Sunny, Zipp and Misty carried Yakko, Wakko and Dot on their backs as they journeyed across the countryside, hoping to reach the shores within a time frame of two days at the max.
Zipp would take Yakko into the air a little ways, in order to get him accustomed to being in the air, while Sunny showed Dot how to make plants come up whenever she wanted them to.
As for Misty... she was just happy to be able to spend some time with Wakko-- he was like her brother... and she wanted to do all she could to keep him, Yakko and Dot safe from Opaline.
Who knows what she'd do if she knew that they had those powers?
Along the beginning of the trip, Zipp found herself growing less angry with Misty, but Misty still wouldn’t look at her, fearing that the white pegasus would yell at her again, like she did in Maretime Bay.
But Zipp didn’t want Misty to be scared of her.
While Misty was ahead with the others, Zipp confided in Yakko and Hitch about her problem. “I know it wasn’t her fault that Opaline rose to power… she seems like she really connects with the people she’s trying to help. She was afraid of letting us know about her past cause we thought we would shun her…” Zipp said. “But… it seems like I have.”
“Zipp, nopony expects you to be perfect-- not even Misty. She knew that your anger was understandable,” Hitch reassured. “Hitch is right,” Yakko patted the pegasus’ back in comfort. “Even if you did mess up, I’m sure she’ll forgive you if you two just talk it out. Hey… did I ever tell you about my interactions with how Salazar killed our parents?”
Hitch and Zipp glanced at each other in confusion before shaking their heads-- what happened that night? “Well… I had a bad dream, but I didn’t wanna wake anyone by crying… or screaming,” Yakko admitted. “I was so angry, and I walked out of the town to the lake and just… sat there, smashing the ice with various stones I could find. Stupid stress reliever, I know. Wakko and I talked about it the next morning, and he totally understood my feelings. He understood, and if you talk to her, Zipp, I’m sure Misty will too.”
Zipp took Yakko’s words into consideration and nodded. Maybe he had a point… maybe if she talked to Misty in a little while, once they stopped for a break… she could fix their relationship so they wouldn’t be fighting all the time. But... she had to do it at the right time.
XXXXXXXX
Meanwhile, back in Acme Falls, life was going on as usual… and Brain was rather enjoying himself, sitting on the throne as temporary ruler until the Warners returned. “Narf! Milk and food pellets anyone?” Pinky said, carrying a small tray as he approached Brain on the throne. “Pinky, enough with this foolishness,” Brain rolled his eyes. “We don’t live in the abandoned church anymore-- get me some real food!”
“Righty-o, Brain!” Pinky clapped his paws, and instantly, butlers came with platters of silver, covered with the most delectable food that anyone could ever think of. “Finally, a meal worthy of a king!” Brain bit into a piece of turkey. “Um… but Brain?” Pinky decided to speak. “What if something were to happen that would cause the Warners to return? And what if Opaline were to show up and overthrow you?”
“Pinky, Opaline is still far away in Equestria, and without young Sparky’s dragon fire, she’s powerless without Misty,” Brain scoffed. “Even if she were to find some sort of loop that would bring her to this dimension, she would have to be incredibly weak from doing so-- she’d never be able to overthrow us… er, me. As for the Warners, they will return from their journey with the brave ponies when they are ready. And until then, we must enjoy being at the top before tumbling down a few tiers in the ranks. Now, let us enjoy… a meal, if not a quiet one.”
As the two mice sat down to a quiet meal, which was sort of hard due to Pinky’s loud chewing, they had no idea that Opaline had sent a bird created by magic to spy on them, and she wickedly smirked. “Two little mice… alone in a big castle such as this… whatever shall I do?” she asked herself. “Oh, that’s right… if they won’t join me… then I shall make sure they wished their DNA had EVER been altered.”
XXXXXXXXXX
Everyone was starting to get tired from walking, and the shores of the country were still hours away. So, they decided to make camp in a nice peaceful meadow, and move on the next morning.
Yakko and Sunny started the campfire, and Zipp made sure to collect plenty of water and sand to put it out if they were in a hurry. As the sun began to set, they spent time telling each other stories that were either funny or scary… and you can guess which one of them Pipp preferred. “...and when she made ready to leave her house,” the pink pegasus spookily explained, watching others’ eyes dart back in forth in worry, “she faced inexplicable horror… she was wearing burgandy AND purple in the SAME OUTFIT!!! WHAAAAAAAA!!!!”
Everyone gave her blank stares, leading the pegasus pop star to huff. “Oh, come on!” she exclaimed. “Everyone knows that purple and burgandy are the top colors in the ‘Spookiest Colors to Wear Together’ list! I mean, look it up, people!”
“...oooookay, anyone else got a story?” Zipp asked. “Ooh! What about my favorite story?” Dot raised her hand. “I mean… any story with me in it is a story worth hearing, am I right?”
“Dot, you do realize Yak and I are in that story too,” Wakko crossed his arms, sparing his sister a frown. “Just saying,” Dot shrugged. After thinking a minute, Izzy’s expression brightened. “I have a story that my mom used to tell me a long time ago, when I was a filly,” she explained. “A story that’s been passed down in the family for generations-- about when unicorns had magic in Twilight Sparkle’s time.”
“Oooh! What was it about?” Sunny asked enthusiastically. “It was about a kingdom in the northern parts of Equestria, where it was super cold,” Izzy explained. “But the kingdom was warm and loving, thanks to a magical heart shaped crystal. What was the--?”
“The Crystal Heart! My dad told me about that once!” Sunny blurt out. “All right, enough with the fan-ponying, and on with the story telling!” Yakko sat down, using Misty’s back as a prop as Sparky willingly shared the carrots Hitch grew as a snack. Izzy and Sunny nodded, and then the lilac unicorn began the tale. “Many, many moons ago, in ancient Equestria, the Crystal Empire was ruled by a unicorn named Princess Amore, who could use the Crystal Heart to see your soul’s true reflection… whatever that means.”
“Oooooh… #mysterious!” Pipp said admiringly. “During the season of the Crystal Faire,” Sunny went on, “a young Sombra and his friend Radiant Hope looked into the heart’s reflection, but they got two entirely different futures-- one where Hope was a princess, but the other… Sombra was overcome by evil shadows.”
“Cryptic... what happened?” inquired Yakko. That's when Sunny started to get serious. “Every year during the Crystal Faire,” she explained, “Sombra would be overcome by this debilitating sickness that nopony could explain. It would tear him apart from the inside out. But the very next day…he would be fine. It was like it never happened. One fateful day, Sombra discovered that Hope had received an invitation from the Princesses to study with them in Canterlot. Hope’s destiny was being fulfilled. Realizing that his future was now imminent, he fled the Crystal Empire in a mad dash to the Arctic North…where he discovered his true identity.”
“Which was…?” Misty asked. “An Umbrum-- the same creature that the Crystal Heart was created to protect the empire from,” Sunny said in a whisper, apparent that this was the story that got to her the most. “He was their enemy and he would never be normal. He would never be accepted. In his eyes, he was always destined to be a monster that the Heart would destroy at the next Crystal Faire. But there was one way out. He vowed that he would steal the Heart from the dais, so that he would never have to suffer from it again.”
Dot whimpered nervously, prompting Wakko to wrap an arm around his sister in comfort. “What happened next, Sunny?”
Sunny took a breath and prepared herself for the next part. ““But as he was about to take off with the Heart, he was confronted by Princess Amore, who implored him to steer clear of this path, that his destiny was not set in stone... that he could change it.”
Misty couldn't help but widen her eyes at that part... like Sunny knew it was what she needed to hear. But before she could say anything else, Zipp gave her a hushed look, telling her to be quiet. “What happened next?”
“Well… Sombra exploded all his anger at the princess,” Sunny went on, “demanding why she never revealed his true nature to him, why she kept all this knowledge hidden from him when he could’ve benefited from it. Amore tried to explain herself, but Sombra wouldn't hear any of it. In a fit of blind rage, he used his newfound dark powers to solidify Princess Amore into solid stone and scatter her pieces all throughout the world.”
“Yikes… that guy has a real temper problem,” Yakko said in a hushed tone, and Dot elbowed him roughly. “Yakko, quiet!” she scolded. “I have a feeling this is gonna get good!”
“Anyway…” Sunny cleared her throat. “When Hope arrived and saw what he had done, Sombra begged her to join him. But she ran away crying, knowing her friend was truly lost to the darkness. She fled to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, believing that they were the only ones who could save him... but they had very different ideas to protect the ponies of their land. Sombra took over the empire, ordering the Crystal Ponies to raise the Umbrum Army, but the alicorns attacked the palace and fought Sombra, where they used the Elements of Harmony to turn him into shadow, and banish him into the ice of the Arctic north…never to be seen or heard from again.”
Sunny finished the story, wiping tears from her eyes with her hooves. The others were left with their jaws hanging on the floor in utter shock. Even Izzy was left bewildered. “I…was never told the last part…” the unicorn remarked. “It’s… not a happy ending,” Sunny admitted. “Even when Sombra came back after a thousand years, he never got redemption. That just makes me sad.”
“Well, it’s just a legend,” Yakko said, patting Sunny reassuringly. “So it probably isn’t even real. You know what they say about tall tales. They only get taller with age!”
Sunny assumed Yakko made the joke to make her feel better… and she supposed it did, but only for a glimmer of a second. “But Sombra could’ve gotten so much more!” she threw her hooves up in frustration. “Why was the only solution banishment? Why didn’t the princesses ever try to talk things out? Why did Sombra shatter Amore?! That’s something I’ve never understood. He could’ve been reformed…”
At the word ‘reformed,’ Misty looked down at the ground in sadness. Was that fate truly what awaited her? After all, she had committed terrible crimes for Opaline. If Sombra couldn’t be reformed…what chance did she have?
But before she could say anything else, Hitch approached the earth pony mare. “Sunny,” he reached his right hoof to lift Sunny’s chin up. “It’s just a filly’s bedtime story. Sure, a lot of things we’ve been told in history turned out to have actually happened, but that one in particular does seem like a stretch. It’s likely it never actually occurred. I mean, the notion that a city made out of crystal even existed does sound pretty absurd.”
Sunny’s eyes narrowed at that. “So did the three tribes coexisting, Hitch. And that turned out to be true.”
“She’s got you there,” Wakko shrugged, making Hitch sigh deeply. “Don’t worry about it, Sunny!” Izzy quipped. “I in particular loved how you told the rest of the story very dramatically!! Really gives off that oomph factor!!”
Sunny smiled weakly. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
There was a moment of silence in the group until Sparky began to loudly yawn. “Whoa, it is way past this dragon’s bedtime,” Hitch carried the dragon to a makeshift tent he made and set him down gently. Sparky cooed and gurgled as he settled down and Hitch kissed him goodnight. “Let’s all get some sleep. We’ll all be better off awake when we make the rest of the trip to Elemental Island.”
“Hitch is right-- see you tomorrow, everypony,” Sunny waved tiredly, and they all fell fast asleep… Well…all except Misty for the longest time. Sunny’s story echoed in her mind, the way Sombra did his evil actions toward Equestria…and if he couldn’t be reformed… then how could she?
The thought of being banished to the far ends of the earth terrified her.
All she wanted was her cutie mark. Why was it so hard to prove herself? And above all…why was Opaline so mean to her?
In contrast, the Mane Five were extremely nice to her and genuinely enjoyed her company. They treated her like a friend and an equal, rather than a servant.
Unlike Opaline and her constant demands, Sunny and her friends actually treated her like family when they had no reason to.
They had no reason to welcome this stranger they had just met.
A social outcast with no cutie mark and no knowledge of anything in the world. Yet, it occurred to her that there would be no happy ending for her. They would kick her aside and shun her for the rest of her days. It didn’t matter what her motivations were.
She would never truly be loved.
Tears began to well up in her eyes and Misty began to sob quietly, feeling all the emotions she had been hiding finally reach a breaking point.
It wasn’t fair.
Why did Sunny get to open up about her feelings and everypony supported her whereas she had to lie in order to even be welcomed?! As she sobbed, her ears moved slightly, detecting the sound of soft hoofsteps on the ground. She looked behind her and saw none other than an exhausted-looking Zipp, sitting on the ground and looking forlorn.
Misty didn’t know what to say or do. Zipp was always suspicious of her. What could she even say that would not arouse the young detective’s skepticism all over again?
Finally, after a long mental battle, she decided that it would be nice to at least talk to the pegasus. Cautiously, she turned around and began walking towards Zipp, sitting down in front of her. She stared at Zipp until the former reluctantly locked eyes with her and the two sat together underneath the beautiful night sky. “You… you have no reason to talk to me.”
“Has that ever stopped me?” Misty answered. She wasn’t even thinking about what she was saying at this point. The words just rambled off her tongue.
To this, Zipp just shook her head. “No…I guess it hasn’t. I’m just so sorry. I’ve suspected you for a long time, Misty. Being in league with that… evil pony Twilight Sparkle mentioned. You’re not evil, Misty. I should’ve realized that. But you are pretty awkward, you realize that? Every word you say is like you don’t know what you’re talking about. Why is that?”
“I never got to have NORMAL interactions…” Misty admitted. “When I used to live with Opaline, I wasn't allowed to make friends with anypony. Everyone is like, ‘Do your job, Misty!’ or ‘You don’t need friends!’ You ponies are literally the first faces I’ve ever talked to.”
Zipp looked back down in shame. “That just makes me feel worse. You’ve literally never been friends with anypony?”
Misty shook her head in response. “You were right in suspecting I didn’t come from Bridlewood. The truth is, I don’t. I come from… well, it’s a dark fortress… and… Opaline, who I used to consider my mom, constantly expected me to do things for her. All fun and games are out the window.”
“Really?” Zipp asked worriedly, sparking Misty to nod. “When I see you ponies just talking and having fun…it makes me jealous. I saw how you and the others comforting Sunny and I just thought ‘Why don’t I ever get that?’ I felt the need to pretend like I came from Bridlewood during the sleepover because I didn’t know what else to do…”
“Friendship can be tricky,” Zipp explained, looking up again. “Even I’m still trying to figure it out. Being royalty, Pipp and I are always expected to be role models. To be examples to the rest of Zephyr Heights. I never got to make much friends either as I always had to keep this aloof persona.”
This caused Misty to glance at her. “But you have thousands of ponies raving about you over there. Aren’t they your friends?”
“Those are fans, Misty,” Zipp corrected her. “Believe me, Pipp can give you a good lesson in fans vs friends. Fans don’t really care about you as a pony, more so what you represent. In Zephyr Heights, I’m not Zipp the Detective. I’m Zephyrina Storm the Princess. It just feels so refreshing being with Sunny and the others, not having to live up to such high expectations and just… being myself, you know?”
Misty nodded anyway, not really sure she got it, but decided to trust the pegasus’ word. After a minute of silence, she noticed Wakko shivering from the cold in the hammock he set up, and trotted over there, putting a blanket over him before going back to Zipp. “You really care about the Warners… don’t you?” Zipp asked. “They’re like… family to me,” Misty admitted. “They were willing to accept me, despite the circumstances. If I can’t… if I can’t help them control their new powers… it’ll be like it’s my fault.”
Zipp put a gentle wing over Misty’s back. “We’ll help them, and we’ll stop Opaline before she gets too out of hoof… I promise.”
Promise.
The word stung like a bee. It was the one word that drove Misty’s entire being... the very same word Opaline chorused to her over and over about giving her a cutie mark...
...BEFORE Misty found out the truth. Suddenly, she felt the crushing weight of Opaline’s expectations and words come hurtling back as she was taken back to a moment in time that she tried to forget:
“THAT MEASLY DROP OF DRAGON FIRE WASN’T ENOUGH!!! AND YOU WON’T BE ENOUGH, MISTY!!!! NOT UNTIL YOU CAN PROVE YOU’RE ACTUALLY USEFUL AND GET THAT DRAGON!!!!!!!!!”
Misty began to tremble and sob all at once, feeling so guilty for all that she had done to the ponies... how could they forgive her for anything? Opaline was probably watching this conversation and was going to kill her when she found a way to Acme Falls... if she did anyway.
Zipp stood there, unsure of what to do. She looked around from left to right, desperately hoping that one of her friends would wake up and take care of it.
When she noticed none of the ponies or Warners had stirred, she sighed deeply and approached the distraught unicorn, lying down next to her and resting her head on her back. She felt the rapid breathing pulse violently under her until it gradually subsided into a calm, gentle rhythm.
Misty briefly looked up after feeling Zipp’s head on her, but rested it again after seeing the comforting presence. She moved closer towards Zipp’s body and the two soon fell into a deep sleep.
They stayed like this the whole night under the watchful gaze of the starry canvas above them. They'd defeat Opaline and get their friends to Elemental Island... they were sure of it.