The Only Chapter
Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid!
Misty, as per usual, had messed up.
It was simple. It should’ve been simple. She and her friends were just hanging out at the beach. The sun was shining, there was a nice cool breeze; it was perfect!
But no, clumsy Misty had to go and trip over her own hooves and stumble into the sand castle Izzy worked so hard on. And then she stumbled backwards knocking over Pipp and Hitch’s smoothies while she was trying to apologize to her. And then stumbling into Sunny and Zipp’s volleyball game when she was trying to apologize to them, causing Sunny to accidentally hit the ball into the ocean, potentially never to be seen again.
Thankfully, she managed to not bump into anything else after that, but everypony was looking at her and she was trying to stammer out million apologies at once and her heart was racing and and she could hardly breathe and—
It all became far too much for Misty, who turned tail and bolted. She didn’t even know where she was running, just
that she needed to get out of there as soon as possible.
The worst part however, was now that she was in some random cave, all alone, was realizing just how utterly stupid she had been. She could have stammered out those apologies, and Hitch and Pipp would’ve gotten new smoothies, and Zipp would’ve flown over and gotten the ball, and Izzy would’ve made a new, even better sandcastle. Instead, she’d just run away like a complete idiot. “Stupid, stupid! Why did you do that?”
It was okay though. All she had to do was stop freaking out, get up, and get back to her friends. Then she could hopefully apologize and get on with the rest of the day. She just had to calm down.
Her breath quickened.
Calm down.
Her heart kept pounding in her chest.
Calm down.
She shut her eyes as tears began to well up behind them.
Calm down!
What was wrong with her? It was so simple! Get up. Stop freaking out. Calm down. She should’ve gone back to her friends ages ago, and yet she was still. Stuck. Here!
She slumped to the ground, not moving save for the occasional tremble that escaped her body.
Maybe I should just lay here forever…
Deciding to lay on the cave floor forever was not a good idea. Misty really should’ve gotten up and gone back to her friends ages ago. Maybe it wasn’t too late to go back to them. All she had to do was get up.
Get up.
Get up.
Get up…
Or maybe it was too late. Maybe she should just lay here forever after all. After all, she had gone through this same argument with herself dozens of times by now.
“Misty? Miiiisty?”
Misty’s ears perked up at the sound of Pipp’s voice. She briefly pondered whether she should respond to her call, or if she even could.
Luckily, she didn’t end up having to answer that, as Pipp’s voice was soon followed by the tell-tale sounds of hoofsteps coming closer.
“Misty! Oh my hoofness, we’ve been looking all over for you!”
Misty didn’t answer. She still couldn’t answer.
“…Misty? Is everything alright?”
Misty felt the warm of one of Pipp’s hooves on her back, and she moved her own hooves away from her eyes to see Pipp looking down at her.
“I—” Was all she was able to manage before the words seemingly got caught in her throat. “I—” she tried again. Still nothing. “I— Argh!” Stupid, stupid, stupid Misty. Why wouldn’t her vocal cords just work? Why couldn’t she just get up and explain? Why could she not handle such a simple task.
Pipp didn’t really respond to Misty’s sentence fragments, and instead went to sit besides her. For a few minutes, the two just sat there.
“So…” Pipp finally said, breaking the silence. “Nopony’s upset with you for what happened earlier.”
“…I know.” Misty said, finally managing out something.
“We were all just worried about you.”
“I know. I’m sorry, it’s just…” I overreacted to bumping into all you guys earlier. I couldn’t bring myself to own up to my mistake and go back once I realized it. I can’t even find the words to explain this to you right now.
“I— Ugh!— My brain!—” Is what came out instead. “It doesn’t— can’t function— Stupid— Argh!” She slammed her hoof on the floor. “Why can’t this just work?”
“Hey, hey, hey!” Pipp draped her wing over Misty, the fluff of her feathers acting as a warm blanket. “It’s okay, we understand. You’ve been through a lot. It’s only natural that you’d be a little anxious.”
“Yeah, but—” she sighed. “I’m the only pony who’s like this. I’m sure nopony else has these kinds of problems. They wouldn’t have messed up like I did.”
“Aw, Misty…” Pipp scooted closer to her. She paused for a minute, contemplating something, before she leaning in closer. “Hey, you wanna know a secret?”
“What?” Misty asked flatly.
“I have major anxiety problems too.”
Misty looked up. “What? But you—”
“I’ve gotten a lot better at coping with it now, obviously.” She continued, smiling into the distance “But back when I was younger, when I first started performing seriously, it could get so bad that I’d just shut down.” Her smile fell. “I know you’ve been through a lot more than I have. And you have a lot to deal with. But believe me when I say you’re not the only pony with those kinds of problems. And you’re not alone. You have us now after all.”
“Bu-Bu-But—” Misty stammered. “You can’t— You preform! All the time! In front of so many ponies!”
Pipp laughed. “I mean, using that logic, I could say the same think about you. You said during Nightmare Night that you don’t scare easily, right?”
Misty nodded.
“But you still have anxiety problems, right?”
Misty looked down. “I… do.”
“See? It doesn’t matter whether you like preforming, or don’t scare easily, or even enjoy being scared! That’s not what this is all about. The point is, I understand what it’s like when your mind takes you down scary spirals that you can’t dig yourself out of.”
Misty cracked a small smile. “Thanks for telling me that, Pipp.”
“Aw, no problem! Now, do you wanna go and meet back up with everypony else or do you just want to wait here a little while?”
“Actually,” Misty slowly brought herself back to her feet. “I think I’m ready to talk with the others now.”
Pipp beamed. “Yay! Let’s go!”
Walking out of the cave with the pink pegasus by her side, Misty pondered over the information she had just learned. It seemed so strange that she and somepony so different from her in so many ways could have anything in common. Then again, ever since leaving Opaline, she was learning more about friendship and her friends every day. Maybe they did have more in common than she thought. Maybe she wasn’t broken.
Maybe there was more to all of this than she thought.