Chapter Ten: Misty's Tale
Maretime Bay
The Marestream touched down near the Maretime Bay Hospital within half an hour of departing. Several ponies had freaked out upon seeing the vehicle descend from the skies, but naturally, that wasn't the biggest concern of those inside. Upon parking the ship, the five ponies charged into the hospital, carrying Misty and Sparky with them.
That had been thirty minutes ago. Since then, Sunny and her friends had remained in the hospital lobby. Misty and Sparky had been taken away, and the five had nothing else to do, besides wait for news.
"We shouldn't have left Twilight and the others," said Sunny, keeping her sad gaze locked onto the floor.
"We had no choice, Sunny," responded Izzy. "We couldn't fight and leave Misty and Sparky wounded in the castle!"
"Besides, I'm sure Twilight and the others can handle Opaline," added Pipp. "They have years of experience fighting Equestria-conquering villains and stuff like that. Not like they need our help."
"I hope you're right," said Sunny. She didn't look any happier.
IV Injection, the attending doctor, came trotting down the hall. The five friends got off the bench, and formed a semicircle around him.
"How are they?" asked Hitch.
"Well," began the doctor, "the good news is that Misty should make a full recovery. She just suffered some burns to the side of her body. I'm not sure what exactly burned her, but it doesn't appear to be anything life-threatening. Sparky, on the other hoof..." Injection fumbled with his forehooves. Hitch looked like he was about to break down sobbing.
"Please, tell us," implored Zipp.
"We're not sure how to treat Sparky. In fact, we're not exactly certain about what's wrong with him. He's stable, but his vitals are pretty low, at least by pony standards. He won't wake up."
Hitch cradled his face in his forehooves, barely stopping the tears that began to flow. Sunny put a comforting hoof on his back, patting gently.
"You can see them now," continued Injection. "We've put them in the same room. We'll keep trying to help Sparky, but the prognosis is..." He looked down. Perhaps he couldn't finish that sentence. Hitch kept crying.
"Thanks, Doc," replied Zipp.
Injection nodded, and turned on one hoof, trotting off into the depths of the hospital. As Hitch continued to sob, the other four ponies all looked at each other.
"Now what?" asked Izzy. "There has to be something we can do!"
"Twilight and the others might know how to treat Sparky," said Zipp. "But we don't know how to contact them!"
Sunny opened her mouth to reply, only to be cut off as the hospital doors burst open. All five ponies spun towards the entrance, Hitch even ceasing his crying, to discover that Twilight's group stood there. As they looked closer, they noticed that the group was a little worse for the wear. All their manes were disheveled and messy, Rainbow Dash had a burn mark on her chest, and even Twilight was panting.
"Sunny!" exclaimed Twilight, rushing over to the earth pony. "You're all in danger! We need to—"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down!" interrupted Pipp. "How'd you guys even get back?! What's going on?! Did you stop Opaline?!"
"I teleported us all back to Maretime Bay," replied Twilight. "My magic's reached its limit, though. I'm in no condition for another match with that monster." She spat those last two words out.
"To answer your last question, sugar cube," added Applejack, "no. We tried, but she's crazy powerful. We have no idea where she is now."
"But we've got a pretty good idea where she might be going," said Spike.
"Sunny, you have to listen," Twilight continued. Then, she quickly summarized the horrific truths she'd seen unfold inside Opaline's mind. By the time she was finished, the jaws of Sunny and all the others were nearly hitting the floor.
"Are you serious?!" exclaimed Zipp. "So it was Opaline's fault that the three tribes separated in the first place?!"
"And she drove away all the other sapient races from Equestria?!" added Hitch.
"And she killed you in the future?!" shouted Sunny, only to receive annoyed glares from the hospital staff. Her ears swiveled backwards in embarrassment.
"Well, it was more like she mortally wounded me," replied Twilight. "For all we know, future me could've survived—"
"Not the time, Twilight!" interrupted Rainbow.
Twilight opened her mouth, but then closed it, conceding that Rainbow had a point this time. "Anyway," she continued, "we have a feeling Opaline will be going after the Unity Crystals. The magic around the Brighthouse will probably keep her at bay briefly but if she gets access to the crystals, she could, in theory, take all the magic from everypony in Equestria. Combined with the power she already has, she'd be unstoppable."
Sunny swallowed in fear. "So what do we do now?" she asked. "Go back to the Brighthouse and try to defend it?"
"I suggest we ask Misty," said Rarity. "Even with all eleven of us working together, our chances might not be much better. Perhaps Misty knows some secret weakness of Opaline's that we could use against her."
"And we should probably check up on Sparky while we're at it!" said Pinkie, looking a little more guilty.
Everypony agreed. Within a minute, they'd made their way to the room where Sparky and Misty were intubated. The baby dragon was hooked up to multiple monitors, with a mask hooked over his face, as his body shivered with each breath he took. Hitch reiterated what the doctor had said, how they had no idea of what kind of treatment Sparky required. Twilight cast a quick probing spell on Sparky's unconscious body.
"His condition is stable right now," she said, once she'd finished, "but Opaline didn't just take his fire, she stole the magic that makes up Sparky's very life force. I don't know how to replenish it, besides forcing her to relinquish that magic. Without it...I don't think he'll make it."
Hitch nodded somberly. His grief had advanced beyond anything tears could express.
The eleven ponies and one young dragon turned towards the room's other occupant. Misty lay on her side on the bed, with her flank covered with bandages. An IV line was placed inside her right foreleg. She faced away from them, her head buried in the pillow. Izzy was the first to venture forward, gently pressing against Misty's side with one hoof.
"Misty?" she asked. "I know this is the worst possible time, but can you talk to us?"
Misty rolled over to face them, and though her eyes were dry now, it was obvious that she'd been crying as hard as Hitch had been. Her eyes were red, and her face was streaked with dried tears.
"Please..." she whimpered, trembling with fear, "I didn't mean to...I'm so sorry..."
Fluttershy stepped forward next. She unfolded one of her wings, draping it like a comforting blanket over Misty's body. "We're not angry at you, Misty," she promised. "We just wanted to talk to you."
Misty sniffled, and Pinkie passed her a tissue so she could blow her nose. Once she was finished, she looked back up at the assembled group, none of whom were looking at her with angry expressions. Rather, they seemed sympathetic, and unsure of what to say.
"I swear, I didn't know what she would do to Sparky," she began. "I knew it would restore her powers, but she didn't tell me what would happen to him. She promised she'd give me a Cutie Mark if only I helped her get her magic back. I had nopony else to turn to."
"Wait, a Cutie Mark?" interrupted Applejack. "Don't you already have one?" She pointed to the butterfly on Misty's flank.
Misty snorted. "It's fake," she replied, reaching over with one hoof. Sure enough, with a quick wipe, the butterfly smeared away, unlike any true Cutie Mark.
"You're a blank flank?" asked Twilight. "At your age? I've never heard of a pony going that long without..." She paled, apparently just noticing the others giving her looks. "Sorry. Never mind. Wrong time."
Misty sighed. "She promised she'd give me one for my entire life. So I did everything for her. I spied on you all, concocted about a million schemes to steal Sparky. Then, the second I brought him to her, she told me magic can't give a pony a Cutie Mark. She told me that it had to be earned." She looked pleadingly at Twilight. "Was she telling the truth?"
"I'm...afraid so," replied the alicorn.
Misty's face didn't fall, but perhaps that was because she was already so deep in grief that she couldn't fall any further. She settled down onto the bed, looking at her forehooves with a dead expression.
"Misty, dear..." Rarity ventured, "I hate to ask, but is there anything else you could tell us about Opaline? We need to stop her, and anything you could give us could help."
"I'll tell you everything, but I don't think it'll help," replied the unicorn, sadly.
The first thing I remember is being alone. I don't know the reason why, or how I ended up that way. I remember wandering through the woods, all by myself, not knowing who anypony was, or what anything was. I had nothing to my name. Heck, I didn't even have a name. I just walked endlessly, looking for anyone I could find. Sometimes, I thought I was the only living thing in the world.
That was when I found her castle.
It was the first time in my life that I remember seeing a building. Of course, I didn't know that's what it was at the time. All I knew was that the rain and the wind couldn't get to me inside that building. So, having no other option, I went inside.
Opaline, of course, was trapped inside that castle. She found me as soon as I got in. She claimed she rescued me without a second thought, but considering recent events, I think we can safely doubt the truth of that statement. Whatever. Anyway, she took me in, and raised me from that day forward. It was her that gave me the name Misty. Looking back, I think I figured out early on that she only cared about how I could bring her imprisonment to an end, but I didn't care. She was the only pony in the world who I'd ever known. I had no choice.
Opaline told me that she was the source of all the magic in Equestria, that Princess Twilight had stolen it from her because everypony else was jealous of Opaline's alicorn powers. She told me her powers had been sealed away, and that she could give me a Cutie Mark if she regained them. Once I learned what a Cutie Mark was, I wanted one more than anything in the world. Because I'd never had a purpose for my existence. Opaline promised me I'd find one just by serving her. Well, we can all see how that turned out.
Opaline spied on Equestria through her scrying pool, watching for when magic would return to Equestria. When Sunny and the others restored it, she saw an opportunity. First, she wanted me to steal Sunny's lantern containing the harmony power, believing she could leach the magic from it somehow. But it only got worse when she discovered Sparky. She knew his fire could break the seal on her, so she endlessly demanded that I get him. Sure enough, when I managed to get a sample of dragon fire, she was able to restore some of her strength, but it wasn't enough.
And when Twilight and the others showed up, she completely lost it. I'm guessing that's because Twilight defeated her before. She wanted me to bring Sparky before the portal closed, so she could undo her loss. After all this time, I finally managed to pull it off by tricking Izzy and Pinkie, and drugging Sparky. But as soon as Opaline had her powers back, she told me about how everything I had worked for was for nothing. How my entire purpose in life didn't matter. And then she tried to kill me.
As Misty finished her story, the others all stared on in shock. Clearly, they hadn't expected Misty's life to be that bad. Pinkie and Fluttershy looked like they might burst into tears at any second.
"So, yeah. That's everything," Misty continued. She turned to look at Sunny. "That story you told at the sleepover. That's the truth, isn't it? And Twilight was the pony sent to study friendship?"
Sunny stared numbly for another second, but finally nodded. "Y-yes," she replied.
Misty laid her head back. "I'm sorry that I spied on you for all those months, pretending to be your friend. Honestly, I'm shocked you never figured it out, with how dumb I was."
"I had my suspicions about you," admitted Zipp, "but I never knew anything about Opaline."
Applejack trotted up to the side of the bed. "Sugar cube," she started, "you didn't have a choice. Nopony blames you for what you did. It was Opaline forcing you. Right?" She turned to look back at the others. Sunny's group hurriedly nodded in response. "See?"
Misty sighed, still not looking at them. "It doesn't change the fact that I did those things," she replied. "I don't know how to fight Opaline. I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do to help you."
No one responded for the next few seconds. Applejack placed a hoof against Misty's side, but the unicorn didn't move. Twilight looked her friend in the eye, and silently shook her head. Applejack's ears swiveled backwards, but she nonetheless removed her hoof. The eleven ponies plus one dragon all turned around and left the room, leaving Misty alone with her thoughts and a comatose Sparky.
"Well, what do we do now?" asked Izzy, once they'd walked out the front doors of the hospital.
"We have to fight back!" replied Sunny. "Opaline's gonna take the Unity Crystals and use them to take all the magic in Equestria! Plus, Sparky could die if we don't stop her! Surely all of us together can beat her! Right?" She turned to Twilight.
However, the purple alicorn's head hung low, as though nothing in the world mattered anymore. Twilight didn't even meet Sunny's gaze.
"I don't know," she responded. "I just don't know. Opaline is strong. Stronger than me. Seven of us weren't enough to stop her, and you aren't used to fighting." She sighed to herself. "I don't know if we can win."
"What?!" cried Sunny. "But you and the other Guardians of Harmony always win! You beat Nightmare Moon, Discord, Queen Chrysalis, Lord Tirek—"
"Well, we didn't know we would win in those situations, Sunny!" shouted Twilight. "In fact, in every one of those fights, it always seemed hopeless!"
"Then how is this any different?!" Sunny demanded. "You're still all together, and you've got us! How can you not believe in us?!"
"You aren't ready! You told me about what happened when you first restored magic, how you barely survived by luck instead of working as a team! This isn't some fairy tale, this is life! And I have no idea how we can defeat Opaline!"
"Is that so?" Sunny growled back. "Well, maybe I should find some other pony to look up to, then!"
"Maybe you should realize that the ponies you look up to are just as fallible as you!" Twilight shot back.
By this point, the two mares were pressing their noses against each other, glaring directly into each other's eyes. This was only halted when Zipp grabbed Sunny from behind, and Applejack grabbed Twilight by the tail.
"Alright, you two, that's enough! Break it up!" Zipp yelled.
"Yeah! We may be in trouble, but screaming in each other's faces ain't gonna solve anything!" added Applejack.
Twilight and Sunny each took a deep breath, and turned to face away from each other. After several more inhalations, their postures relaxed, and the tension left their bodies.
"Thank you, Applejack," said Twilight. "I really needed that."
"Me too," admitted Sunny. "I appreciate that, Zipp."
Once the two had sufficiently calmed down, they turned towards each other once more.
"I'm sorry," Twilight said first. "I just...you know by now that I don't do well with stress. Especially considering this is partially my future self's fault for making Opaline an alicorn in the first place."
"You don't have to apologize for being honest," replied Sunny. "I shouldn't have put you on a pedestal like that. You deserve more respect than I've been giving you."
"Uh, girls?" interrupted Hitch. "I hate to ruin the moment, especially since it seems like we were getting somewhere, but we still have no plan. From what Twilight's told us, rushing in blindly isn't going to work. We need to think of something."
Twilight opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off by another voice yelling "TWILIGHT!" in the distance. As the ponies searched for the source of the voice, a sudden flash of white and turquoise light appeared, before fading to reveal a familiar pink unicorn.
"Starlight?" What are you doing here?" demanded Rainbow.
Starlight Glimmer ignored her. "Twilight, I've been sending a magical pulse all around town looking for you for the past thirty minutes! Where have you been?!"
"Um, we kinda had a bit of a crisis to deal with, Starlight," replied the alicorn. "Can this wait? It turns out, the situation is a lot more dire than we initially thought, and—"
"No, this cannot wait," Starlight insisted. "I don't know what's going on on your end, but Star Swirl and I made a huge discovery when we took apart the Time Twirler."
Twilight perked up a little at that. "Really? Did you find out how it was modified to open the portal?"
'Not exactly," admitted Starlight. "What we learned raises way more questions than answers. Because the magical signature, the one that cast the spell on the Time Twirler to make it the way it was in this future...was you."
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That does raise more questions but it can only mean the future Twilight didn't die at Opaline's hooves. Starlight's help would be usefull against Opaline but it's probably not enough.
Can't Spike request to take some dragonfire out of him and put it in Sparky to at least buy him time?
No.
If future you survived, then you would've came out your hiding when magic returned. But you never did.
"Cutie marks can't be given, they need to be earned."
But how tho. She's too powerful. If past Twilight couldn't 'fully' beat her, all power of friendships in this age is from low to dead, no allies at all, the Tree of Harmony possibly dead from the disharmony, etc etc
How can you beat her.
Okay wow, things are pretty tense now, and Sparky is really weak,Opaline really took more than his dragon fire out of him, now she made it really personal, and looks like twilight and the girls made it to sunny and the others and told them about Opaline and what happened and Misty told them the truth, and oh boy, things are pretty tense for them as it is and they need a plan to stop Opaline, and looks like starlight travels to the future to warn twilight about their discovery of the time twirler, and it was twilight her self who send it to the future, wow that is a shocker and interesting for the next chapter, awesome job keep up the great work
WHAT
Why am I getting Future Arc from Katekyo Hitman Reborn vibes here.
Somehow things are coming full circle. Future Twilight either has a plan, or has already lived through this. Starlight is right, this brings way too many more questions.
Also, if none of the current present can defeat Opaline, just bring some of the other powerful beings in the past and bring them to the future for help.
Seems like this is a bootstrap paradox. Love it. I had suspected it, but, still. It’s brilliant to see you went with the idea.
11589853
But even if they can call for backup in the past and the future, you think that it’ll be enough to stop Opaline?
11589903
What’s Bootstrap Paradox?
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Basically, a paradox that triggers itself, so a person goes back in time to do something and it results in the very thing they went back in time to do, so the episode where Twilight started worrying about the future upon seeing her future self, only to realise she’d been worrying for nothing and headed back in time to tell her past self not to worry about the future, which resulted in her worrying about the future, that was a bootstrap paradox because it triggered itself. I hope you understand what I mean and it isn’t too confusing.
11589952
So less back to the future and more Terminator. Huh.
11589990
I guess so. Another example of a bootstrap paradox would be the Doctor Who episode ‘Blink’, which ended with the Doctor being given the transcript he’d use to communicate with Sally Sparrow later (which for Sally, was a year ago), before it even happened for the Doctor, and it was the Doctor using the transcript to communicate with Sally which resulted in the transcript being written in the first place.
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True. Also, I love how every discussion about time travel always circles back to pop culture.
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I assure you that's unintentional, because I've never seen that.
11590003
Well low down version of it is, there is an arc where the Protagonist Tsuna is sent 10 years into thr future and the villian of the arc is a character called Byakuran who has the power to travel and converse with Parallel Versions of Himself (As well as a Marshmallow Obsession). The Tsuna of that time couldn't defeat Byakuran at all and even "got killed" by him' so Tsuna had developed a plan to use the potential of his past self to finally defeat Byakuran.
TWILIGHT STOP!
please do not committ the movie again!
...shes alive out there
SET A COURSE
FIND HER!
I felt bad for hitch hearing a child getting hurt like that it's not always so easy and it's always so heartbreaking that it should not happen to a child like that
"Are you serious?!" exclaimed Zipp. "So it was Opaline's fault that the three tribes separated in the first place?!"
"And she drove away all the other sapient races from Equestria?!" added Hitch
That's actually a pretty good theory about Opaline was the one who caused a hole Pony tribes and the creatures being separate from each other because of anger paranoia and racism
"Well, it was more like she mortally wounded me," replied Twilight. "For all we know, future me could've survived—"
"Not the time, Twilight!" interrupted Rainbow.
Yeah probably don't think about it too hard and not only that maybe not too risk any time disruption
That's every parent's worst nightmare to hear
Like I said it's such a big huge deja vu what happened to fizzle pop
It just feels like you got super lucky nobody notice you or anything like that
WHAT?!?!? Are you saying that the future Twilight and I'm not talking about from season 2 it's about time but the actual Twilight from the future great Scott this is heavy
Okay so far things are getting really crazy so sunny and the other is finally reached the hospital and told them about what happened to Sparky and Misty once they will wait it the doctor told him about Misty's condition is nothing too severe but unfortunately Sparky they have no idea what to do and they think he's not going to make it and poor hitch he is so devastated but it looks like Twilight and the others also made it as well and told them about what happened and even told him about the vision what Twilight saw and apparently Opaline started this whole mess about ponies and creatures separate from each other so they had to ask Misty about Opaline but unfortunately she only gave them a little bit information what she's been told but nothing much and basically they went back to the beginning tried to figure out what to do and attention is rising having sunny and Twilight going at each other luckily their friends told him to calm down before things escalated before they could figure out the plan Starlight showed up and told him about the item that they found from the future and apparently it was made from Twilight so apparently future Twilight send it to the Past it just blew my mind I wonder what's going to happen I guess we'll find out next time
Oh. My. Luna. Are we going to see Twilight interact with Future Twilight?!!!!! LET’S GOOOOOOOOOO!!!! I’m so hyped for what’s coming next!!
Also, I feel so bad for Misty. I also wrote a plot point very similar to this in Worthless and no matter how many times I reuse the ‘Misty reveals the truth’ trope, whether it be for me or other writers, it hurts each time. I hope Misty will be able to get her cutie mark and find happiness now that she’s left Opaline.
If future Twilight modified the Time Twirler the way it is now, sent it to Sunny's timeline to be found. That means she had a contingency plan to where if she failed, then her past self can finish what she started and defeat Opaline. And if the Time Twirler has any race of future Twilight's magic within it, then that means present Twilight can absorb it and not only gain her future self's power, but also gain the strength she needs to strip Opaline of her power and Alicornhood completely.
Dun dun dun...
So I’m guessing that there’s a possibility that Future Twilight is alive or her magic is in the modified time twirler.
Your story is so good that for some reason, I want to turn your Fanfic into a comic fanfic. I know with the words detail I can already picture how it would be in comic form. But if I were to draw a comic which would take a long time for me to do on paper, what style should I do it in, MLP FIM style or Tell Your Tale Style, or Both?
(P.S. I will make the comic with your permission in this comment, to avoid plagiarism. Also I might make small changes here and there.)
11591775
I would say FiM style, personally. You have my permission.
11591775
I’ll be interested in reading your comic adaptation of Generational Divide
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Thank you Boltstrike58. I will do my best with Chapter one, it will not be digital BTW, because I don't have a computer to at the moment and I don't have any drawing software. Just to let you know. I'm going to enjoy drawing this story. Also, I look forward to see what's next in this fanfiction. (P.S. I want to draw an awesome fight scene with Twilight Sparkle and Alicorn Sunny VS Opaline. With the powers I already know from MLP G5, Make Your Mark, Tell Your Tale, and the IDW comics, I will draw it the most epic way and will use all my effort to make it awesome as possible. Like if it like a Marvel comic, so please add it somewhere in the future of this fanfic Boltstrike. I want to do it so badly!)
11592419
Awesome. Let me know when you start posting it.
As lethal for Sparky as expected. Still, he has a chance...
So, Twilight was behind the portal? Huh. It could be an attempt to get aid to take Opaline down for good in this timeline... Or an attempt to undo this calamity. Both are equally likely at this point...
(RU) Я возможно пропустил, но отреагировали ли Искорка и её друзья как то на то что у пони теперь один знак отличия?
11592419
Sounds awesome. Could I read it too?