Misty slowly creaked open the door to Opaline's throne room. Misty always had to be cautious, Opaline had a habit of surprising her by flying down from the top of the tower, yelling orders directly behind. She had a room up at the very top of the tower, one that Misty never had the honor of seeing. She bit her lip. Opaline had to be awake by now, but Misty was scared of facing her.
The last time they spoke, Misty had been scolded for her failure to obtain Opaline's dragon Sparky…. Misty wished Sparky didn't have to be dragged into all this. Tip-shoeing into the throne room, she looked about, thinking maybe Opaline had fallen asleep, she sighed and let her body relax.
As she looked upon the throne across the room, she remembered the few times where she would sit on Opaline's throne pretending to be a princess herself. But that was when she was a mere filly, silly and thoughtless of Opaline's true power.
Opaline appeared from behind her, flying right above her shoulder.
“MISTY” Opaline yelled, flying mid-air.
“AAAH” Misty yelled, so startled that she hopped a bit in the air. Misty could feel the disappointment on Opaline's face as she quickly shot her head to look at her disapproving glare. Misty whimpered and curled into her usual stature. Opaline must always be respected and feared, Misty had been told this from the early stages of her acceptance into Opaline's castle. It was drilled into her mind, and she always remembered.
“Misty, I thought by now you would've outgrown your usual jitters” Opaline remarked flippantly rolling her hoof.
“S-SORRY Op-paline! I-I’ll try not to jitter!” Misty remarked as she twirled her hoof on the ground causing a small noise.
Opaline landed on the floor, clopping her large hooves on the floor and glancing a nasty look at Misty. She made it over to her magic pool, where she occasionally caught a glance at the ponies in Maretime Bay. To Misty, it seemed like Opaline could only do this a few times for a couple minutes a day. Almost like she didn't have much magic to draw from. But Misty would never say such things to the alicorn, it would earn her a hefty berating.
“Mmmm~” Opaline hummed as she looked at one of the unicorns. It was Izzy. She was floating a musical instrument by her horn and humming a tune; ever since the incident with Sparky, she'd been taking up more musical endeavors, particularly the flute. Pipp was pleased with this.
“Huh..” She tilted her head as she looked upon the unicorn with great interest. She walked around the pool chuckling a bit as she did.
“Misty…” She said as she turned her head with a slight smile towards the small unicorn.
“W-what Opaline?” Misty said as she crept towards the Alicorn nervously. Misty never knew what task Opaline would ask of her next.
“You need to learn to use your unicorn abilities, if you can do that, then you might be able to capture the dragon" Opaline said as she walked closer to Misty.
“My unicorn abilities?” Misty asked, craning her head.
“Yes, if you can levitate objects, then maybe you might ACTUALLY have a chance of fulfilling my request” Opaline remarked as she got into Misty's face and smiled.
“B-but how! I don’t know the first thing about magic, I don’t even have my cutie mark!” Misty yelled, waving her hooves.
“You don’t need a cutie mark to use your unicorn abilities! The crystals brought magic back to all unicorns, even cutie-markless fillies. Even you.” Opaline said as she walked around her.
Misty cringed a little as she sat on the ground. The floor had brief dirt marks, how long had it been since it had been cleaned she wondered…
“Where would I even start?” she asked as she caressed her cheek with her hoof.
“Here, take this.” Opaline gave her a small rock. “Levitate it” She said.
Misty gazed at the rock confused. Before glancing at the unpleased face of Opaline.
“Ugh, Misty, what are you waiting for, somepony to do it for you? JUST LEVITATE IT” Opaline said as she walked away and laid on her throne.
Misty watched her, then walked around the rock, picking it up with her hooves and tossing it about. She studied it wholeheartedly. She brought it close to her nose glaring at the object as though it had slighted her.
“Ok rock, this shouldn’t be so hard…. Just cooperate for me ok?” Misty remarked as she set it back down on the hard floor. Straining her head, she filled her cheeks with air as she tried to direct a magic stream onto the rock. Her eyes crossed in opposite directions and her face turned a shade of red.
It didn’t work. Crouching down she stared intently, as though something would happen automatically as she held a staring contest with the rock. Sighing, she got back on her hooves once more circling the object with a cold expression.
“Alright rock, you can’t beat me! I’ve got the power of magic and Opaline on my side!”
Misty closed her eyes and let out a loud seething noise from her teeth as she tried to unlock her magic. She creaked open one eye, and saw one small spark fly from her horn onto the rock.
It didn’t do anything, but something was better than nothing. Misty gasped at her progress, and smiled, exhausted.
“You call that magic? That was worse than a newborn….quite literally" Opaline remarked from across the room on her throne. “Misty, do put in more effort than that" Opaline said as she looked away but mockingly waved her hoof.
Misty became embarrassed as she shot her ears to the sides of her head. Slowly rotating her hoof in a circular motion, she resumed doing nothing.
"How am I supposed to levitate this rock?" Misty whispered to herself as her eyebrows furrowed.
Misty started back towards her room, thinking nothing could be done right away. Opaline’s request had been done spur of the moment, Misty had no prior knowledge of how magic worked, or if she could use it at all.
“Where are you going? You can’t leave until you levitate that rock!” Opaline yelled at Misty as she scowled.
"What! But I can't…" She said as she rocked back and forth.
"You can and you will, stay right where you are and don't move until you figure it out" Opaline said, crossing her hooves and pointing her nose up like a snooty princess.
Misty signed and went back to the rock. It was quite a foe. Magic seemed like something innate for the other unicorns, but she just couldn't seem to do it.
For a few hours she tried and got a few more tiny sparks to fly off, but nothing else. What once felt like progress now just felt like a chore. Repeating and failing something so simple made her feel inadequate.
After those few long hours, Opaline was looking into her pool once more, watching the ponies in the town go about their day. She looked over to Misty and released her from her captivity.
"Misty." Opaline said.
"Y-yes Opaline?" Misty replied, exhausted.
"Go down into the town and figure out how the other unicorns use their new powers." She said.
"Of course! Of course! I-i won't fail! I me-mean I will find out for you Opaline" Misty replied excitedly getting up.
Misty hurried from her spot. Running into her room, she drew back on her fake cutie mark with haste. The town was still a ways away. So it would take a bit to get there.
"Bye Opaline!" Misty said with a huge smile on her face as she ran down the stairs and out the front door. She always liked to be around the ponies of Maretime Bay. She couldn't wait to get to the town. Maybe she'd have to spy a bit, but it would be ok if she laid low. After about 30 minutes, she reached her destination.
Slowing her pace, she could see some ponies walking about. No sign of Izzy or any others, but that was fine. She would've gotten all nervous around them anyway. Looking at the small shops, a couple of unicorns could be seen trotting out and levitating bags with items in them. In hindsight, perhaps Bridlewood would have been a better contender for abundant amounts of unicorns. Maretime Bay only had a few who moved recently.
Tapping her hoof against her chin, Misty scanned the area, two unicorns, ten earth ponies, and one pegasus flying overhead. Still no sign of Izzy or any others. She trotted towards the middle of town, which was usually where Sunny's stand was. Ever since she became a magical alicorn, her business was booming with all sorts of ponies.
Seeing that the large stand was there and Sunny was serving different ponies, Misty decided to stick around. Seeing if any other unicorns would go there.
She sat for a while, drawing little doodles on the dirt as she waited. A butterfly, one of the things she best knew how to draw, and fire, the thing Opaline was obsessed with. She'd always been drawn to butterflies, they hung out right outside her window. They seemed so free and good-spirited.
But Opaline liked fire, she'd told Misty stories of ponies forged in fire. All attempting to steal her prestige. Misty often wondered if Opaline had spoken of her siblings, perhaps the ancient alicorn once had a family. But she always spoke as if they were her enemies. She'd been shown small murals of them, which bore striking resemblance to Opaline herself, but Misty would never bring it up.
A small bright yellow unicorn filly walked up to the stand, getting a smoothie and trotting away.
Misty contemplated, a unicorn filly was much less threatening to talk to than a full-grown one. And this particular unicorn had helped Pipp and Zipp escape from her trap. She decided to speak with her.
"Oh, uh, hey kid!" Misty yelled as she nervously trotted towards the unicorn.
"Huh? What is it?" She turned her head to look at Misty.
"Uh, um well, are you friends with Pipp? I saw you in her newest music video. How does it go.. uh. Oh, oh where'd it go? Oh, oh, where'd it go? We're not gonna stop till we find what we're missing" Misty sang awkwardly.
"Oh! Yes! I am friends with Pipp, that was a great rendition!" The small filly replied, beaming a bright smile on her face. "I'm surprised, you're the only pony who seemed to notice so far!" She said bouncing in place.
"Well, I want to know more about the princess! And I was hoping to speak with you about her" Misty managed to blurt out in a rush as she pinned her ears to her head and averted her eyes.
"Of course! It's only natural to want to know the princess better, what do you want to know?" The young unicorn said with curious eyes.
"Uh, well, you see, what does she think about unicorns? You know, it's strange for a princess to be FRIENDS with other kinds, not to mention common ponies. I-I mean, I know she lives in that house with 3 others…not including her sister. But that could easily just be for appearances" Misty said, airing a questioning tone to her words.
The small unicorn looked at her blankly. "Huh? You think she's pretending?" She said looking at Misty with a bewildered stare.
"Well, it's possible, don't you think? You know, unicorns like us, t-hat thing…uh…. that allows us to do magic, that uh… what is it again?" Misty asked, raising her hoof and leaning closer to the filly. With a nervous smile.
"Our Sparkle! Izzy says that's our sparkle!" The unicorn yelled leaving her mouth agape.
"Yeah! That!" She said as she pointed to the pony. "Uh, well, maybe Pipp knows about that, and she wants to take it from us! It could happen! I m-mean, the pegasus have a whole lot of technology. They even brought phones to us more common ponies for little price. Couldn't that be z-zapping our sparkle? Pipp just LOVES us using her phones to see all her videos. Wouldn't It be p-possible?" Misty said dramatically as her voice cracked its way through the entire sentence. Nervousness filled her whole body.
The unicorn bolted, leaving Misty in the dust. Twisting her around before she could think. She shook her head, watching the small filly run off into the distance. She'd just come up with that lie on the spot.
"Now, this Sparkle thing sounds like it could be just what I need! Now to find Izzy…wherever she is.." Misty thought as she happily trotted off, now aimed at a tangible goal.