A calm forest of evergreen trees and luscious green grass sat in this part of the west, the climate was cool but not cold and the forest thin enough here you could easily pull a wagon through it and never hit a point too narrow. A stream running downhill through the forest fell off a small waterfall, no taller than a pony, and created a wide but shallow pond below it. The pond eventually thinned out to become a stream again that continued through the rest of the forest and beyond. The constant cascading of the miniature waterfall created a pleasant sound, it would be the perfect background noise to anyone camping around that wanted to sleep. The surface of the water was tranquil and reflective like a mirror. Peaceful was the word of the forest.
The water in the center of the pond then started to bubble and a second later out popped the head of Amethyst Star, sending ripples in every direction and disturbing the calm pond while taking a big breath of air. The unicorn tread water as she shook her head back and forth to get the excess water out of her mane before throwing it all back and looking up at the clear sky with a smile.
“Ah, that was refreshing.”
Just a few minutes earlier the unicorn happened across this little pond after having spent the rest of the morning walking through the forest. Seeing it as a good opportunity to cool off, clean up, and just generally relax, she dove in. Her saddlebag was left on the side of the pond as she let her body float around on the surface of the water, basking in the sun’s rays. She really needed a little moment like this for herself. Amethyst Star closed her eyes and just let her mind, body, and soul rest. The forest so quiet that only the buzzing of a few bugs and the occasional chirping of birds broke the near perfect tranquility.
Amethyst Star felt like she could float here for hours. She deserved this kind of treat after everything else.
Not really. But she thought she did.
Amethyst Star was again choosing to forget about her recent failures, or blame them on others. She was still doing a great job and she was sure another chance at adventure was right around the corner. Nothing had gone wrong. Recent events were more about bad luck than anything else, it didn’t mean Amethyst Star wasn’t meant for this or wasn’t perfectly capable. She had just been unlucky.
She had not made any stupid decisions.
The unicorn started to absentmindedly backstroke, enjoying the feeling of swimming around in the calm and cool water. She should probably get out soon and dry off, Amethyst Star was hoping to find a village or some sort of place to stay before nightfall. And if she stayed in here for too much longer while it was a little chilly out she might catch cold. Since she didn’t have a towel, drying off effectively would be a hassle. She couldn’t just resort to shaking like a dog and hoping that would do it. It was a shame since she was enjoying her bath so much and she had no idea when she’d get the chance of taking a nice refreshing dip again.
Oh well, time was… not exactly of the essence since she had no real goal or destination in mind but she still didn’t want to waste the rest of the day. Amethyst Star stretched her forelegs out in the water and yawned, looking back over at the side of the pond where she had left her saddlebag.
Only to see a group of young colts in the process of carrying it away.
“Hey!” Amethyst Star yelled at them, suddenly flailing about in the water.
“Run!” One of the colts yelled and the five of them grabbed her bag and started running off into the forest with it.
Amethyst Star was shocked but she quickly swam to shore and pulled herself out of the pond, shaking off for a second and starting to run after the thieves. “You little brats, come back here!” She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “What would your parents think, huh?!”
As an adult she would normally have the advantage but the younger ponies clearly knew their way around this forest well and did a good job dodging around the trees and ducking under and through the brush. If she could teleport this would be easy. But Amethyst Star was still slowly catching up, her longer legs doing a lot of work for her. If she got close enough she could probably just yank the bag from them and let them scamper off, she really wasn’t in the mood to chase down and discipline some rowdy kids.
“Just give me my bag back and I won’t say anything, okay?” Amethyst Star shouted to them.
The colt bringing up the rear just looked over his shoulder and stuck his tongue out at her.
“Grr! Fine then!” Amethyst Star ground her jaw and started running harder.
But when the colts noticed that she was catching up they instead started to open up her bag and throw her things out, her canteen, her compass, some small boxes, and all of the other assorted things she had inside it. Just letting it all drop on the forest floor.
“Stop that!” Amethyst Star stopped to pick her things up with her magic, doing her best to hold all that she could while she kept chasing, trying not to let the colts out of her sight.
Maybe the kids were finally tired of teasing her since they at last dropped the bag itself too and sped off. Amethyst Star frowned as she slowed down, catching her breath while she picked everything up that had been recklessly tossed out of her bag and putting it back inside. Her stuff was dirty and now she was tired again right after taking a relaxing dip in the water. Just her luck. At least nothing was broken and they hadn’t run off with anything as far as she could tell. Amethyst Star clicked her tongue and threw her saddlebag back on, annoyed that a peaceful day was ruined by a group of rambunctious kids.
“Hey stupid!”
Amethyst Star looked up just in time for a tomato to hit her in the face. As she groaned in disgust and wiped away the filth she saw the five colts standing a little bit in front of her, holding an assortment of fruit in their hooves. Before she had time to react or say anything they all began pelting her, the unicorn helpless to do anything but raise her hooves and close her eyes to try and protect her face.
“Argh! Stop it!” Amethyst Star screamed while the colts laughed.
The five finished up with throwing their arsenals at her and ran off, one last colt chucking a pine-cone at her that knocked the poor unicorn onto her butt before he too left. Leaving Amethyst Star alone in the forest and covered in the sticky and smelly remains of a lot of wasted fruit.
Amethyst Star wiped it away from her eyes and glared at the running children, shaking her hoof at them. “Brats!”
An hour later Amethyst Star emerged from the forest in a foul mood. She had gone back to the pond to clean herself off again but unlike the last time this dip in the water didn’t make her feel good at all. She was far too annoyed at what had just happened with those colts. The only saving grace was that it was still early in the day, close to noon just about, and right outside the forest was a small town that she could stop in. She tried to keep the angry frown off her face so she wouldn’t make a bad first impression on the villagers but it was tough, at best she still kept a hard look in her eyes.
The town sat on a flat expanse of land between some hills and more forest with a stream going right past its eastern edge. Amethyst Star didn’t know for sure but she had to figure that was the same stream that came from the pond she was bathing in. Whatever, honestly she didn’t really care to think or do anything right now, she just wanted to find a place to stay for the day and then she could punch her pillow a few times and go to bed.
She was sure she was scowling again but her facial muscles just wouldn’t listen to her. Amethyst Star walked down the main street of the town looking as grumpy as she felt, and the first pony she saw, a yellow mare with a brown mane wearing a blue dress, gave her an awkward look and kept her distance.
“Ugh, great. Just what I wanted,” Amethyst Star grumbled.
There were a lot of ponies out on the street right now, soon Amethyst Star could tell why. The street opened up on its left side, making room for temporary stalls, stands, and carts to set up. It actually became a rather large marketplace and Amethyst Star saw all kinds of fruit and vegetables being sold by ponies, as well as things like breadstuffs and candies. The sight somewhat lifted Amethyst Star’s mood, she could go for a caramel apple right now, that was for sure.
The faces of the local ponies were smiling and they looked friendly enough too. Hopefully that spoke better of them than the behavior of those kids but no one had actually said hello to her yet or anything.
Amethyst Star took a big whiff of air as she got closer to all the assorted goods. The marketplace sure smelled good. This was a good way to get her mind off some of the more annoying things of her day, even though her frowning face didn’t exactly disappear and it probably wouldn’t look too good to any vendor she tried to talk to. The unicorn still wandered about the stalls, checking out everything and winding between the other shopping ponies. Regardless of what else this would definitely be a nice and quiet little place for her to spend the night.
As she wandered about the stalls her eyes zoomed in on something else and Amethyst Star paused, her frown deepening.
One of the colts. The one who had stuck his tongue out at her was here in the marketplace, he was walking with an older mare carrying a basket already full of food. His mother no doubt.
Well that was just perfect, now Amethyst Star could tell his mother what he and his friends had done and hopefully she could teach him some manners. If she never saw that colt or any of his friends again Amethyst Star would’ve been willing to let it all slide, it’s not like she would’ve hunted them down, they were just some mean brats. But now that she was here and the opportunity presented itself she was not about to leave without making sure that pony was disciplined. With a huff she began to stomp over to the colt and his mother, a dull orange earth pony with an olive colored mane done up in a beehive style wearing a floral print blouse.
Before Amethyst could say anything the colt saw her coming first.
And grinned.
“Mom, mom!” He tugged on her blouse to get her attention and pointed at Amethyst Star. “That’s the pony that scared me and Hickory in the forest! She’s the one who chased us and threw pine-cones at us!”
Amethyst Star was stunned at his outrageous fibbing. “Excuse me?!”
His mother seemed to buy it completely though and she glared at Amethyst Star while pushing the young colt behind her legs. “Well what kind of sick pony are you to do that to a bunch of kids?”
“Hey I didn’t do anything like that, they’re the ones who stole my bag and threw fruit at me!” Amethyst Star tried to explain.
“We were just playing around in the forest and she ran out and screamed at us!” The young colt started bawling behind his mother.
“That’s not-”
“Why don’t you get out of here? We don’t want crazy ponies like you in our town!” One of the ponies working at the fruit stand next to her said.
Amethyst Star looked around, realizing that she was now surrounded by a crowd of other ponies who had heard the arguing and the crying colt, all of them glaring at her and muttering to each other. This was quickly going from bad to worse. This wasn’t just making a bad first impression, it was setting herself up to be thrown in jail or worse!
“Now hold on, I can explain,” Amethyst Star gulped.
“She had a nasty look on her face when she first came walking in here too!” The same yellow mare Amethyst Star had first seen when she walked in said from the crowd.
“W-Wait-” Amethyst Star tried to defend herself but was hit in the side of the head by someone throwing a pear. “Ow!” The unicorn winced and rubbed her head.
“So you like throwing stuff at defenseless kids, huh?” The stallion who had thrown the pear said, flanked by two others holding pears of their own.
Amethyst Star’s eyes widened and she quickly decide to forgo trying to clear her name, she ran and pushed her way through the crowd of ponies, doing her best to ignore their yelling and attempts to grab and hit her. One yanked on her mane, another hit her shin, but finally she broke free from the mob and ran off out of the marketplace and back down the street in the direction of the forest. The crowd wasn’t letting her get off that easily though, they chased her down throwing fruit and other things at her the whole way. A potato smacked her in the back of the head and caused her to stumble, but Amethyst Star was so afraid of getting caught by the mob like this that she quickly picked herself up and kept running, finally make it to the end of the street and back out to the expanse of grass between the town and the forest.
“Yeah that’s right! You don’t ever come back to our town, you here?!” She heard the colt’s mom yell.
Amethyst Star looked back over her shoulder to make sure they weren’t chasing her anymore just in time for a rock sailing at her to peg the unicorn in the forehead, right below her horn.
“Agh!” She cried out in pain, holding a hoof to her head as she tried her best to scramble away, to get to the forest where hopefully she’d be safe.
Amethyst Star checked out her reflection in the stream, there was an ugly bruise on her forehead now thanks to that rock and it throbbed painfully. The rest of her was tired and aching as well, a couple of other bruises were forming on her body where some particularly hard fruits had hit her. But more than any of that what Amethyst Star was looking at the hardest was the expression on her face. A sad frown. Depressed and puffy eyes. Those colts and that village had made her more upset than anything else she had been through. What really ticked her off was the unfairness of it all.
“I don’t get it… I didn’t do anything.”
The unicorn could feel and see the tears start to well up in her eyes. “Why didn’t they even give me a chance? They didn’t even let me speak.” She raised a hoof to clear away the wetness but the tears didn’t abate and a few started dripping down into the stream. “What did I ever do to deserve this?”
As she dwelled on it more and more her sadness started turning to anger. “Those jerks… it’s not fair! You raise an awful son and then you all just attack me? And those other kids too, I bet their parents are just as bad.” Amethyst Star slammed a hoof down into the water, shattering her reflection and the calmness of the stream. “You’re a whole village full of awful ponies! Just a bunch of jerks, I wish I-”
“Do you wish you could get back at them?”
Amethyst Star turned around in surprise at the deep voice, she hadn’t heard anyone coming up behind her. She took a careful step back from the stallion suddenly standing in front of her.
“What… who are you?” Amethyst Star nervously asked.
“The name is Harlequin Grey,” the earth pony stallion flatly responded. He was tall and powerfully built, not old but not young looking either, with a navy blue coat and a midnight black mane and tail that carried a bright sheen to them. His mane was slicked back and looked so stiff that it probably had a bathtub’s worth of hair gel thrown into it and his eyes… what color were his eyes? She thought purple at first, but then when she focused they looked more blue, then green. That was weird. “But that’s not important.” He continued. “I asked you a question: Do you wish you could get back at them?”