I leave the Maretime Bay sheriff’s office after Hitch made an APB to all of his critter deputies, and I trotted through the dirty roads of Maretime Bay in silence, back towards the Brighthouse…

Why did she leave? Was it Discord? I mean, we didn’t do anything mean to her, right?

I ponder these thoughts, before I abruptly stop, “Whoa!” and widen my eyes at the smiling brown earth pony with his enormous handlebar mustache, and wide grin on his face as he stood by the wooden cart, “Greetings Misty! Could I interest you in a carrot dog?”

I stop with Opaline’s words in my mind, Misty, how could you eat at a time like this? Then I think that I’d probably think better with some food, and I got a few bits, anyway!

<*****>

I look at the book on alicorns on the table…

I trot to it, and use my magic to turn it open to the page of contents…

I see four lines down, one particular entry, Opaline Arcana pg. 29…

I turn to that page with my magic, and I see the brilliant hot magenta fire alicorn there, with a white mane and a wicked grin on her face!

I whisper to myself, “So, what did I do?”

<*****>

What was in that carrot dog?

I stumble to the Brighthouse while trying to stay focused as my world swims around me…

Enjoy your yummy carrot dog, Misty? I hear a random voice say in my mind…

“Who are you?” I whisper back…

Clop clop clop clop…

Oh, I’m just along for the ride! Why don’t you go back to the Brighthouse? I’m sure Opaline is waiting for you there!

“What? She left the Brighthouse!”

Misty, there’s something you need to know about deductive reasoning…

I frown at this statement…

Clop clop clop clop…

Oh, I guess you’ll see once you get back? Anyway, don’t expect to see Hitch for awhile…

“What?”

He’s hunting for Opaline, remember? But why don’t you go inside now? We’re here!

I stop in front of the red door in front of the Brighthouse, as my vision focuses in and out…

What’s wrong with me? I ask myself in my head, as I swing open the door, to see a magenta filly standing on a stool in the kitchen, and reading a big book on the counter!

<*****>

I read…

I read about the horrible cruel alicorn who stole all the magic in Equestria, and killed ponies indiscriminately…

I read about this evil pony, when the door to my far left, where the entrance to the Brighthouse is opens, and I raise my gaze…

“I don’t want to be that pony… “

Misty screams at me from beyond the doorway, “You’re not that pony, Opaline! You’re somepony else!”

I close my eyes as I feel moisture beginning to well up inside them, as I mutter, “I’m so sorry… “

I hear clopping getting closer to me, and soon, I feel the warmth of hooves holding me tightly, as Misty whispers to me, “You’re not her, Opaline… You can be different… You can be your own pony… “

“You keep telling me that?”

And I notice the green unicorns face 8 inches from mine as she softly replies, “Because it’s the truth!”

I wipe my eyes, “I uh, maybe I need to stop reading?”

Her head turns to see the pages of the tome on the Opaline Arcana article and her eyes widen, before her horn glows with the book, and it magically closes in front of me… She turns her head, “Opaline, stop! Think now! You’re just a filly! You’ve done no wrong! It doesn’t matter what the pages of that book say… You didn’t do those things!” and smiles at me…

“No Misty, I mean maybe I don’t need to know everything about my past, in order to make my future happen, right?”

She frowns, “Um, it’s not your past!”

“What?”

<*****>

How long do you believe this can really go on until her true nature reveals itself?

Until forever! I don’t know who you are or how you got into my head, but Opaline will receive the care she needs!

“Misty! I asked you a question?”

I snap to attention at the alicorn filly, “Um, sorry Opaline!What I mean is, that wasn’t you!”

“But it says Opaline Arcana here, does it not?” She motions to the book with her hoof.

I stammer to find my voice, “No, Opaline! You aren’t that Opaline and you can be different!” before staring back at the alicorn book.

“Maybe I need to end my life?”

I widen my eyes at this horrible statement, “What? No! Don’t do that!”

She stares at me intently, “Well, think about it! I can’t be evil if I’m not alive, right?”

“Uh, Opaline, just the fact that you’d be willing to do something that drastic to prevent your reign of terror tells me that you aren’t like the alicorn in that book… “

And her own eyes widen as the realization hits her… “I’m not like the pony in that book, am I? I’m different?”

I grin ecstatically after reaching down for a tight warm hug! “No Opaline! You’re different!”

You can’t stop the inevitable…

“Oh, yes I can!”

“Misty, what did you say?”

I giggle, “Oh uh, nothing Opaline!” before releasing her to stare back from a foot away, “What do you wanna do now?”

“How would I know? I don’t have any friends!”

“Opaline, I’m your friend, remember?”

“You shouldn’t be!”

I frown again, “What?”

She nods, “Remember how horrible I treated you? You should get away from me and I should spend the rest of my days alone and by myself!”

“Uh, wasn’t that the problem in the first place?”

She shakes her head, “I uh, that’s a good point!”

I eye the filly carefully, “So logic dictates that if we surround you with other ponies to be your friends, you won’t turn out all evil and wicked, right?”

Oh, come off it!

Her eyes enlarge again, “Uh, right!”

I’ll be waiting…

“Hey, you know what Opaline? I do have an idea!”

<*****>

I stare at the playground filled with other fillies of different races and colors, as they climb the wooden jungle gym and use the steel monkey bars with their hooves, and play on the swings and slide…

They’re going to hate me because I’m different! “Uh, are you sure this is safe, Misty?”

Misty nods reassuringly from the right, "Don't worry, Opaline. It's perfectly safe. See those other ponies there? They're just playing and having fun. They won't care that you're different."

I frown, “Well, that’s not what I’m worried about!”

“It’s not?”

Do I continue this lie? “Well um, okay, fine! That’s exactly what I’m worried about!” And I widen my wings. “I mean, I got these and a horn! I have more parts than they do!”* Apparently, not! I retract my wings.

“Hey, relax, okay? I mean, you’re all still ponies, right? You just want to play and have fun, don’t you?”

I widen my eyes at the jungle gym while a blue unicorn foal clops his way through the top to mount and slide down the metal tubes on the other side… “I do?”

“Yes, Opaline! You’re a filly and you want to play with other fillies! It’s only natural!”

Suddenly, the blue foal starts clopping towards me, while two other fillies play on the right side of the sandbox, “Hey, you’re new here! What’s your name?”

I stare at him, and open my wings, while lowering my head and forcing my horn to glow, “I am your worst nightmare, if you take another step towards me, foal!”

“OPALINE!”

I retract my wings and note the new unicorn’s jaw on the ground in my periphery as I stare up at Misty, “Yes, Misty?”

“He’s not your enemy! You don’t need to attack him!”

“But he’s coming towards me! He might have malicious intent? We should probably eliminate him, just to be safe?”

“Opaline, no! Go make friends with him!”

I turn my gaze back to the foal, who now has enormous chartreuse eyes, “Hi new friend!”

“Please don’t kill me!”

I take a few paces towards the foal, “Uh, I believe I should let you live? Tell me, what is this place? What do you do here?”

He blinks his big eyes, “Uh, what?”

I stop trotting a few feet from him, in the soft sand now in my hooves, “I asked you a question! What is this place? What do you do here?”

“Well, this is a playground! Uh, my name is Travis! What’s yours?”

“I am Princess Opaline Arcana er, but you can just refer to me as Opaline, I suppose?”

“Princess? Oh, cool! That’s gotta be awesome?”

I stare at this ignorant foal… “Well, actually, uh… You know what? Being a princess is is awful! Would you believe I’ve always wished I could be somepony else?”

Travis frowns, “What?” the little unicorn stares at the me with a with his big eyes, "But being a princess is supposed to be awesome! You get to live in a fancy castle, wear pretty dresses, and have ponies wait on you hoof and hoof, right?"

And so, I unloaded again… I unloaded, and I told Travis about being by myself so many moons, and I mentioned that I was supposed to become a threat to Equestria, but now, my course had been forever altered by a freak time warp!

He lifts his right hoof, “Whoa, that’s crazy! Uh, you’re not lying, right? You swear on your hoof?”

I enlarge my gaze to him, “What?”

He nods, “Swear on your hoof! That’s what you do so other ponies know you’re not fibbing!”

I frown at this strange custom, “Uh, right!” and lift my right hoof to him and dip it in the air, “I uh, I swear on my hoof!”

He lowers his to the dirt and nods, “Alright then, Opaline! I believe you!”

<*****>

I sat with my rump on the wooden bench, with the novel perched in my hooves, as I read about a unicorn wizard and a griffon enchanter, You’ve read the same passage three times already, Misty! Are you okay, or is your mind elsewhere?

I mutter out loud, “It must be a sad pathetic life for you, right? Having nothing better to do than to hassle somepony while they foal sit!”

Oh, no! This isn’t just any foal, now is it? No, this is Opaline Arcana!

I stare at the ecstatic alicorn filly going down the metal slide while jittering excitedly, in the distance, “And look at little Opaline! Look at how happy she is! You think maybe this is really what she needed, all along?”

The voice is silent…

I decide this is my chance, “So my advice to you would be to butt out! I don’t know who you are, but you need to leave my head, and I have nothing more to say to you… “

I hear nothing in my mind anymore…

I stare at Opaline while she plays some kind of strange game involving hoof tapping, with the blue foal on the cement slab, just beyond the playground…

I raise my snout to yell at the foals in the distance, “Don’t wander too far, Opaline!”

I see her snout point back to me, and hear her shout back, “We won’t Misty!”

(To be continued… )

Author's Note

*Fun fact: in real life, I’m genderqueer and have male and female aspects.