Misty's New Magic

by Someoneirrelevant


Chapter 5

Misty thought about Sparky. She hadn't been able to capture him as Opaline had wanted. It had been a few days since her last horrible failure. She hoped this endeavor for unicorn magic would be enough to satisfy the temperamental alicorn. Misty definitely thought so, she was enjoying herself. Putting her efforts into the task, making it her own.

She had reached the castle yet again, but it was very late at night, dark and gloomy. She had spent a considerable amount of time just looking at the sunset in the town. She had not wanted to walk back to the castle. The giant tree protruded from many angles in all the various towers, she wondered just how old it was, along with Opaline. Must’ve been at least a few centuries, if not many more years than even she could imagine.

Her echoing hoofsteps once again made their way to the top of the tower. Passing by the grand architecture and spiraling beams. She halted at the door and took a deep breath. Misty could hear Opaline on the other side, waiting for the small unicorn to make her move and deliver whatever little she had to offer.

“Breath in, Breath out Misty. It’ll be fine” She spoke to herself, reassuring her inner voice that was telling her to turn away,

Her eyes met Opaline's when she opened the door, the alicorn was smirking from cheek to cheek.

"Misty, I implore you. What have you brought me this time?" She asked, bringing a menacing aura to the room.

"These Opaline. I found these" Misty told the looming figure. Handing them to her.

Those greedy hooves snatched up the books like a shark, descending upon Misty with a toothy smirk.

She quickly skimmed the pages as she had done before. But her smirk turned into a deep frown as she got further into the book, turning each page slower than the last.

She snapped the first book closed, and went to the next, making a terrible cracking noise. Her fury radiated in every direction, quickly making the temperature in the room go up. Her fiery eyes peered at Misty's face with an anger that could tear her apart.

She slowed herself backward.

"DID YOU READ THESE?!" Opaline shouted, shattering Misty's ears. The alicorn might've been madder than she'd ever seen her.

"No! I-I didn't read them!" Misty was so overflowing with confusion that it made her head spin in all directions.

"You're lying. I know you are." Opaline exclaimed, slowly walking towards Misty and extruding fire from her whole body.

"I didn't!- I didn't!" Misty looked around the room, the only place to go was the stairs.

"COME HERE NOW!" Opaline yelled, booming and making the floor shake.

"N-no I-I s-swear. W-what's wrong with them! I don't un-nderstand! I don't understand!" She yelled, stumbling and forcing words out of her mouth.

You are trying to outsmart me eh? You think you’re so smart, bringing my past into this! Well, you won’t get the last laugh Misty. It belongs to me, like everything should!” She flared and raged, leaving Misty at a loss.

“I don’t know! I don’t know!” Misty exclaimed, closing her eyes.

“I’LL TEACH YOU NOT TO DISRESPECT ME MISTY! GET OVER HERE!” The fiery alicorn said, slamming her hoof to the ground.

“No! No! I won’t!” Misty yelled stumbling towards the door.

“Where are you going!” Opaline shouted, looking confused but enraged.

She ran, Misty slammed the door open. She didn't understand, they were just books! What could possibly be so horrible about books?! Books she barely peeked into! It was unfair, NO, it was INSANE!

The stairs, she went down faster than she ever had before in her life. Down, down, one after another. No time to waste.

"MISTY!!! NOW!" Opaline roared, it echoed from every direction, the sound moved like a rocket in each hallway.

Misty heard a crashing noise echo in the stairwell, she whipped her head upward, seeing debris and a hole in the wall where the door had once been.

Nothing now, one thought, run. Only the stairs in front of her, only the castle windows she'd passed so many times before.

She heard the sound of flaring wings above her, no time, no time! She had to hide, there was no time to get to the front door. And even if she did, there was no guarantee Opaline wouldn't follow her. Misty did not have the time to care about whether or not the alicorn could leave the castle, she had debated the thought many times before, but the risk was too high. She needed to hide.

She turned into a hallway, galloping to where she wanted to go, it was a close call. She slid herself behind a corner. She panted, looking for where she wanted to hide. She knew the castle well, and a place Opaline had little chance of finding her.

The room lent to that fact. The room itself was blocked off by the giant old tree growing throughout every crevice of the old building. But she had broken in long ago. The room on the opposite end had a hole that might be good enough to squeeze through, even at her present size. She'd done it before when she was a filly, seized by the boredom of living in an empty home.

She knew the creaky room was dangerous. But she had done it before, and facing Opaline was more terrifying than any rickety floorboard.

"Here it is!" Misty said, smiling wide and scrambling for the door handle.

"MISTY!" Misty heard Opaline boom down the end of the hall, the flaming alicorn was close! Too close!

She made it in, closing the door as it had been before. She could see the hole, and she ran over, judging the size, and seeing if she could fit through the sharp broken wall.

She tried to fit herself through, to no avail, it pricked her skin, and she could not get her body through.

"No!" Misty whispered. The sound of Opaline could be heard from the hall, flaming and growling like a beast.

"I have to! I have to!"

Misty focused on one thought, one thought. Like she had learned before.

Shrink

She felt the chill down her spine and horn, it tickled like an old friend, one that Misty welcomed with open hooves. Her pink and red aura covered her body, shrinking her size to be as small as she had once been as a filly.

She rushed through the hole, even faster than she could shrink, the adrenaline and the magic was flowing, and her mind was in chaos.

She stumbled on her small hooves, knocking her face on the floor of the room. She hoped the noise wouldn't alert Opaline. She crawled away from her entrance, dodging sharp debris of wood. The outside was clearly visible, but currently, she didn't think she was at risk of falling. But of course, she could never know, now with an unfamiliar body. The corner was the safest place, with no broken floorboards. She stayed silent, her small body shivering from the terror that gripped her very core. The cold wind that blew in didn’t help much either, but it mattered very little at the moment.

"Misty, where are you?”
“Fine, hide then.”
"The princesses were incompetent, I was making everything better! They let beasts roam with ponies!”
"I might've lied about many things, but I'm all you have. Come out now"

Misty was still silent. Lying? Misty didn't know anything about that. She didn't read what was in those books, but it must have been pretty bad for Opaline to go on a rampage throughout the castle.

What was in them? Something about her past, something bad. Something Opaline wanted to lie to Misty about. Why did she need to lie anyway?

"I don't know, why would she need to lie, what exactly was in those? They had previous Equestrian figures in them, ones that Opaline knew from before.

It was scary, some important history was accumulated in those few words the alicorn had read. Just where exactly had those books come from!? They weren't in the library before, no.

Misty had noticed before that there were boxes everywhere and cluttered bookshelves. The librarian had said they had brought the books out of storage, but whose? Who would have such delicate information? And also keep it from the public until now??? Someone very powerful had held them until now. The ponies don't even know how important or accurate to real history they were.

Misty was smaller, and in a more delicate state than she had ever been, but her mind felt renewed. She saw things clearer than before.

"Opaline is insane" Misty whispered to herself. The thought had been suppressed since her early years, but it came to her clearer. Lying in the corner of that cold broken-down room. Tired, shivering, and lonely.

She wondered if she could cast any other spells, it was freezing.

"Nnnnahhggg" Misty tried to cast more but found herself drained. Whatever spell she cast before, it was a big one, brought on by desperation and an outburst of magical ability.

She probably wouldn't be able to cast again for quite a while. She rubbed her head, feeling fatigued and a nasty headache washing over her. She contemplated how she could get out of this situation. She was alone, with no friends, small and helpless, hunted down by Opaline.

It was silent. Very silent. Misty hadn't heard anything. She wanted nothing more than to leave this place. Crawling over to her original entrance, she wondered if she could make a run for it. She looked back and forth in the room, it didn’t look like the alicorn was anywhere to be seen, if she was quiet, perhaps she could make it out intact.

She slowly made her way out, seeing nopony around. The door seemed far away with how her sight was set up. She was only now getting used to her smaller legs so close to the ground. She made sure to make as little noise as possible. The door slowly opened, leaving misty to look around in deep thought. She was very cautious, but still just as terrified. She felt all her senses accelerate in overdrive for any sort of noise. The hallways were empty and nauseating, making her hair stand up. Her small hooves saw all the doors as she once did when she was small.

It was a blast to the past, one she never particularly wished to revisit. Not that it was particularly bad, but just eye opening and hard to get past. She needed to accept her new reality, the one where she abandoned Opaline…her caretaker and all Misty had ever known.

"Misty…" Misty heard Opaline's raspy voice from down the hall.

She frantically looked left and right, ducking under a table with a cloth on it, she was sure Opaline wouldn't see her. She was in a small state that Opaline had no idea she was in. Opaline wasn't even aware of her magical exploits. She had previously lied to her about it.

The hoofsteps accelerated, and she stayed quiet.

"Misty, where are you.. ugh. This is stupid! You shouldn't be able to hide so well in MY castle."
"I gave her everything, shelter, food, water. THIS is how she repays me??? AND ALSO, give her the cutie mark, if she would just stop messing up! Oh bleh, Opaline look at these booooookkkksss, they TWIST the narrative of history" The alicorn mocked Misty's speech and waved her hoof around.

"I-I was helping! Taking those dragons' ability to destroy our society was necessary! Stupid princesses as well, getting right in my way! It wasn't MY fault they were unresponsive to my solutions after I became an alicorn." Opaline monologed as she walked right past Misty's place of hiding. Misty closed her eyes and covered her mouth to keep from breathing too loud. She felt like her senses were exploding from the anxiety she felt.

Misty heard the sound of Opaline turning the corner once again on the opposite way. She let out a breath, getting her bearings together. The sudden mood swing of the alicorn could be caused by many things, but Misty was sure it had to do with her recent….discoveries. Opaline was so desperate for power that she quickly spiraled into a maniac.

She peeked to the side, and quietly crawled out from her hiding place. She shook a bit but had to get together her bearings in order to escape her predicament. She started walking slow towards the stairs, but went faster as her desperation increased.

She galloped down the stairs, one after another, the front door was so close, there was no way to miss it. Tears streamed down her eyes, it was too good to be true.

The door was within reach, much too close to miss. Of course, Opaline wasn’t keen on letting Misty go.

Opaline descended from above, putting Misty’s smaller body in her blue tinted magic, like when she had consumed the dragon fire. Her wings were fiery with blue flame.

She slammed misty on the floor. "GAH" Misty yelled in terror. The alicorn loomed over her with a deranged look that could kill.

"HAH! You seriously thought you could leave without me knowing?" Opaline exclaimed with malice.

"No!" Misty yelled, squirming and attempting to break from her magic grasp. She dragged her over, stepping closer to Misty.

"Such a chore, you made me waste at least a week's worth of magic! But alas, it would've been even more devastating to let you leave." The alicorn devoured her with curious eyes.

"Hm, I see you've de-aged yourself! Congrats on the high level spell, those books were good for something. But I'm still more powerful" Opaline told her.

"Why! Why can't I go! I don't understand!" Misty said, becoming more desperate.

"Really? Fine, I'm imprisoned here. The princesses made sure to let me have the smallest access to the outside world that I could. First the barrier, then the imprisonment, two levels of insurance I'd never leave" Misty stared slack jawed, she knew something was off for a long time, but hearing it from Opaline herself still shocked her.

"Once I obtain the magic rightfully belonging to me, I can leave. Just come with me, those pesky memories don't have any place in your mind" Oplaine exclaimed.

"My memories? Wait… what are y-you going to do with my memories!?" Misty shook with fear.

"Hm? Well get rid of them, they are so inconvenient for me" the alicorn said calmly.

Misty stopped shaking, her mind was blank with the utter ridiculousness of the statement. Why had she followed Opaline's orders all this time? How many more memories had been lost, how many times had Opaline chased her down and violently made her subservient once again. It was laughable, really.

She concentrated, focusing her energy on a spell like none she'd ever cast, it couldn't fail, not now.

"What are you doing?" Opaline had little time to act, but soon she'd know Misty's true capabilities.

One thought.

Magic

Misty's body transformed back to the way it had been, she rapidly changed into her grown body. She kicked Opaline in the face with her back hoof, causing her to stumble backwards.

"Ah-! Ouch!" The alicorn said, confused.

Misty let out a beam of pure magic from her head, a laser beam pushing Opaline even farther backwards. Her horn released a trail of smoke afterwards.

Misty took the chance to run out the front door.

"No! Come back!" Oplaine yelled, running after Misty with a clean stride.

But it was too late, Opaline crashed against the barrier between the door and the outside world.

"So you really can't leave this castle." Misty said, standing right outside of the doorway.

"Misty! N-no, I'm the great Opaline! You can't leave!" She panicked, holding a hoof against the invisible barrier.

"I can, and I will! I bet you were lying about even getting me my cutie mark!" She yelled at the distressed face in front of her.

"What? Hah…. No Misty, that was the only thing I wasn't lying about. I can give you your cutie mark." The alicorn said, defeated.

"You're just saying that to get me to come back" She twisted her face in disgust.

"No… You wouldn't understand"

"Hah, no. I won't believe your lies anymore" Misty said, turning away from Opaline.

"You'll be back… once you realize I'm the only one who can give it to you…" She said, chuckling a bit.

Misty began to walk away from Opaline's castle. It was likely she would never return again. It saddened her, but it couldn't be helped.

"You'll be back!!!" Oplaine yelled again, raging with disdain.

Misty wanted family, friends, to call her own. Not the twisted lies of Opaline that brought her down and convinced her to commit horrible acts against others.

Cutie mark or not, It was time to find her own way.