sunny is there she gets so little dialogue.

[The Blue EM2]

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You can find out what happened to Sprout in his story. Link?

[hyreia]

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No thanks. I figured but it'd be a bit overwhelming to read all eight of them. I'm pretty content just keeping up with Misty and Zipp. Thank you though!

[The Blue EM2]

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No worries.