This was one of the longest trips Misty had ever been on. It had been a lot of walking, but none of the terrain had been too difficult. Nothing like that swamp they'd had to wade through last time. And lots of pretty sights along the way. The mission had been a success this time too. Two new books on magic for their collection. The old mare they'd gotten the books from hadn't even needed much convincing; she'd seemed happy to be rid of them.
"Always nice when a rumor pans out," her mom remarked happily as they walked towards the village inn. "These were great finds."
"Yeah," Misty agreed. One of the books was about crystal related magic, Misty was excited to read and transcribe it. She already had some ideas on how to touch up some of the more worn illustrations. "Wish the rumor had been a bit more specific though. Asking around sucks."
Her mom sighed. "Yeah. You can only be so coy about these kinds of things before ponies catch on. These ponies in particular seem even more anti-M than usual. Maybe because the live so close to the Weird Wood."
Misty's ears perked up. "The Weird Wood is nearby? Can we go?" The forest was shrouded in legend. Back in the Golden Era, it had been known as Everfree Forest. Many ancient alicorns had made their home in the Weird Wood/Everfree. At least a third of her family's collection had been salvaged from the ruins in the Weird Wood. It was also where her parents had met.
"Oh no, definitely not," her mom denied instantly. "Far too dangerous for a filly your age. It's dangerous even for grownups."
"I can handle it," Misty insisted. "C'mon, I want to see Celestia and Luna, and Twilight's castles. And you can show me the pretty tree where you and dad met."
"You can see them when your older," her mom said firmly. Then she frowned thoughtfully. "And we're not even sure if Twilight's Castle is actually in there. It should be. All the texts and old maps say it should be. But we've searched the Ponyville ruins thoroughly, it's not there. If we could just figure out..." She caught herself falling into a theory spiral and shook her head as she focused back on the present. "But none of that matters right now. We aren't going today. There are all sorts of dangers in that forest. Manticores, Cragadiles, giant muti headed dogs, and many other monstrous creatures." That did all sound pretty scary… "Dangerous plants and other weird things. No, no, there's plenty of safe sightseeing we can do on the way home. We can get a glimpse of Neighgra Falls if we take the path on the other side of the mountain. We don't have time to actually visit, but even at a distance it's an incredible view. It's the largest waterfall in Equestria, thousands of times bigger than the little one we have at home."
"That sounds pretty," Misty admitted grudgingly. She supposed Everfree would have to wait. Maybe when she got her cutie mark.
"Yes, I remember when-" her mom cut off as they stepped into the town square, which appeared to have had a hurricane sweep through since they'd last been there an hour ago. Debris littered the street, carts were tipped over, shutters were either torn off the walls completely or were hanging by a single hinge, the whole place was a wreck. Her mom blinked in bewilderment. "What in Equestria happened here?" Misty was equally confused. They sidestepped an empty basket that lazily rolled past them. More than a dozen unicorns were arguing with each other by the now cracked fountain.
As they approached the group Misty realized everypony's anger was aimed at one mare in particular, a unicorn with brown fur, mint colored hair, and a pawprint cutie mark. The townsponies had surrounded her and the poor mare was practically cowering against the ground, ears pinned back anxiously. But there was no way she'd done all this.
"What happened Wildburst?!" a green stallion shouted. "He's destroyed all of Pebble Lane and the entire plaza!"
"Yeah, Wildburst," a pink mare nodded, sounding more concerned than angry. "He's never done this before, you seemed to have him very well trained. Why'd he freak out like that?"
"I-I don't know," Wildburst stammered, shaking her head. "Mosey's a very chill little guy and very well behaved. He would only go all whirly if he got really scared or super excited, but nothing happened."
"Well something clearly happened," an elderly stallion called out irately.
"He's a danger to the town," somepony else shouted.
"What?! No! He's not," Wildburst insisted, inching a little to the right to better shield a small animal crate behind her. Misty could see some purple fur but not much else. It was so small though! How could somepony's tiny pet do all this damage? That's what the ponies were accusing the mare of, right? "You know he's not. He's lived here for years without issue. This was just- a freak incident."
"Yeah," a silver filly pipped up. "Mosey's really sweet. I play with him all the time. He's not bad."
"Not bad?" the pink mare gasped. "Look around, he's a menace. It's a miracle no one was hurt. If he's this dangerous, he can't stay."
Wildburst's eyes widened with fear. "What?! No, he can't leave! Almost no pony else even knows how to care for a whiling mungtooth. I've raised Mosey since he was a pup. This wasn't his fault, I swear!" She was begging now.
Misty's heart ached for the mare. Threatening to take away a pony's pet? Not cool. The tiny creature, a ball of purple fluff resembling a long-haired puppy, peered out from the cage, its large, curious eyes filled with innocence. No way that little guy was a town-destroying menace. Even if he did have some weird animal ability that made him capable of causing such destruction (which he must if his owner wasn't pointing out that it couldn't have been him), it sounded like he was usually well behaved. Maybe something had really scared him.
Wildburst's eyes desperately darted around the crowd, seemingly searching for an escape. Then, for some reason, her gaze landed on Misty's mom. "It's her fault!" she declared ardently. A ripple of confusion spread through the crowd as they turned to follow her accusing hoof.
Misty froze under the sudden attention, but her mom was more confused than nervous or angry. "What?" her mom asked, baffled.
"You've brought the jinxies to our town," Wildburst said, lied. "Mosey's never done anything like this his whole life and then the day you come and start digging into M word stuff, this happens? Weird coincidence. No one's safe from jinxies, not even mungtooth's."
Suspicious murmurs spread through the crowd and Misty bristled at the blatant nonsense. She got that the mare was trying to protect her pet, but she didn't have to try to throw her and her mom under the cart.
"We've been very careful about avoiding jinxie words," her mom defended calmly. Because saying jinxies aren't real wouldn't work with these ponies. "I'm a historian, looking into our past requires brushing against certain topics, but I've been very careful to avoid blight words. No pony here can say they heard us using such words. And we were certainly nowhere near your mungtooth at any time. Maybe something just startled the poor thing."
The unicorns whispered amongst each other, casting them dubious glances as they did. But no pony could point to a defined taboo being broken. There was a lot of borderline stuff, but nothing that crossed the line. Her mom was very careful about these things, especially when they were in strange places away from home.
"I did trip on nothing earlier today," one stallion recalled. So he was clumsy.
"My flowers were half dead this morning for no reason," a mare fretted. There was a reason, she hadn't been caring for them properly. Obviously.
"I couldn't find any matches for my socks," a colt wearing four mismatched socks added. Everypony had that problem. All the time. It was an organizational issue.
Misty was frustrated by all the silly conspiracy theories, but too timid to say anything. Her mom was handling it anyways.
"Those are hardly unusual things," her mom shrugged nonchalantly, but Misty could tell she was starting to get nervous. Which made Misty even more nervous.
An elderly black mare with silver hair pushed to the front of the crowd, eyes narrowed with contempt. "Delving into M always invites trouble," she declared, her voice a low growl. "This town is peaceful. You have no right to bring such blight upon us. We don't tolerate M around these parts. At all." Loud murmurs of agreement rose from the other unicorns.
Misty's brow furrowed. "But isn't the mungtooth magi-" she snapped her jaw shut, catching herself before the word fully came out. "-er, using M? How else could he-?"
The elderly mare cut Misty off with a stomp of her hoof. "See? Your filly's running her mouth without an ounce of thought for others!" Misty flinched back from the angry outburst. "It's no wonder the town's been cursed!" The word 'curse' rippled fearfully through the crowd.
"Cursed?" her mom repeated, tone taking an offended edge. "That's ridiculous! She didn't even actually say the word just now. She's just a kid, kids make mistakes. And one accidental blight word isn't going to curse a town."
The unicorns had moved to surround them, creating a claustrophobic circle of upset ponies. Wildburst had quietly disappeared, taking her pet with her, leaving Misty and her mom as the only targets of the townsponies' ire. The ponies were getting hysterical, Misty could see it in their eyes. They wouldn't hurt them though, right? Misty shrunk in on herself, heart hammering. Why had she slipped up like that? Ugh, she always did this- said the wrong thing at the wrong time, her tongue tripping over itself when she was nervous. She'd made things worse.
"I think it would be best if you get out of town," the elderly black mare asserted grimly. "Immediately." The words hung heavy in the air, cutting through the low hum of the crowd. Misty couldn't believe it. Were they seriously…?
"What?!" Misty's mom startled. Then her tone hardened. "No, we'll leave in the morning. We've already paid for the room at the inn."
The elderly mare turned, her gaze sweeping across the crowd like a hawk searching for prey. A brown stallion, his face pale and clammy, nervously rushed forward. Misty recognized him- that was the innkeeper. The stallion's eyes darted nervously between the elderly mare and the ground. He dropped a bag of bits at Starry's hooves, the jingling of the coins echoing in Misty's ears. "There's your bits back," he stammered, glancing back at the elderly mare for approval. Why did he care so much about what that awful lady thought?
Starry stood her ground. "I don't want my bits back," she informed him evenly. "I want the room I paid for."
"I am sorry about this ma'am," the stallion apologized, fiddling with his glasses. "But the ponies have spoken. And the mayor has clearly made up her mind." That nasty mare was the mayor?! No wonder this town was so awful. "I'll get cancellations if you stay. Nopony wants to stay in an inn infected with jinxies."
"You can't just kick us out," her mom argued. "We haven't done anything wrong. The sun is near setting, and I've got a filly with me." At the reminder of Misty's existence, a ripple of unease passed through the crowd. Some unicorns' faces softened, an uncomfortable pang of guilt sinking in. But while a few looked like they were on the verge of saying something, no pony spoke up for them.
"You can trot your way over to the next village," the mayor insisted dismissively, her voice dripping with distain. "It was your job to act responsibly to care for your child, not ours. Camp in the woods if you must, but you aren't staying here. If you leave now, you can still reach the nearest town before nightfall."
Starry's ears twitched in irritation, her gaze studying the surrounding ponies for any sign of support. She found none. "Fine," she surrendered, scooping up her bag of bits. "We didn't cause anything bad to happen to you ponies though. I hope you sort out your problems. And I hope you all sleep well at night knowing you turned a mother and her child out into the night." And with that, Starry spun around and stalked away, hooves striking the cobblestone with a defiant rhythm. "Come on, Misty, we're leaving."
Misty hurried to catch up to her. Neither of them heard the words exchanged after they left.
"Mayor?" a pink mare said hesitantly. "Should we really let them go out there like this? What about the reports of-"
"Pfft," the mayor interrupted, waving her off. "Hearsay and paranoia. Nopony's actually seen anything. Honestly, young ponies get spooked so easily nowadays."
"But we should at least warn them, shouldn't we?" a stallion fretted.
"And then that willy troublemaker will use it as an excuse to stay here," the mayor snapped back. "Is that what you want?" Nopony dared say anything. The mayor's glare could wither flowers. "Exactly. They'll be fine. So long as they don't bring the jinxies on themselves. Now we need to get to work cleaning up the plaza. No dilly dallying, we're losing daylight."
Misty waited until they were a bit farther away from the hostile unicorns to speak. "Are we going to be okay?" she asked her mother fearfully. They'd camped out many times before during trips, but they weren't prepared for it this time. It wasn't part of the plan.
Her mom sighed, pulling out their slightly frayed map and looking it over. "We'll be fine, Misty," she promised. "It isn't that big a deal. Just annoying. The mayor was right, we can make it to the next town before it gets too dark. We might have to cut through the woods off the path a bit to make it in time, but it isn't a hard hike. We should hurry though."
"Okay," Misty nodded, a hollow sadness in her chest. Unicorns were the worst. Were the other tribes nicer maybe? Her mom said the other tribes were nice. Or used to be nice. But they didn't have jinxies so they had to be better than unicorns.
"Chin up, Misty," her mom encouraged, gently lifting her chin so she wasn't staring at the ground anymore. "This is just another adventure." She glanced back at the town, now a distant silhouette behind them. "I do hope they figure out what went wrong with the mungtooth instead of thinking sending us away will solve the problem. But it's their problem now. They'll figure it out eventually." But would they be sorry when they did?
As she and her mom entered the forest path, whose shadows were already deepening as the sun set, Misty silently lamented that they had to go to yet another unicorn village. What if those unicorns kicked them out as well? She hated living among unicorns. She wished she could live somewhere far away from them. But her mom would never agree to it, socialization and friends and all that fairytale nonsense. If she ever got a chance to live away from unicorns, Misty would gladly take it.