Izzy was now entering her third straight minute of rattling off a list of her favorite Bridlewood unicorn traditions.
Zipp didn’t mind this. Even though the sheer volume of events being named had so overwhelmed her ability to retain them that they had formed a long train of meaningless sound, currently taking an express route from one ear to the other, she was so fully engrossed in the sheer joy on her friend’s face that it didn’t matter. After witnessing her become so stressed in her attempts to micromanage the perfect slumber party, it was a welcome respite to see Izzy’s boundless joy reassert itself in reminiscing on her past.
The four of them were sitting around the kitchen counter, with Zipp next to Izzy, Pipp on the other side and Sunny at the far end. Inside, it was dim, with only a few lamps in other rooms providing illumination. Outside, the garden was bright, with long strings of lanterns and innumerable fireflies enhancing a beautiful moonlit landscape. Even from a distance, Zipp could spy it through the front window to her left, and her eyes wandered in that direction as Izzy briefly paused for another breath.
And those eyes noticed something strange.
For just the briefest of moments, she’d detected movement. Not the gentle streaks of light left by the movements of the fireflies, but a shadow. Perhaps it could have been some creature, but…
The thought entered her head, and it wouldn’t leave.
Misty.
It’s Misty out there.
The hitherto unknown blue unicorn that Izzy had met that very day and immediately decided to host a slumber party for. The one who claimed to have grown up in Bridlewood just like Izzy, yet seemed just as mystified by Izzy’s traditional unicorn practices as the rest of them, while also backtracking on almost everything she said, presenting a baffling revisionary retelling of Sunny’s story of the Guardians of Harmony and getting herself bizarrely lost on the way to the washroom.
And then running away, leaving the party in shambles until Sunny had gotten Izzy talking again.
If that’s really Misty out there…
I should do something. I have to do something. Right?
Zipp hadn’t quite figured out what she was going to do if Misty was out there. Investigate more? Follow her? Confront her? Figure out just what was going on with this stranger whose every word feels tinged with half-truth (at best) and why she would lie to her and her friends–
She was brought back to reality by a whisper from Sunny, who was leaning into her right ear as Izzy was saying something about Glowpaz stones and Wishiehoof holidays.
“Psst, Zipp! Can you distract Izzy while we redecorate a little?”
Zipp turned to face Sunny. Her concern must have been evident on her face, as Sunny looked slightly startled at her appearance. She replied with a whisper of her own.
“I would, but… I think somepony is in the garden.”
“What?”
“It’s Misty. It’s gotta be Misty,” Zipp hissed as she planted her forehooves on the table, raising herself slightly upward. She winced, realizing she’d likely made too forceful a move to go unnoticed, but when she peeked back at Izzy, nothing had changed; the unicorn was still too caught up in her list to notice her.
She turned back to Sunny. “I should go see what she’s doing.”
“Zipp…” Sunny replied, some hesitancy evident. “Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure.”
“Well… go check, then. If it’s her, don’t be too harsh. Just try to bring her back inside, okay? Izzy would really appreciate it.”
Zipp nodded.
Sunny leaned over to Pipp. “Alright, you keep Izzy distracted, I’ll handle the Brighthouse myself.”
Pipp beamed. “Oh, you know I’ve got this.”
As Pipp shifted her seat to more wholly encompass Izzy’s immediate line of sight, Zipp and Sunny slid off their chairs and crept out of the kitchen into the next room. From there, Zipp took off, silently gliding her way around the interior back to the front entrance. Once landed, she gently pressed down on the latch and slunk outside, leaving the door cracked behind her to avoid any unnecessary noise from closing it.
Now on the front steps under the soft glow of the Brighthouse and the moon, Zipp could get a much clearer look down to the garden where, indeed, there was a figure moving back and forth behind the fountain. Zipp went down the stairs and trotted toward it, staying on the grass on the right side of the path to muffle her hoofsteps. A swift flight down the hill seemed overly risky; too sudden and visible of a movement to go unnoticed.
Once she’d made it parallel to the garden’s fencing, she took a short leap from one side of the path to the other and crouched under the large, purple-leaved willow tree. Cautiously, she peered up into the garden.
It only took the briefest of glimpses to confirm the pony inside was indeed Misty, mumbling to herself as she paced back and forth, head lowered. Zipp decided to wait a few moments before making her presence known, wanting to get a sense of why their new companion hadn’t left yet.
“Oh, I don’t know…” Misty was saying, taking rapid breaths between sentences. “What do I do, what do I do? I’m not prepared, what was I thinking…” She paused, and broke into an uncomfortable laugh. “I can’t pull this off– she was right. She was right, she was right, they’ll never believe you–”
She? Zipp pondered. Was Misty talking about Zipp herself, for having been openly suspicious of her at the party? Yet that felt wrong, somehow. But who could the she in that sentence be, then?
They’ll never believe you…
Lost in thought, Zipp absentmindedly stepped forward onto a leaf, which made a surprisingly loud crunch underneath her. Misty’s head instantly snapped up and looked around for the noise; Zipp quickly ducked out of view. Knowing she couldn’t keep hiding, though, she crept behind the tree trunk, then galloped out from behind it.
“Misty!” she shouted, as the unicorn mare’s eyes found her. “I saw you out here from the Brighthouse – we were worried about you! Can…” She stopped at the garden’s front gate, Misty’s outline visible through the other side. “Can I talk to you?”
“Ah… ah-ah-ahhhf course! Of course you can! I mean why wouldn’t I want to have a chat, I mean that’s why I’m still here, right? I mean– uh, come in!”
Oh-kaaaaayyyyyy…
Zipp pushed open the gate and stepped inside. Misty had backed up as close to the fountain as she could get and hooves now frozen in place, watching her with wary eyes. She held her position as Zipp trotted closer to her, though Zipp could see she was shaking.
“So, uhhhh…” Misty stammered. “How’s the… party?”
“Um, well, it stopped, Misty. When you left, Izzy didn’t want to keep things going. The whole party was supposed to be for you.”
Misty cringed. “Oh…”
“She’s fine, though. I mean, kinda. She’s really disappointed, but we’re helping her feel better. But–”
“But I should just leave, right?”
Zipp blinked. “Huh?”
“Yeah. Uh, I should just… I should just leave, and go, so I stop ruining everything. I should have left earlier, I shouldn’t have just been wandering around in your garden, I shouldn’t be here–”
“Misty…”
Misty had started pacing again, even more agitated than before. For a moment, Zipp had an instinct to chase after her, stop her from trying to flee, but by the time the thought had occurred, Misty had already begun trotting back in the other direction. The stress of the night had clearly sunk in deep.
“–and now I don’t know what to do!” Misty continued. “I can’t leave! I don’t want to go back, but if I stay here, then you’ll just keep asking me questions and I’ll just end up blurting it out that I’m not from Bridlewood–” Misty instantly silenced herself, eyes wide as her body again froze and horror etched itself across her face.
But now the words were out there.
“You’re not…” Even though Zipp had been practically certain already, hearing the words from Misty’s own mouth took her aback.
“No… I’m not. I-I-I lied. I didn’t mean to lie, but…” Misty swallowed, her eyes momentarily darting back and forth so quickly that Zipp almost didn’t notice. “But Izzy seemed so happy in town when she thought I was from Bridlewood, and I couldn’t let her down. Not after what she did for me.”
Still reeling from the shock of Misty simultaneously validating and completely undermining her earlier investigation, Zipp could only respond with confusion. “What she… did for you?”
“She called it a hug.”
Said confusion was reaching an altitude so great that, to anypony that high in the sky, Zephyr Heights would have been but a tiny speck below. “You’ve never heard of a hug…?”
Who is this pony?
“I-I-I-I mean I’ve heard of it, yeah, um, obviously. Obviously? Right, yeah, definitely,” Misty replied shakily, starting to pace again. “But, I mean, I don’t get them very often. Not for any weird reason or anything, I just don’t.” Misty sighed. “But when Izzy hugged me in town, it… actually, it was pretty intense. She said she was kind of an intense hugger. But it felt really good! Like really, really good!”
Zipp nodded along silently, trying her best to absorb all the information she was being fed.
“And, well, I don’t know, I guess, um, I just really appreciated that! And when Izzy said that she was gonna throw a party for me, I couldn’t say no! Not after that! Otherwise how would she know I appreciated it? Am I saying appreciated too much? Maybe? Who knows!” She gave another mirthless laugh. “But then she just said I must be from Bridlewood, and I was worried saying I wasn’t might make her not like me! But now I can’t tell her I’m not from Bridlewood, or she’ll think I’m just a liar! Ohh…”
Now on the far side of the fountain to Zipp’s right, Misty stopped as her back legs gave out under her, dropping into a sitting position on the hard stone as she rubbed her eyes with a forehoof. Zipp could see a tear glinting on her muzzle.
The gears in Zipp’s detective brain were turning. There was so much going on here — not just the things Misty had admitted, but also her stressed behavior, her obvious discomfort in talking about herself, the fact that she barely knew what a hug was…
The words she was right, she was right echoed inside her, and for a moment, Zipp fixated on them, and who she might be. And then something clicked into place.
Misty wasn’t leaving out details of her background because she’s some sneaky liar or villain, she was leaving them out because they still hurt…
She cringed as the realization hit her fully.
Because somepony hurt her. She hurt her. A lot.
Zipp Storm knew she had grown up in a privileged life. She and her mother could have their disagreements, certainly, but, at the end of the day, she knew she was loved. And Pipp loved her, too. So she couldn’t personally relate to the experience of growing up in an abusive environment. But it was far from unheard of in Zephyr Heights.
As a filly, amongst all the adoration Zipp had gotten from her peers regardless of whether she wanted it, some of her classmates had reached out to her for a different reason – unable to find anypony else they could tell about their desperate situation, they were reaching out for royal intervention as their last hope. Indeed, she had related every instance of this to her mother, though she couldn’t be certain about the outcome of each case. She knew some had been foals simply overreacting to a mild verbal spat with a parent – but some had been very serious indeed. So Zipp had learned to recognize signs of abuse.
Looking at Misty once again, she could see those signs all over her.
Carefully, Zipp began to walk forward towards the downcast unicorn.
“Hey, um…”
She paused for a moment as Misty looked up, then slowly continued moving.
“Misty… I’m sorry if I was being too harsh in there, before. I was just being, well, overprotective, I guess, of my friends. I’m not mad at you for ly– uh, for saying you were from Bridlewood. And I won’t tell Izzy you’re not; you can tell her, when you’re ready.”
“...really?”
Zipp nodded. Now directly in front of Misty, she stopped. “But if it’s okay with you — and I won’t tell anypony else — could you tell me where you are from?”
She was looking Misty right in the eyes, but the unicorn turned away and shut them.
“Do I have to?”
Zipp flinched, wondering just how past-tense Misty’s pain was.
She can’t be, right? She can’t still be with whoever was hurting her. With her. And she would never have let her spend the night with us… would they?
After a moment’s thought, she dismissed the idea. Too implausible.
But however far in the past it was, though, it was still clearly too much for Misty to dwell on. And Zipp couldn’t ask that of her.
“No,” she replied. “You don’t have to say anything.”
Misty looked back at her, eyes open again, and wide.
“Thanks, Zipp.”
She smiled, and Zipp smiled back.
Having given up on pressing for details, Zipp instead let herself indulge in a bit of speculation. Maybe Misty had come to Maretime Bay to get away from her, whoever she was. Maybe she was trying to find a fresh start. Maybe she was just trying to make new friends… friends who could give her the care she hadn’t gotten before.
Friends who would give her a hug, like Izzy had.
She spoke again. “We were hoping to get the party started again inside. Do you want to come back inside with us?”
Misty trembled. “I… I want to, but… nopony probably wants me in there.”
For just a brief moment, Zipp grimaced. Then, she crouched down to Misty’s level on the ground.
Zipp Storm was a pony that had learned to trust her instincts. True, they had led her a bit astray that evening, reading Misty’s awkward behavior and half-truths solely through the lens of a potential threat, and not as a pony who might need their help — her help. But those instincts had also led her here, to this conversation. To the truth, or at least all the truth she needed to hear to see Misty in a new light.
And those instincts were telling her exactly what to do to make things right.
She reached out with both forelimbs and wrapped them around the unicorn, who squeaked in surprise.
“Zipp?”
“You said you haven’t had many hugs before, didn’t you?”
“Yeah…”
“Well, here’s one more. Just for you.”
Misty’s body shuddered against hers, and Zipp could sense the surprise radiating off her. After a moment, though, she could feel Misty’s own forelimbs lift up and wrap around her.
“See? You’re getting the hang of this already.”
And she allowed the hug to last for as long as Misty kept it going, letting the feeling of the embrace and the ambience of the fountain wash over her.
After about a minute, Misty pulled back, and Zipp withdrew. “Th-thanks,” Misty said softly. “Thanks for that.”
Zipp smiled. “Anytime.” She drew back to her full height. “Ready to go inside?”
Misty slowly got to her hooves, and, as though the lights of the garden and the beauty of the flowers had washed away all the darkness and grief that had clouded her face all evening, looked like a whole new mare. “Definitely.”
Zipp hadn’t entirely assuaged her concerns about – or for – Misty. But she was ready to put them aside, at least for now.
There was a party waiting, after all.
A few hours had passed. The party had resumed, and Misty had eventually come clean to Izzy and the others that she wasn’t from Bridlewood. Even with Zipp’s assurance, she’d still been rather surprised at their understanding. None pressed her for details. From there, the evening had gone rather smoothly.
Now, though, it was late at night, and everypony had decided to turn in. Izzy was on her bed, while her housemates were all in sleeping bags around it. Misty, having not had a bag to bring, was laying on some blankets Izzy had offered.
They were all asleep. Misty wasn’t.
She was laying on her side, fixated on the item balanced on her hoof. The closed compact mirror, the one she’d left for Sunny to find days ago, through which Opaline had tried to reach out to Sunny, to explain her true nature.
Why hadn’t she listened? Misty had wondered. Opaline is so wise, so smart, so powerful… who could hear her words and not see the truth in them?
And yet the longer Misty looked at the mirror, the more she realized she didn’t want to open it.
I’ve got to, she thought. I have to report. What have I been doing tonight if I can’t at least tell Opaline about everything I’ve seen here? No, I didn’t find the lantern, but I’ve learned so much about magic, about these ponies!
Like how they’re kind, they’re understanding, they listen, they give me hugs…
Her face fell. I can’t say anything like that. Opaline doesn’t care about that stuff. She only wants to know what a good job I did being a spy.
She let the mirror drop from her hoof onto the blanket as she rolled onto her back. There were so many nice things these ponies had done for her, in one night, that Opaline never would have. Like that hug. That amazing, wonderful hug Zipp had offered, that had made all the bad thoughts go away, just for a moment. It was almost magical, in its own way. But not a way that Opaline cared about.
But could it really be magic? Real magic? Misty pondered. If it is, why wouldn’t Opaline want to know about it? Maybe she’s forgotten. She’s been separated from her magic for so long, maybe it’s something I should tell her about so she’ll remember!
And yet she still couldn’t bring herself to pick the mirror back up.
I owe her so much, she found me, she raised me, without her I’d have nothing, she’ll give me a cutie mark one day…
All of a sudden, she heard another voice. But she never hugged you.
Startled, she sat up, looking at the ponies to her right. They were all sound asleep, blissfully secure in the dreamscape of the moon.
Yet she’d sworn the voice had sounded just like Zipp.
Gently, she laid back down. Her eyes fell back on the mirror. She knew Opaline was waiting on the other side, itching for Misty’s report.
And she just stared at it.
