When it came time for Sunny's lunch break at the Maretime Bay Museum of History, she opted for a quick sandwich and smoothie before taking a walk around town to see if she could find Flurry Heart. She hoped the alicorn was feeling better; she was undoubtedly somber ever since she had returned to the Brighthouse this morning after her confrontation with whoever this 'Opaline' was.
Sunny had spent half her fillyhood researching the adventures Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends went on, a good deal of them with the fate of Equestria hanging in the balance. But if she was honest, she never imagined that she would have to involve herself in similar conflicts.
She had to assume that Twilight and her friends probably frequently thought the same of themselves.
She came up on the corner where Mane Melody was, and she noticed an advertising board out front that had not been there yesterday; that means Pipp likely had a special going on. She stepped up and read it:
Come in today for Alicorn Art!
Come get that makeover you've been wanting and have yourself immortalized in a caricature drawn by an alicorn princess!
"She can't be serious..." Sunny muttered disbelievingly as she stepped towards the entrance, and made her way inside.
The ad had brought in a considerable amount of ponies, considering it was the lunch period; the waiting area was full, Pipp, Rocky, and Jazz were all busy with clients, and there in the back, facing a chaise lounge chair, was Flurry Heart, sitting in front of a large digital art tablet as she sketched Posey Bloom, who was sporting the last style Sunny thought she'd ever see on a pony like her; a manehawk.
Pipp gave Sunny a wave as she passed down the center towards the stage towards Flurry, where she stood silently and watched as Flurry finished the rather cartoon-y looking colored sketch, and tapped a button on the side of the tablet, before a glossed sheet of paper containing the portrait slid out of a printer, and she offered it to the yellow earth pony.
"And there you go, Posey. Pipp knows her stuff, give it a little while, and I promise you'll love it," Flurry told the mare, who didn't seem the most enthused about her makeover. However, she was polite and accepted the portrait, her expression lightening just a bit before she gave the alicorn a smile as she made her way towards the exit. Flurry watched her go, and saw Sunny watching over by the stage as she turned.
"Sunny! Come on, come on over, let me do a sketch on the house," Flurry offered, immediately waving her over to the chaise lounge.
Sunny offered her a soft smile as she went over to the couch, and sat down.
"Sorry, I sort of assumed that Pipp roped you into this," Sunny told her.
"Well, honestly, she sort of did, but she asked if I was ready to try some digital art. When her first customers of the day were enthusiastically offering themselves as models, that's when she came up with the advertisement outside, and she's offering me 20% of the profits for today, and any day that I want to come in," Flurry told her as she began running the plastic stylus across the screen, glancing between the tablet and Sunny.
"So I guess that means you're feeling better?" Sunny asked.
"Quite," Flurry answered. "I've decided that while I do want to be ready to help you and your friends with any magical threats that may arise, in the meantime I want to take a page out of Zipp's book and be as un-princess-ly and 'normal' as possible. So that means for today, makeover caricatures. Tomorrow or the next day, maybe opening an art studio of my very own, who knows?"
Sunny was delighted at how something as simple as art seemed to lift the alicorn's spirits.
Ten minutes later, Flurry was done with the colored sketch of her friend, and hit the Print button once again. The sheet of glossy paper slid out and she offered it to Sunny, who took it in her hooves, and couldn't help but immediately smile at the result.
"Thanks," Sunny replied after looking at it, then carefully sliding it into her saddlebag. "This is bound for a picture frame for sure. Well, I've got to be headed back to the museum. Looks like you've got a little bit of a line started."
Flurry turned to look, and indeed saw that the trio of clients that had been seated with Pipp, Jazz, and Rocky had finished at the same time, and were all opting for the 5-bit alicorn sketch option.
Misty was trying, and currently failing, to keep her emotions under control as she frantically went from one corner of her bedroom to the other, grabbing what small trinkets she could, and cramming them in her saddlebags along with what food she was able to pack.
She was utterly terrified and confused; the last thing she wanted to do right now was to step back in that throne room and see that the only pony that she had ever known had not moved from where she had fallen.
Worse, she couldn't shake the words that the other alicorn had said to her.
'I don't know what she has promised you, child. But she will never give it to you.'
Opaline was not the last alicorn, and clearly, she was not the most powerful.
So what other lies had she told?
Whoever this mare was, she could have easily shoved her aside and finished Opaline, and instead chose not to.
That made her words weigh all the heavier in her mind.
Would Opaline ever give her her cutie mark? If she did, what was stopping anypony more powerful than Opaline from taking it away?
Nothing.
With her saddlebags as full as they could possibly be, she slung them across her back, went to the door, and took one last look back at her bedroom before galloping down the hallway towards the east doors, pushing them open, and looking out at the landscape as the morning sun began to peek out across the hills.
Taking a deep breath, she broke into a gallop across the arched bridge.
She wasn't sure where her place in Equestria was, but she knew where she didn't want it to be; in the middle of an ancient alicorn feud.
She would find her own place. Her own way.
After she crossed the bridge, she kept galloping towards the hills, and didn't even look back.