"Here you go, Mane Melody." Hitch stopped in front of the salon and gestured at the door. "Pipp and her crew can fix your mane and then some."
Misty looked up at the sign and the colourful outside. She'd seen it plenty of times before and even been inside, but this would be the first time she would not be trying to hide. The same went for everywhere she went today, really. Moving through the streets was a very different feeling when she wasn't constantly looking over her shoulder or try to be inconspicuous. Not that it made the tension go away.
"Thank you. Um... good luck on your rounds?" she said hesitantly. Hitch met her with the same, confident smile as before.
"Thanks. I'll just go put Sparky to bed before I finish up." He turned and gave her a short wave before heading across the small square towards his office.
Misty turned back to Mane Melody, carefully inching closer and taking a look in through the glass doors, hoping to assess the situation first. But as soon as she was leaning close, the door swung open and she had to stumble back to not have it bump her snout. The same yellow earth pony she'd seen at the smoothie stand strode out, only giving her a short, displeased glance, before heading away from the salon.
Misty had shrunk away under her glance and tried to return an apologetic smile, but couldn't apologise properly before she was already gone. She quickly moved up to the door again, this time getting a proper look inside.
It was relatively empty, only two of the chairs were taken, and she spotted Pipp right away, moving between her employees and evidently in an upbeat mood. Misty took a quiet breath and opened the door. Better now than when she was busy.
Thanks to the door chime, she had attention on her right away. "Misty! Come in, girl!" Pipp said in a chipper voice, beating her wings once to quickly float over to her. "Oh, hoofness, what happened to your mane?"
"Oh, well..." If she mentioned Sparky, would she be suspicious of her? Was it safer to make up an excuse? But, on the other hoof, she did want to be more honest with her friends. "Sparky got a hold of it."
"Yeah, that would do it. He's so grabby right now, he almost pried my phone from my hooves this morning." Pipp chuckled and nudged Misty to start walking her over to the chairs. "Don't worry, we'll have it fixed in no time."
Misty quietly followed her and sat in one of the chairs, before Pipp turned her to face the mirror. Some strands stood off in a strange way, somehow gotten entangled, either by Sparky's claws or maybe as a side effect of his dragon fire.
"Just sit tight, I'll be with you as soon as I finish up with Frizzy. I could redo your rows, too, if you want. Ooh, and how about some hoof polish? Jazz finds the perfect design for everypony."
"Oh, um, that all sounds great, but..." Her eyes fell on the register in the reflection and she lowered her voice. "I can't really pay for all of that."
"Oh, pah!" Pipp made a dismissive wave with her hoof. "I offer makeovers to my friends all the time. And this would be your first one! Don't worry about that! It's not like I'm gonna let you trot around like this. Be right back!" She sing-songed the last part and elegantly slipped out of view of the mirror, prancing over to her other customer.
Misty sighed as she sank against the backrest. Yet another thing to add to the growing list of things to make up for. She couldn't get by on their generosity the whole time. She needed to find something she could do, for them or for ponies in general. Something to earn money, so she could buy her own smoothies and afford her own makeovers. But what did she even have to offer? Her magic wasn't special, with so many unicorns already living in Maretime Bay. She could clean, but would anypony pay her much for that?
She snapped out of her thoughts when Pipp returned, settling on a stool behind her. She started making small talk while she began to disentangle Misty's mane, asking about whether she managed to sleep and about her day so far. Misty gradually recounted the events of the day, glad to have something to say and not just quietly nod along.
It didn't take long and Pipp's spray and comb had fixed the worst of it, but she continued, checking over Misty's rows and treating her mane to have a little more bounce, while casually chatting about her own day as well, going on about both her work at the salon and the song she was working on.
"There, that should do it. Good as new." Pipp flipped her own mane and set her tools down while Misty looked at herself in the mirror, fluffing her mane a little with one hoof. "Smile!" she sing-songed as she moved herself up close next to Misty and held her phone in front of them. Misty quickly arched the corners of her lips, hoping to make it look somewhat natural before the light flashed.
"You know, some ponies like to mark a new path in life with a bit of a new look," Pipp continued as she moved the picture to a folder on her phone. "There is so much we could do with your mane. We could try and straighten it out, do some braids, try some new colour, ooh, or maybe some cute buns!?"
"Oh, uh..." Misty retreated into the corner of the chair as Pipp leaned over the hoofrest more and more. Her eyes were sparkling with excitement, just elevating the pressure on Misty to make a choice. "Thanks, but, uh, maybe later?"
"Aww. Sad." Pipp pouted and let out a small whine. "Would you at least like to try some hoof polish?"
"That sounds great, but, um..." Misty's eyes darted about, but she couldn't escape the pleading look.
Misty sighed as she stepped back out into fresh air, a stronger breeze picking up and making her perfectly bouncy mane dance. She looked down at her hooves, now adorned with a gradient of warm colours, centring on a stylised butterfly design on the front. They did look gorgeous. But perhaps in the future she would have to build up some resistance to Pipp's pleading. Though her invitation to a spa in Zephyr Heights did sound lovely.
"I should be happy they're doing so much for me," she said quietly to herself as she started wandering down the street. "And I am. And I want to try everything, but why does it feel like..." She stopped once she caught a glimpse of the sea again, dark clouds rolling over, slowly beginning to cover the coast. "Why does it feel like I don't deserve all of this?"
You deserve whatever I grant you, Misty, now Get. To. Work.
She quietly watched the clouds roll in, the strong wind carrying them towards her quickly. Ponies around her started trotting faster, some of them falling into canters and gallops in anticipation of the weather turning, threatened by quiet rumblings emanating from the wall of grey.
She only just got her mane done, and her hooves. Would the coating wash off in the rain? Best not to take the chance. She quickly looked around for somewhere to take shelter, falling into a hurried canter herself as she passed a few stores, the theatre, a diner... shelter or not, she couldn't go into one of these places and not pay anything, again.
The clouds crawled across the sky, gradually blocking out the sunlight and casting dark shadows over town. Misty's eyes darted between doors and display windows, until the words "Free Entry" crossed her vision. Without a second glance, she quickly hurried to the entrance and pushed her way in, just as the first drops were starting to fall.
As soon as the door fell closed behind her, the whistling of the wind and the sound of hooves and voices all vanished, muffled into near silence. She slowly wandered into the small lobby area, a counter labelled as an information desk on one side, a small souvenir shop on the other, currently closed as marked by a pop-up sign. Probably for the best, Misty quickly looked away to not be tempted by anything on display.
"Hello?" she asked carefully, keeping her voice low to not break the stillness too harshly. Nopony was staffing the desk, so she wandered further in, looking into the next hall.
A short hallway took her into a rectangular room, the floor space open except for a single pedestal in the centre, supporting a less than life size statue of a pony, carved from polished stone. Framed paintings lined the uniformly painted walls, each with a small placard beneath or next to each one.
"Wow..." Misty wandered in slowly, already fixated on the first painting, depicting a wide landscape of rolling hills. "What is this place?"
"Uh... a museum?" Misty quickly turned halfway around to see the same earth pony mare she'd seen by the stand and coming out of the salon before her, slowly trotting into the room from the other side. "Do you not have museums in Bridlewood?" she asked dismissively.
"Oh! Um, of course we, I mean... I... don't know." Misty cast her eyes down and scraped her hoof over the wooden floor, then quickly stopped to not ruin the new polish.
"Please don't stand so close to the display pieces," the mare said with a sigh, nudging Misty back a step and pointing at a red line on the wood. "Stay behind the line. Appreciate them from a distance."
Is there anything you can do right, Misty?
"R-right. Yes. I'm sorry." Misty stood back and looked at the landscape again, trying to place it. Though aside from the route between Maretime Bay and Opaline's tower, she really didn't know any of Equestria's landscapes. She leaned forward and squinted a bit to read the placard, though it didn't give her much of a clue either.
She glanced over at the mare, who was wandering clockwise around the display room, then turned to head to the next painting counter-clockwise to not get in her way. In contrast to the landscape, which was impressively accurate, this one was a tad more abstract, the dark colours washing together, almost drowning out the few specs of subdued warmth, still depicting the vague form of a pony watching a sunrise.
"This looks... painful."
"What?"
Misty flinched when she noticed she had spoken out loud. "Oh, no, I'm sorry, I was just..."
"What do you mean?" The mare came wandering over and stood next to her, tilting her head at the painting.
"Well, I mean..." Misty swallowed and looked at the mixing colours again. "I-it's dark. The sun is coming up, but... everything still looks so cold. I think, maybe... the pony is sad... in spite of the sunlight?" She glanced over and saw the mare's eyes narrowed, her brow arched. "A-am I wrong?" she asked sheepishly.
She clicked her tongue. "No, no, there is no wrong way to interpret art." She looked over at Misty again. "What did you say your name was?"
"Oh, I... didn't. But, I'm Misty. Misty... Brightdawn." The rush of tension and guilt she thought would come with the fake name never arrived, but she didn't have time to think about it as the other mare captured her attention again.
"Misty. I'm Posey Bloom, curator and educator. This is your first time in a museum?"
"Yes. I don't really know anything about art, I'm sorry."
"Well, the first step to appreciating art is letting it work on you, identifying the feeling it conveys to you. For instance, in this piece, I see hope. The night was cold and dark, but the sunrise is just on the horizon."
Misty looked at the painting again, trying to get the same meaning from it, but the longer she looked at the sun, the more its colour seemed to fade. "Heh, yeah, I guess you'd know better."
"But you're not wrong." Posey prodded Misty's chest lightly. "You may not be able to read the brushstrokes or identify the paint composition, but what you're feeling when you look at it isn't incorrect. The artist may have intended one thing or another, but my favourite thing about art is that there is no wrong way to read it. As long as you're making sense."
Misty didn't miss the bitterness in the last sentence, but at least it didn't seem to be aimed at her. "So... I can just say whatever I feel?"
"As long as you're actually putting thought behind it. Would be a nice change of pace. This town is full of philistines who just won't take the time. Or know-it-alls who think they have the only correct opinion." Posey nudged her again before turning to leave the room. "Come with me, I want your thoughts on something."
Misty followed Posey through the display rooms, taking her time with every painting and sculpture she pointed her to, before sharing what came to her mind. Sometimes Posey would regard her with a questioning hum, other times readily share her own opinion. The few times they had the same thought, she excitedly went into detail about the artists, the brush techniques, and other details Misty struggled to keep up with.
"Now this one is going to be esoteric, but I am curious what you think." Posey stopped in front of a large painting, almost taking up a wall in one of the smaller rooms by itself, dominating the space. Misty could not tell what it was meant to be depicting, or whether any real image was intended at all, merely a maelstrom of specks and colours.
She stared at it for a moment, pacing in front of it slowly. She couldn't tell what it was, but she knew exactly what it made her feel. "It's... that feeling. That, uh... that tension. When your withers seize up and it's... like you know you're going to do something wrong, but you don't know what. And maybe you won't, but it really feels like you will..."
Posey looked between her and the painting. "Anxiety?"
"Maybe? I-is that what it is? There's a word for it?"
"So you know melancholy, luminous, and effervescent, but not anxiety? What do they even teach you in Bridlewood?"
"I... I don't know." She looked down at her hooves. "I'm not from Bridlewood. I'm not... from anywhere, really." She didn't get a response, so she slowly peeked up at Posey again, finding her looking at her with a furrowed brow. "Um, n-nevermind."
"No, what does that mean?" Posey demanded. "You grew up somewhere else? Then are your parents from Bridlewood?"
Parents? How should I know?
Looks like I'm the only one you have, Misty.
...or would you rather be alone again?
"I... don't have any parents."
"Oh." Silence stretched again, underlined by the faint drumming of rain on the windows in the next hallway. And then suddenly broken by the loud slamming of a door and something scraping across tiles. "Oh, great. She's here." Posey stifled a groan and started heading out of the room towards the noise.
Misty looked up at the painting again, the paint seemingly starting to swirl before her. She blinked and quickly wiped her eyes with a hoof before following the curator, back into the lobby.
Shoved up next to the souvenir shop stood a tall... something, covered in a tarp, secured around the base. Posey was less focused on that, however, and more on the rainwater that had been dragged in with it. "Izzy, if you haven't noticed, it's raining like crazy. You could have maybe waited until it was dry?"
"Oh, yeah, it's really coming down!" Izzy emerged from behind the object, her wet mane hanging straight down and clinging to her neck and withers. "But you said today and not too late and you get really grumpy when I'm late, so I came anyway. Also, hi Misty!"
Misty returned her wave sheepishly, while Posey let out a deep sigh. "Alright, stay here. I'm getting some towels, we are wiping this thing off before you go dragging it through my displays. And do not shake yourself off again! You stay there in your puddle until I'm back!" She left again with a huff, prompting Misty to slowly walk closer.
"Ooh, cute hoofsies!" Izzy said while pointing to Misty's hooves. "I didn't know you liked art, Misty!"
"Heh, yeah. Me neither. So... what is this?"
"My newest unicycling project. I got the idea a while ago and it's finally done, so I asked Posey if I could put it up." Izzy sat down while she was talking, using her front hooves to squeeze the rain water out of her mane, just adding to the growing puddle between her hooves. Her painted hooves. Misty probably didn't have to worry about the rain ruining them after all.
"At least it brings in visitors," Posey said flatly as she returned, throwing one of the towels at Izzy and walking over to the covered sculpture to carefully wipe off the tarp with the other. Izzy did the same after rubbing off her coat, mane, and tail, leaving her looking fuzzier than usual.
"Alright, follow me and don't bump anything," Posey instructed as she walked ahead. Izzy seized her project in her magic and Misty quickly added hers to it, helping her carry it through two display rooms before Posey opened a door to another, filled with various different sculptures, from towering stacks of painted tin cans, to small figures of wire and glass.
They set the new addition down in a free spot and Izzy finally undid the tarp, pulling it off with her magic. The main body was a twisting arrangement of metal; long, thin strands welded together into tall, bending spires. They all started as uniformly black near the weighted base, but gradually took on many different colours on the way up, ultimately culminating in six images of cut glass: a heart, a badge, a shooting star, a musical note, a lightning bolt, and a butterfly.
"Well, what do you make of this one?" Posey asked drily. Misty struggled for an answer, staring up at the glass butterfly among the other symbols, catching the ray of sunlight drifting in from the window, now that the rain was slowly letting up.
"I call it 'Friendship'!" Izzy declared, putting one hoof over Misty's withers. Through Misty's tears, it almost looked as though the butterfly was slowly beating its wings.