A Herd in Maretime Bay

When Misty got back to the Brighthouse with Sparky the others weren’t back from Zephyr Heights yet. And honestly, Misty was relieved. She wasn’t sure how to face the others after what she had realised.

Since the Unicorn was walking around again, Sparky assumed she was alright now. But in actuality Misty was in a trance, barely aware of what she was doing. She only snapped back to reality when she tried to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch and ended up getting most of it in her mane. Sparky stared at her in confusion.

Misty gave him a nervous smile. “Heh, heh.” Then she unexpectedly slammed her head into the counter top. “I’m a mess.” She muttered. Sparky reached over from his seat on the other side of the counter top and patted a part of her mane that wasn’t messy.

After this minor incident Misty decided to make jam on toast instead. She managed to put together the meal without making another mess, but only ate half of hers before leaving the rest for Sparky and running upstairs to take another shower so she could clean her mane.

As she stepped under the jet stream and began running her fingers through her mane (discovering it was also tangled, probably because of Sparky playing with it) her thoughts turned back to her friends’ herd. If the topic was hard to bring up before, it was going to be nearly impossible now. How was she supposed to talk about the herd without mentioning she wanted to be part of it. And then another thought occurred to her; would her being part of the herd even work? Given how her first few days living in the Brighthouse went, her honest answer was no. Something those days had taught her was that while her friends all had different interests, they were all very outgoing, Zipp a bit less so than the others, but it was still very easy to see that the five were romantically compatible. Misty on the other hand was a bit more private and preferred to keep to herself sometimes. It was why her bed had been moved from the centre of the bedroom to its own corner and why it had a curtain around it. Sure, Misty was more outgoing than she used to be and the others were always willing to be accommodating to her, but she still wasn’t sure she’d be romantically compatible with the others.

As she was grabbing the shampoo she heard the familiar sound of the marestream landing outside and found herself shivering suddenly. Right now the only thought going through her head was please don’t be too awkward in front of the others.

When Misty exited the bathroom with a towel around her, she found the other girls sitting on their beds.

“There you are,” Sunny said as Misty came into the bedroom. “Made a bit of a mess making lunch, did we?”

Misty laughed nervously and scratched the back of her head. “Sorry about that.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Izzy waved her hand dismissively. “We cleaned it up for you.”

Misty smiled at them. “Hey, thanks. By the way, where are Hitch and Sparky?”

“Down here,” Hitch called from downstairs. “We heard the shower running and worked out where you were. Don’t worry, neither of us are coming up until you’re dressed again.”

“Okay.” Misty called back. She ran over to her bed where she had left her clothes and climbed onto the bed, using her magic to close the curtain.

“Hey, Misty?” Zipp asked as the Unicorn was unwrapping the towel from around herself.

“Yes?” Misty responded as she started dressing.

“That’s twice now that you’ve gone off to see Jazz and Rocky. Is something going on?”

Misty let out a surprised squeak, which was fortunately drowned out by Sunny, Izzy and Pipp all rather sternly yelling “Zipp!”

“Can you not go two weeks without interrogating Misty?” Izzy asked, sounding very annoyed.

“Sorry,” Zipp said. “It’s just that I know for a fact that I came up in at least one of the conversations and I got the impression they were talking about us.”

“Well, no duh, detective,” Pipp said sarcastically. “They’re our friends, of course they would talk about us.”

“Misty, what were you three talking about?” Sunny asked, trying to settle things.

Misty took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. There was no way she was bringing up the herd after being put on the spot like that, so she needed to think of a lie, fast. Or, she could say something that was somewhat close to the truth. “Oh, nothing. Jazz and I were just having a playful argument about some gossip about you lot.”

“What gossip?” Zipp asked.

“The gossip around the fact that the most handsome stallion spends everyday with four very pretty mares,” Misty answered as she finished dressing and pulled her curtain back. “Jazz and I were trying to settle the debate of which of you four Hitch would choose to date. I’m dressed by the way.” She added, calling down to Hitch.

Sunny, Izzy, Zipp and Pipp all looked at each other, then burst out laughing.

“Are people seriously still arguing about that?” Sunny asked between laughs.

“Yes.” Misty replied, having heard towns’ ponies talking about it as recently as the previous week, yet she, Jazz and Rocky were the only ones she knew of who had guessed correctly.

“So what part of the gossip were you and Jazz talking about?” Hitch asked as he came upstairs with Sparky.

“Ah, it was stupid. We were just making points as to why you might pick one of the four.” Misty lied, feeling a familiar sense of self loathing bubbling up inside her chest.

Hitch chuckled. “Misty, you of all ponies should know that gossip is just gossip. I could never pick one of them over the others.”

Which is why you chose all of them, Misty thought before she remembered something. “By the way, Queen Haven and Alphabittle invited me to breakfast tomorrow.”

Pipp looked up at that. “Wait, what? I’d understand if it was just you and your dad, but why is mom going?”

Misty shrugged her shoulders. “They said it was so I could get used to my dad dating again, like how they did for you and Zipp.”

“Is that all they said?” Zipp asked curiously.

“It is, but…” Misty paused, her eyes narrowing. “Something was off with Haven’s tone. I think she’s planning something. Whatever it is, I don’t think dad’s aware of it.”

“Do you want any of us to go with you?” Izzy asked.

Misty shook her head. “No thanks. I don’t want to make a scene if I turn out to be wrong.”

The following morning Misty was up, showered, dressed and out of the house before the others were awake. On the way to the cafe she was cursing herself for lying to her friends again. She’d promised she’d left that part of her behind when she left Opaline’s side. Lying to her friends had always made her feel like shit before, but now it was even worse. Back then she’d been lying because Opaline had convinced her it was for a noble cause, and she was just getting to know the others anyway. Now though, the group had embraced her as one of their own in spite of the fact that they knew she had deceived them, yet here she was falling back on old habits because she didn’t know how to handle broaching a subject.

Jazz’s words about taking the initiative when she needed to talk to her friends about something echoed in her mind, and Misty felt even worse for lying yesterday, but she pushed those thoughts out of her mind as she arrived at the cafe. She could worry about the topic of herds later.

Entering the cafe she spotted Haven and Alphabittle instantly. She waved at them and walked over.

“Misty,” Her father stood up and hugged her. “How are you?”

“Hey dad,” Misty said. “I’m alright.”

“Hello, Misty dear.” Haven stood up to shake Misty’s hand after the father and daughter separated.

“Hi, Queen Haven.” Misty greeted, noticing there was something odd about the smile Haven was giving her. The Unicorn was already beginning to regret turning down Izzy’s offer of someone coming with her.

The three sat down, but as Misty was reaching for a menu her dad raised a hand to stop her.

“Before we order, I wanted to give you these.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out nine cards, all of them different colours. Misty took the cards and read one of them, which had her name on it.

Misty Brightdawn
You are invited to
the grand opening of the
Zephyr Heights Crystal Tearoom

Misty’s eyes widened in surprise. Haven and Alphabittle had mentioned the idea of opening a Crystal Tearoom in Zephyr Heights, but she had no idea it was actually happening, and so soon at that. Flipping through the other invitations she found they were for her friends and Sparky, Jazz and Rocky.

“Well, what do you think?” Alphabittle asked as Misty pocketed the invitations.

“I’m amazed. How did you manage to do it so fast?”

“You’d be surprised what can be accomplished when you combine Pegasus flight with Unicorn magic.” Haven commented.

Misty nodded her head. “I’ll give these to the others when I get back. Now can we eat?”

Alphabittle clapped his hands together. “Yes, let’s.”

Misty and Haven looked at each other, then giggled.

Breakfast was mostly pleasant, but Misty noticed that Haven was leaving Misty and her father to do most of the talking. The queen seemed to be deep in thought, and Misty had a feeling she was preparing herself for whatever she was planning.

“Haven, you’ve barely said anything,” Alphabittle said eventually. “This is supposed to be an opportunity for Misty to get used to us dating, and you seem like you’re a million miles away.”

Haven shook her head and smiled apologetically. “Sorry.” She straightened her posture and looked Misty right in the eyes. “So, how’s life in the Brighthouse?”

Misty felt a strange sense of foreboding, even though Queen Haven’s question was perfectly innocent.

“Everything’s fine, now that I’ve settled in properly.” She answered.

Haven nodded before looking out the window. She seemed to be steeling herself for what was coming next, which meant it couldn’t be good.

“Misty,” Haven began suddenly as she looked back to the Unicorn. “Is there… something going on between you girls and Hitch?”

Alphabittle had been adding sugar cubes to his tea, but he was so shocked by the question he missed the cup entirely.

Misty’s eyes narrowed. So that’s what this was about. Zipp and Pipp once had a chat with Misty about the fact that their mother was dating her father. During their chat the sisters talked about how their mother told them about the relationship while they were at the jinxie games… and how during the same conversation Haven had asked Zipp and Pipp if they were dating Hitch. The sisters had denied it, but Misty knew they were lying. She wasn’t sure exactly when the herd was formed, but she knew it definitely existed by that point. Evidently Haven still wasn’t convinced, if she was asking Misty.

“No, there isn’t.” Misty lied, feeling the sense of self loathing again. She didn’t like lying to Haven anymore than to her friends, but if her daughters wanted her to know the truth they would have told her when she asked.

Alphabittle looked at Haven in disbelief. “Is this why you wanted to invite Misty here? To ask her that?”

Haven stared down at her tea, unable to look him in the eye. “Partly.” She admitted quietly.

“It’s okay,” Misty said, trying to make the queen feel better. “I’ve overheard some ponies wondering if something’s going on.”

Alphabittle sighed. “Aye. People will do that when a good looking stallion like Hitch spends all his time with a group of attractive mares like you lot.”

Misty nodded in silent agreement.

“Oh,” Haven looked up suddenly. “This was foolish. I’m so sorry, Misty. I’ve ruined the mood.”

“It’s okay,” Misty repeated. “Just one question. Why are you asking me this? I haven’t been part of the group that long.”

“Perhaps, but you are part of the group.” Haven answered. “I assumed that if something was going on, they would have invited you to join in or at least told you about it.”

Misty didn’t respond. Alphabittle tapped on Haven’s shoulder. “If you wanted to ask my daughter something like that, you should have run it by me first.” He whispered in her ear. “We could have asked the six of them together, and in a more polite way.”

“I know, I know. I’m sorry.” She whispered back.

Suddenly Misty stood up so quickly her chair fell over. Haven and Alphabittle looked at her in surprise.

“I need to go.” Misty said hoarsely, before turning and running off.

“Misty, wait.” Her father called, but she didn’t seem to hear him. Misty left the cafe and bolted down the street.

Haven buried her face in her hands. “Oh Haven, you’re so unbelievably stupid. You’ve gone and upset the poor girl.”

Alphabittle looked from Haven to the cafe door, torn between going after his daughter and comforting his girlfriend. Deciding that Misty probably needed some time before she’d be willing to talk, Alphabittle pulled Haven into a hug.