It was finally day, and I could get on with what I wanted to do. Sunny had made breakfast for the rest of us, but once we had eaten and cleared our plates (and I certainly did- that meal was seriously good), we went back to our tasks for the day.

I, for one, did not want to stay indoors the entire day. The wandering spirit was alive and free inside of me, and I wanted to roam the world and see its wonders.

Unfortunately, I couldn't really do that within this forest, as I wasn't a unicorn, and the unicorns didn't like us. That was a bit of a bummer, to be honest.

I stayed inside, until I then had an idea for what I could possibly do. I could always collect something locally to occupy my mind. That, after all, beat hanging around indoors and stewing within my own thoughts. I'd been doing quite enough of that for the last few days.

Once the others weren't looking, I popped outdoors and went over to a nearby bush to collect some berries. According to something Izzy had been saying in her sleep, there were some nice blueberries that she remembered her mom loves.

That got me thinking, as I trotted along outside. What about my own mom? And I don't mean Phyllis?

As far as she knew, I'd just vanished in the middle of the day in Oregon, with absolutely no clue where I had gone, and was possibly gone forever.

Which I guess I was. Pulled out of a world I knew and into another life entirely. I trotted along through the trees, stopping before the path when I suddenly spotted something.

The bush before the path had a distinct blue and turquoise tail behind it, which signaled to me who was behind it. As I heard singing echoing from the house (Pipp had started work on a new album despite being nowhere near a studio), I stopped in position, watching the path to ensure no unicorns passed.

Once I was sure the coast was clear, I rolled to one side and moved up behind the bush, before stopping behind Misty. It was definitely here behind it, watching the landscape intently.

Then, to break things up she turned around and nearly jumped.

That was awkward. "Fancy seeing you here," I said.

Misty crossed her forelegs over and glanced down a bit, her cheeks going bright red as she did so. Seems she was feeling just as awkward as me. "You two," she said. "What brings you to this bush?"

Truth be told there were two things that brought me out here, so I decided to use the less awkward one to try and start a conversation. "Pipp's turned the living area into a studio. She's been recording some musical ideas on her phone, but I'm not sure any of them will take off. The acoustics in that place aren't the best."

Unfortunately, Misty saw through my efforts. Seems I'm not as good an actor as I thought. "I don't think that's the entire reason, is it?"

I didn't think I could hold it in much longer, so I didn't want to hold back and keep the truth of what was going on in my heart. I nodded as calmly as I could. "No. Listen, I needed to talk to you. About yesterday, and other stuff."

Misty continued looking at me, her face locked in an awkward smile as if trying to hold something in. It's adorable when she does that and-

Focus, Sprout!

She then spoke up. "OK. What about it?"

I felt my own face heat up with emotions I had only experienced once before in my life, and I was pretty certain my face had gone red. Then again, it normally is, so that's not much of a change from the usual. Time to spill the beans, so to speak. "OK, time to stop beating around the bush. Err, you see, well, it's that..."

I stopped for a moment, breathed in, and then said some of the hardest words I've ever had to say.

"Misty, I have a crush on you."

There. Fine. I said it. She knew now. I had finally confessed what I'd been feeling since I met her. I looked at Misty, who had seemingly frozen, like when you pause a movie. She was locked rigid in place, looking straight ahead with confused eyes.

It was an eternity until we spoke again. "Sorry, could you repeat that? I'm not quite sure I caught it the first time."

So I repeated myself. "Misty, I have a crush on you."

Another awkward silence. Misty was still standing and staring.

"Are you OK?" I asked. "I can go away if you want and-"

"It's OK," Misty said. "It's just rather a lot to take in, that's all. Truth be told I have felt something for you as well. Perhaps we should go back to Izzy's house and deal with it there? Beats standing out here for no readily obvious reason."

I had no issue with that.

I woke up in the middle of the night again, but this time heard voices from downstairs. One of them was Misty, and the other was the last pony I'd expected to hear.

"Yeah. As you were saying?"

"Time is of the utmost essence, Misty. It turns out that fool Gulfstream is proving to be more of a problem than I had thought. He's getting the pegasi ready to fight. If we don't act quickly all will be for nothing- I don't particularly fancy ruling over a nuclear wasteland, after all."

Well, that was depressing news. On top of this Gulfstream guy and the striped guy, we have Opaline to contend with. Brilliant. Why can't life ever be simple?

I made my way downstairs, stepping quietly as I did so.

"Opaline, I gotta go. Somepony's coming."

"Understood. Give me a full operational report when you have the crystals. Opaline out."

I stopped when Misty called out. "Hello? Is somepony there?"

I trotted round the corner and looked at her, her features once again captured in the moonlight. "I wanted to get some air, so I hopped out of bed for some," she shrugged. "That's why I'm here."

I had an idea. "Should we pop outdoors? I think some air would be nice round here. Besides, I've heard Bridlewood can be lovely at night."

We stopped deeper into the forest, just soaking up the bioluminescence from the landscape. It glowed around us, with the light being so good we didn't need artificial means to see.

We talked for a bit about the light, but then I decided to cut to the chase. "Misty, why are you still working for her?"

Misty feigned confusion, but it didn't work. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"I think you do," I said. "You were talking to Opaline earlier. I overheard it. Tell me, what do you have to gain from working from her?"

Misty sighed, looked down, and then inhaled an incredible amount of air. "Opaline wants the crown and the magic to be back so we can defeat the One with the Stripes and prevent Equestria from being blown up by a madman!"

Wait. Opaline was on our side? To a limited extent, as no doubt she didn't want peace and wanted to rule over us, but at least she wanted our world intact from some nutcase who wanted to kill us all. "The same guy we fought on that mountaintop. And I faced him in Maretime Bay. Somehow we've all been drawn here, to face him. But why us?"

That question sat in my mind, as Misty continued speaking. "I don't know. All I know is that I seem to be following my own destiny. And keeping Opaline happy is the easiest way to avoid ending up a thin red smear on a wall somewhere. I don't think I can turn back though. Not after what I did. That madpony is in charge because of me. I split up friend groups. Zipp and the Queen are in a mess because of what I did. When I've done so much wrong in the world, can I really turn back to the light?"

I looked into her eyes, and saw a lot of pain behind them. Misty had been through a lot, and she was desperately holding back tears. I pulled her into a hug. "You're not a bad pony, Misty. We all make mistakes and decisions we regret- enough to last me a lifetime. But you can't let those decisions define you forever. We are so much more than what we have done."

Misty's spoke again, sounding choked up. "Who would ever want to love a worthless failure like me?"

"I could."

"You're not just saying that to make me feel better?"

I dropped back to look her directly in the eyes. "No. I've spent time thinking, processing it in my heart- and I know the truth now. Ever since we first met I've felt the butterflies in the pit of my stomach. And I can finally put a word to that sensation. And trust me, I thought I would never find it either. I think you know what I'm thinking, huh?"

There's an old saying that your first kiss is always the sweetest, and I can confirm it's true.

I never imagined in a million years that my first kiss would be with a unicorn, though.

Author's Note

Heh... and on that note... looks like Sprout has kissed Misty for the first time. :3