I stared at the small teal green unicorn filly and smile before gazing out at the field and saw a yet another small boulder, roughly 2 feet in width and 3 feet in height there in the field before us, and a small tree, just beyond it… I smile and say to Jessi, “Okay, let’s see what kind of power this thing has! Blast that boulder now, Jessi!”
She swallows the last of the crackers in her snout, before gazing at the boulder and pointing her staff at it and mentally forcing a blue beam of light to leave the crystal at the end of the staff and strike the boulder!
The boulder, which then turned into a bouquet of blue flowers!
Which was then overtaken inside a blue glow and rises to my view before flying to me!
It stops right in front of me and I hear Jessi say, “For you, sweet mother!”
I grasp them in my magic and float them back to my left saddlebag while asking Jessi, “Are you feeling okay, sweetie?”
“I’m fine, sweet mother! What makes you ask?”
I turn to see a green unicorn filly there, staring up at me intently with big burnt orange eyes with an expectant look on her face, “Well, you seem really gung ho about this whole mother/daughter thing now?”
She smiles, “I love you!”
I decide to drop it as I smile back and say, “I love you too, sweet daughter!”
She smiles wider at that and I can already tell that I just made the filly’s day!
When suddenly, we both hear a loud reverberating masculine voice as if from a megaphone or loudspeaker, “We are the Maretime Prairie Robbers! Leave your valuable possessions in the field and trot away, now! Or face our wrath!”
Jessi raises her neck towards the hill in the distance, beyond the tree we’re both staring at and shouts back, “Uh, you’ll need a better intro than that! Please go away and try again later!”
At that point, we both hear faint whispering in the loudspeaker before the same voice says back, “Our intro is not important! Place your valuables on the grass and leave now, or we will launch cream pies at you with our catapults!”
Jessi loudly retorts, “Oh, but you’re wrong! I mean, what is it with bandits these days? Maretime Prairie Robbers? You couldn’t even come up with a decent gang name? That’s just lazy.”
The speaker screeches loudly causing both me and Jessi to wince before the voice says back, “You know what? Forget it! Fire the catapults!”
Suddenly, we both see just over half a dozen cream pies flying at us from behind the hill, and before I can react, I widen my eyes as I see them all engulfed in a blue glow only to fly back towards the hill and then, release to fall behind the hill and we both soon hear loud groaning coming from the other side!
We both then hear a loud male voice from the other side of the hill say over the sound of hooves clopping away from us, “Dangit Carl! I told you this was a bad idea!”
We then hear a slightly higher voice from the same direction scream, “Shut up, Burt! Just shut up!
I turn my head back right to my magic student and say, “You just used your new powerful magic, because you had to…” I frown. “You and I aren’t so different!”
She turns her neck back to me and replies, “Well, of course! I love you!”
I smile, “That was pretty boneheaded of them, right?”
“You’re not wrong, mom!”
My grin lowers slightly, “I’m still not used to you calling me that!”
She nods, “Well, you fulfill a role, you know? A hole that was left in my heart some time ago…”
I turn my body and take two paces towards this filly before bending down to nuzzle her with my snout… “I’m so sorry, Jessi…”
She nuzzles me from her position down there with a faint glimmer in her eyes, “Don’t be… What’s done is done and it’s not your fault… I’m just glad I have you now…”
I stop nuzzling her to stare deep into her orange eyes as I say back, “I’m glad I have you now, too Jessi!”
<*****>
I trot towards the strange brown shack on the road in Bridlewood. I stare at the steps at Izzy’s door, suddenly a lot more imposing than they once were as I gulp and began to ascend the four steps…
One… Two… Three… Four… I reach the landing at the top and stare at her red front door before trotting towards the closed portal and knock on it four times with my right forehoof…
Knock! Knock! Knock! Knock! My hoof crashes against the front of the door…
I hear a jovial female voice from inside say, “COMING!” and I can only assume that Izzy is trotting towards her door as I stare at it with wide eyes and wonder what I’m about to say…
She opens the door soon and I see two red eyes widen in sudden surprise as her azure muzzle smiles and Izzy says happily, “Misty! I didn’t expect to see you today! What a nice surprise!”
I put on the biggest smile I can muster and ask her, “Uh, is it okay if I come in?”
Her mouth normalizes, “Of course, Misty! Is anything wrong?”
I giggle nervously while trotting past her left side to enter her house, “Uh, yeah! We need to talk, sweet Izzy!”
She nods, “Certainly, Misty Chan! Go sit down and I’ll bring you some tea!”
I gulp, “Uh, yes ma’am!
<*****>
I giggle nervously and cough, “Um, yeah!” before looking down at the tea I had just prepared with extra milk… I always have to add more milk! It’s too bitter!
Her eyes widen and I can only guess she sensed how I was feeling when she asks with a frown on her normally jubilant face, “Are you okay?”
I sigh, “Well, that depends!”
She leans forward, “Depends on what…”
I stare at her severely, “Well, Izzy! Can you uh, keep a secret?”
Her eyes normalize and she nods, “Well of course! What are friends for?”
(6 hours earlier…)
I smile with delight at the scene before me...
I can now feel the pitiful sputtering of blood on the knife through my magic, as I hold the blade in my reddish glow after it sliced neatly into the other pony's jugular vein... I then witness her magenta body thrash slightly as her hooves kicked into the air, causing the now lodged knife to jostle somewhat in my arcane grasp and her hooves knock the white blanket off her, only for it to fall lifelessly back to the mattress over her now deceased form, shortly after it softly lands onto the mattress... I grin widely as I watch the crimson fluid exit her now lacerated neck... I bare my teeth with glee, for at that moment, I knew that I, Misty the unicorn, had slain Opaline the alicorn... And it felt great!
(Back in the present…)
Izzy widens her eyes in disbelief, “Wait! So you killed an alicorn?”
I smiled, “An evil alicorn who wanted to rule Equestria! I’m a hero!”
“B-but you just killed her in cold blood! Don’t you think you should’ve given her a chance?”
I widen my eyes in shock, “What? No! Why?” my eyes narrow. “It doesn’t matter what I did! I’m alive and she’s not! That’s all that’s important!”
Izzy’s eyes remain enormous in astonishment, “Don’t you think Opaline at least deserved a shot at redemption, though?”
I blink and frown, “No! Why?”
“Well, I mean, she’s a super powerful alicorn, right? She could’ve done a lot of good!”
I sigh as I look down somewhat and then, raise my gaze back to the other unicorn, “Izzy, I know this pony…” I smile dimly, “She was mean as sin!” and I stare up at her eagerly. “Trust me when I say, it’s better this way…”
She breathes in and out severely through her nose and gazes at me gravely, “Well, what have you done with the corpse?”
I smiled, “That was the best part… I burned it!” I say in grim satisfaction as I recall the view of her burning remains, covered in the blood soaked blanket on the big pile of logs I had built and the way my nostrils were soon overtaken by the oddly sickeningly sweet scent of burning alicorn flesh meshed with birch wood.
Izzy frowns seriously, “Well, does anypony else know about this?”
“No, Izzy… You’re the only one I’ve told… However!” I put on the biggest smile I can muster. “With Opaline dead, I now need a new place to live!”
<*****>
I nod my head as my wavy grayish-white mane falls down to my shoulders as I stood there on my hooves in Twinkle’s room, now a beautiful catastrophe, and smile at Twinkle on my left, “Okay, so to recap! We got me, the intelligent unicorn filly!”
Twinkle smiles over at me and says as her little body shakes, “Spastic intelligent unicorn filly!”
I nod, “Right! That!” and point at the pegasus with my left hoof, “We also have Stoner Glow over there!”
Her mouth straightens, “Yup!”
“And now, introducing,“ I move my hoof to point at the curly maned azure unicorn filly to the right of the pink pegasus filly, “Misty the Murderer!”
Her cerulean eyes widen as she stammers out frantically, “WHAT? I only told Izzy about that! I can’t believe she would tell both of you before you even met me!”
Twinkle turns her head left to look at Misty, “Relax! She didn’t tell anypony! I was listening in while you were talking to her!”
I sigh, “Yeah, and naturally, Twinkle told me about it!”
She frowns, “So, now you two know my dark secret… I suppose I should go get my things?”
Twinkle chuckles, “Really? Well, I almost took over Equestria!”
I smile, “Twice!”
Her eyes widen, “Really?”
Twinkle nods, “Well, Opaline can try to do it, I can try to do it too, right?”
She frowns, “Well, I suppose?” she blinks. “S-so I’m welcome here?”
Twinkle nods again, “We’re a couple of lunatics! I’m sure you’ll fit right in!”
I chirp up as my little body shakes, “The best!”
She stutters out, “I-I’ve never had friends before?”
I smile, “Well, since you’re staying in the room across from Twinkle Shine, at Izzy’s now, we’re gonna see each other a lot, anyway, right?”
“B-but I don’t have my cutie mark, a-and I killed the only chance I’d ever get!”
My mouth straightens, “What? What makes you think Opaline has anything to do with your cutie mark?”
She blinks, “Well, that’s what she told me?”
I shake my head, “That’s not how cutie marks work!”
Twinkle chimes in, “You know, if she lied to you about that, what else do you think she might have lied to you about?”
Her eyes widen as she asks loudly, “So, wait! How DO I get a cutie mark, then?”
I try my best to calmly say to her, “Well, that happens whenever a pony discovers their special talent and purpose. It can’t really be forced or created any other way!”
“O-Opaline lied to me?”
I nod and reply, “Well, pretty much, yeah! I mean, she was just using you!”
Twinkle adds as her winged body shakes, “Wasn’t it obvious?”
“I…” She stutters as her bottom lip quivers. “I’m so stupid!”
“Well golly gee, beating yourself up over it won’t be helpful either, you know?”
Her mouth straightens as she stares at the pegasus, “S-so, you don’t hate me?”
Twinkle’s body shakes as she exclaims, “I don’t even know you!” her neck leans towards the other unicorn. “But I’d like to?”
“M-me? You wanna know me?”
Twinkle grins, “Golly, no! The timid unicorn behind you! Who do you think I mean, silly?”
She finally begins to smirk slightly, “Wow!”
<*****>
I remembered that horrible pony! I remembered her constantly criticizing me and acting like she was better than me and everypony else… Always so haughty! And h-how she wanted me to be… It never really felt right, you know? I always felt like I should be doing something else? Not that that evil alicorn ever gave me the actual time to explore these feelings! And so, I guess that’s why it felt so good, you know? It felt wonderful to end her! As I used my magic to slice the blade into her flesh, I can almost feel my own hatred, burning through the blade into her… It felt so great!
I sigh as I continue to be deep in thought, in front of the big red door… I can smell some sort of unidentifiable floral scent wafting from underneath as I bring myself back to my train of thought…
That release of sheer rage is what overthrew my mind… I needed more! I needed her to pay! And so, that’s why I also took the hatchet into my magic and chopped up her corpse after slashing her throat oh so many times, over and over again, as I enacted my absolute malice on this other pony! I remember the crimson splatter of her blood as the ax blade entered her corpse, over and over again and the way her limbs came off after being separated by the force of the steel wedge… This felt too good...
...
I blink as I begin to ponder if I should feel bad? I mean, I shake my head and flinch again as it occurs to me that I really don’t! I don’t feel bad at all about the brutal way I slew that awful alicorn! I smile grimly as I knock on the blood-red door...
<*****>
I stood there on my hooves and bring the freshly ignited joint to my lips with my right forehoof and begin to purse my lips around the cardboard tip and inhale, causing the end to glow and causing me to feel warm smoke as it traveled down into my throat…
I hear a timid tapping at my door as I take my second drag and feel the smoke traveling into my gullet…
I exhale smoke quickly and sputter out, “H-hang on! I’m coming!”
Before shaking my head, now with the joint in the muzzle and begin trotting the necessary 4 paces towards the doorway… Clip… Clop… Clip… Clop… and then, the low whining of the hinges as I operated the door with my right hoof…
I see a disheveled orchid purple and neon green curly mane there, with two green eyes staring at me from underneath, just over a blue frowning mouth, “Um, T-Twinkle? Is it okay if I come in?”
I nod and smile, “Sure thing Misty!” and turn to trot towards the center of the room and allow her entry.
I see her widen her eyes at the burning weed wrap in my mouth and says, “Uh, Twinkle! Are you smoking weed?”
I widen my eyes and move the joint out of my mouth to exhale a cloud of smoke between us, “It’s fine! Just tell me what you want!”
She blinks and turns her head right to use her green magic to close the door behind her, which I found odd, since aside from us, nopony else was home. She looks at me and her eyes begin to quiver with pain as she says, “I just couldn’t take it anymore…” and she blinks…
I inhale and feel the warm smoke enter my mouth as it travels down my throat and exhale to her right before staring at her, “What do you mean?” and then, bring the joint up to my mouth… No emotional trauma is gonna ruin this smoke session for me, golly dammit!
She blinks again before lowering her head, “Well, it was her abuse… She would always have to correct me, for even minor things! And… And that wasn’t really the worst though?” she closes her eyes and looks to the right…
I breathe smoke out of my nostrils while saying, “Oh, golly! Uh, you literally just met me! Are you sure you should be unloading on me like this?”
She looks up at me, “You’re the best choice!”
“Golly! You don’t have a lot of choices, huh?” I say before bringing the joint back to my lips with my hoof.
She closes her eyes and flinches, “An evil villain!” and then opens them up to me and says, “That is to say, uh,” she blinks. “she always wanted me to laugh maniacally and be an evil villain like her and just, well, something was always off about that, you know…” she sighs, “eventually, I didn’t like it… Anymore… “she blinks and flinches again, “That is to say, I don’t think I ever particularly liked it? Especially when she was always correcting me! And I uh…“she blinks, “guess I just had enough? And so, I had to do something, you know? I had to end this! I just hated her so much! I hated the way she’d always find things wrong with me! I hated the way she wanted me to be this pony that I’m not! I hated the way she kept trying to correct me! And just well, I needed to end it… And so, I took the bread knife and took care of things…” she blinks, “But I’m almost ashamed at how great that felt? I-I just can’t help it, you know?” she looks at me severely. “Knowing that I ended that horrible pony, just fills my heart with such happiness!”
Now, at this point, it became golly well clear to me that I was dealing with far more than my beleaguered, stoned mind could handle… And so, I did pretty much the only thing I could think of to do… I snuffed my joint into the glass ashtray on the table to my right and trotted up to her and embraced her in a tight warm forehoof hug! I breathed softly on her left ear, now partially concealed by her swept over curly mane as I said softly, “It’s okay to feel that way, Misty… It’s okay…”
I release her and stare back at her while on my hooves as she says, “I-it is?” before frowning.
I release her and go back to my hooves on the floor and nod, “Yes, Misty! It’s okay to feel however you may feel about things! After all, it’s our actions that define us, in the end…”
Her eyes widen as her mouth frowns in astonishment, “That’s actually very insightful for a filly to say!”
“Well, you spent two thousand years in stone, I guess you have a lot of time to think? About a lot of things…”
Misty normalizes her mouth while staring at me with wide open curious green eyes, “What?”
I look to the table on my right and fetch the joint before lowering my face to it and ignite it with the hoof lighter from the same table… I inhale as I feel the hot vapors travel into me and hear the clack noise as I place the lighter back on the tableand I gaze calmly as the end burns with my muzzle pursed around the cardboard… I then, slowly exhale smoke at this other filly while moving the joint away from my face with my right forehoof and calmly say, “I am a genius… I tried to manipulate ponies and take over Equestria and while I almost succeeded, I didn’t and so, they froze me in stone… They eventually forgot about me and I later woke up alone, two thousand years later…”
Her mouth straightens and she stutters, “W-wow!”
I smirk slightly, “Well, in a nutshell!” and bring the nub to my mouth for one of my final drags and cause the embers to glow as I inhale again.
“So, why are you here?”
I exhale before sighing, “Well, long story short, Izzy adopted me! Well, sorta? I may have adopted her, actually? It’s complicated!” I widen my eyes to her. “The truth is, I just wandered aimlessly for many hours and I eventually found Bridlewood that way...”
She blinks, “And you met Izzy from there?”
I gaze at her wide eyed and say robotically, “Yes! That makes sense! We’ll go with that story!”
Misty finally giggles and smiles faintly, “You’re funny, Twinkle Shine!”
I slowly take my last drag, and then widen my eyes as I look to the glass ashtray on the table at my right and snuff out the nub with my right forehoof. I think there’s three or four more drags there and I definitely wanna save that for later! I exhale smoke over the ashtray, before turning my head back left towards Misty and say, “Golly! You act so awkward all the time! You didn’t have a lot of friends, huh?”
Her mouth straightens as her eyes widen, “That obvious?”
I giggle, “Yeah! Kinda!” I lean forward as I widen my eyes, “But valiant effort, though! Not a golly bad job at all!” my eyes straighten as my mouth curves. “I think? By golly! For golly well good, for a first attempt! Yes, golly well good job! Golly!”
Her eyes stare widely at me as she frantically says, “You’re stoned, aren’t you?”
I stare at her blankly with my eyes wide as saucers, “You know, I did just smoke a joint, right?”
She giggles, “Yeah!” her eyes focus back on me. “So uh, now you’re here!”
I giggle back with a big smile on my face, “Yup! And so are you! Welcome to the family, Misty!”
(To be continued...)