Misty didn't really like going into town, but she didn't dislike Lumina Wood itself. It was a beautiful town. The quaint cottages nestled amidst a tapestry of trees and flowers was like something out of a storybook. For the flowers in direct sunlight, you could barely see the flowers' glow, but they were still pretty without it. And the flowers in the shade cast their ethereal glow upon the woodland paths. There were some glowing flowers by Misty's home but there were far more in Lumina Wood proper.

The first half of the trip went smoothly. They got in and out of the store with no issues. A few ponies had narrowed their eyes at them, but had left them alone. It wasn't until later, when Misty was left alone while her mom talked to Miss Camellia (her mom must be preparing for another trip), that things went wrong.

"Well, well, well, look who's in town." Oh no.

Misty flinched but turned to face the approaching fillies. Just her luck that Amber and her cronies happened to be in the same area and had spotted her. And without her mom too. Ugh.

Amber Riches, Primin Proper, and Sour Cherry were by far the boldest when it came to other kids harassing her. The terrible trio. The absolute worst ponies for Misty to run into.

Amber Riches was effectively the princess of Lumina. Her mom was the mayor, and her dad ran the largest flower farm in Lumina. And Lumina was very famous for its glowing flowers, it was a huge business. Amber was rich, popular, and, as far as Misty had seen, perfectly nice to everypony except Misty. It made the bullying sting even more that Misty was the only pony Amber tormented. At least Primin was kind of a snob in general, but Amber was universally considered to be a nice pony. It made it feel like Misty had done something wrong even though she hadn't. Amber had light yellow fur with black stripes by her hooves, purple eyes, and a darker yellow, orange, and black striped mane. Her tail was loose, but she kept her long mane tied into a smoother, rounder bunch. She was wearing her gold necklace with the orange jewel at the center like she usually did. Her cutie mark, a bee wearing a crown flying in front of a flower shaped honeycomb, was as taunting to Misty as ever.

Primin Proper was also a rich and popular filly. Not as rich and popular as Amber, though you wouldn't guess that from her boasting. The unicorn always seemed to take delight in being nasty, way more than the other two. Primin was grey with elegant, straight mid length white hair that had a wave of light blue that faded into light green as it went down. Her blue eyes were sharp and predatory as she locked on to Misty. With a sinking heart Misty realized Primin had gotten her cutie mark, a set of jewels now decorated her flank. Misty could already see how this interaction was going to go.

At least Sour Cherry was still a blank flank. Cherry was a light pink pony with wavy green, darker pink, and light-yellow hair and yellow green eyes. Cherry, unlike the other two, was not rich. She wasn't poor, but she was the odd one out of the group. Misty assumed they'd become friends through school somehow. Misty had tried to go to school. It hadn't gone well. She'd been homeschooled ever since.

"Hey," Misty greeted, doing her best to hide her dread. It would only encourage them.

"So great to see you!" Amber said, but it wasn't friendly. "Gosh, we haven't seen you in a bit. You gave great timing though." She gestured towards Primin. "Primin got her cutie mark a few days ago. It's so pretty, right?"

"Oh, yes, it's very nice," Misty nodded. Her mom said being mean back doesn't help anypony.

"Yeah, it's amazing," Primin agreed, gazing proudly down at her mark. "Which was to be expected, of course." Her tone turned mocking as she switched her attention to Misty's very blank flank. "Still no luck with yours, huh, Misty?"

"No, not yet," Misty said, even though it was obvious. "I'm sure it'll happen any day now though." She really hoped so. One less thing for ponies to pick on her for.

The trio burst into giggles, now having surrounded her like a circle of vultures. "I wouldn't count on it," Cherry chortled.

"You don't have yours yet either, Cherry," Misty pointed out crossly.

An annoyed look passed over Cherry's face, but Primin swooped in first. "Cherry actually will be getting hers any day now. Unlike you, Cherry's good at a lot of stuff."

"I'm good at stuff," Misty defended. She was. She knew tons about science and magic. She was two grades ahead of kids her age in most subjects.

Amber rolled her eyes. "Misty, you're not going to get your mark from reading old, useless, probably cursed books." Her nose scrunched in distaste. "Or you better hope you don't. That would literally be one of the worst marks a pony could get."

"Yeah," Cherry pipped up. "You want a cool talent, Misty." Her eyes lit up. "Y'know, Amber is helping her dad with the flowers for Princess Iridessa's birthday party! He's even letting her help arrange the bouquet that's going to be presented to the princess herself." She let out a little squeal of excitement. "It's so amazing! Can you imagine those flowers touched by Amber's own hooves, being held by royalty? Everypony at school's been talking about it."

"Wow," Misty commented with begrudging awe. "That's… really cool, Amber." It was really cool. Misty didn't have anything that could compete with that. But then, how many kids could? It really wasn't a fair comparison.

"Well, it's an honor, of course," Amber replied loftily. "But you don't need to aim quite that high, Misty. You just don't want to end up a kookie hermit like your mom."

"My mom's not a kookie hermit!" Misty bristled, her cheeks flushing a fiery shade of pink.

"Honestly, 'kookie hermit' is putting it nicely," Primin sniffed. "Ponies say a lot worse." She casually pushed back her bangs. "She's a danger to the public really. Poking at stuff she shouldn't and inviting all kinds of trouble."

"No she's not!" Misty snapped. "Magic is our-"

The three other girls flinched back as if Misty had spit on them. Each filly touched a hoof to their horn and recited the stupid, 'jinxies, jinxies, go away', while alternatively hopping on their remaining hooves. Ugh, they looked so dumb, and they had the nerve to call Misty and her mom the weird ones.

"Misty!" Amber hissed angrily. "Don't use the 'm' word!"

Misty rolled her eyes. "Why shouldn't I? Magic-" the fillies started doing the chant again, but Misty ignored them. "-is a core part of our culture, our history, it's a part of us. You'd all love it if we had it today. Ancient unicorns could all do magic, it didn't cause jinxies then and it doesn't cause them now."

"This isn't ancient Equestria, Misty," Cherry retorted, in that condescending 'I think you're too low IQ to understand this' way. "Things have changed."

"They haven't changed in that saying the word magic-"

"Stop saying it!" Primin snapped. "You're doing it on purpose now you little freak. You're trying to give us jinxies."

"Jinxies aren't real," Misty asserted, frustration reaching a boiling point.

"Yes they are," Cherry refuted with unearned confidence.

"Ugh!" Misty's patience finally snapped. If the word scared them so much. "Magic, magic, magic, magic, magic, magic, magic, magic, magic-"

Cherry looked horrified. Primin was a dark thunder cloud of barely contained anger. Amber's expression was one of frustration.

"Ugh, she's hopeless," Primin scoffed, turning away. "Let's get out of here before little miss doom weaver curses us even more. Ugh, we'll need to break out the cleansing crystals for that many blight words." Cherry nodded fervently and quickly followed her friend.

"You two go on," Amber said, eyeing Misty oddly. "I'll catch up in a minute."

Primin and Cherry hesitated, but did end up leaving. "Don't let her bite you, Amber," Primin warned as she walked away. "You'll get a disease."

Why wasn't Amber going with them? A wave of anxiety washed over Misty because she had no idea what Amber was up to.

They both silently watched each other, an uncertainty hanging in the air between them, until Primin and Cherry had vanished from sight. Then Amber let out a long sigh.

"Okay, Misty, in all seriousness," Amber began, sitting down. "What have you been trying to get your cutie mark? I get that your mom makes you do all that- 'm' word stuff, and you might like it and all, but you have been trying other things too, right?"

Misty's brow furrowed at Amber's sudden, suspicious, non-aggression. She stayed standing. "What do you mean?" she asked warily. "A cutie mark just happens when you figure out your talent. You don't have to chase after a mark, it comes naturally. It's your destiny. You aren't going to miss it."

"But how will you know what else you might like or be good at if you don't try other things," Amber reasoned. "Like, maybe you'll find out you like baking or a sport or interior design or something. There's a whole world of talents out there." She shook her head. "I just want to make sure you're not ignoring your other options."

"I do other things," Misty insisted. Magic and books and studies were her main hobbies, but she did gardening and other stuff. "And I do like magic, so maybe that will be my cutie mark." There was a chance at least. It might not be. She wasn't sure if she was very good at it really, anypony could probably do what she did if they tried.

Amber stood up, did a quick, dismissive, rather exasperated anti-jinxie chant, then flopped down again. She replied with barely a pause. "Misty, I meant it when I said you don't want that kind of mark. Think of your future. I say this with love, and in all seriousness, look at your mom. If that is even what her mark is, it probably isn't, it wouldn't make sense and would be a useless destiny, she's probably misinterpreted it. She's not exactly living a great life. She's not a bad pony, but her obsession is only hurting her. Your dad left, she's a social outcast, she wastes most of her time on something that doesn't benefit anypony, she's constantly bringing bad luck on herself. It's not good."

Misty's hackles rose and her ears flattened angrily. How dare she? And pretending like she was trying to 'give advice' while insulting and slandering her mom? Amber really was the worst. "My mom's talent isn't useless! You ponies just don't appreciate it. She's doing it for all of us, all unicorns." Not that they deserved it. Misty would never teach Amber or any other bullies magic. "Anything bad that's happened to her is because all of you are mean to her. It isn't bad luck." Her eyes were getting wet. "It's just all of you being awful."

"Whatever," Amber waved off. "Let's say I give all of that to you. Jinxies aren't real, she's just misunderstood, blah, blah, blah, what you have to understand is that that doesn't really matter. Messing with taboo stuff won't help you in life. Do you realize how lucky your mom is that my parents gave her a job? I've sat in on many business discussions so I know even more than the average pony about this stuff and most unicorns wouldn't hire such a troublesome pony." She ran an absentminded hoof through her mane. "Honestly, I think the only reason my parents hired her despite the problems she causes and the complaints they get about it is because they felt bad for her being a single mom. If she didn't have you to take care of, I think they probably would have turned her away too."

Misty's hoof stomped the ground with a defiant thump. "You don't understand anything!" With a snort of indignation, she turned and started to march away. Amber was stupid, unicorns were stupid, everypony was stupid. And that there was even a sliver of truth in Amber's words just made Misty more upset because things shouldn't be that way but there was nothing Misty could do about it.

Amber scowled. "You're impossible." She stood up huffily. "Fine, stay a blank flank forever if that's what you want. I don't know why I bother."

Misty ignored her. She wasn't going to be a blank flank forever. Just wait until she got her mark, they'd be sorry then because it was going to be the best mark ever.

She stayed sulking on Miss Camellia's porch until her mom came out a few minutes later.

"Alright, everything's settled," her mom announced cheerily. Then she took in Misty's sour mood and frowned. "Misty? Is something wrong?"

"No," Misty mumbled, staring at a glowing pink flower in the bushes instead of looking at her mom. "Can we go home now?"

"Yes…"

They picked up their groceries, Misty carrying the smaller bags and started heading home. Misty got her hopes up that her mom was going to let it drop, but she should've known better. Her mom must have just been waiting until they were on the more private path home.

"I saw Amber and her friends pass by," her mom started conversationally, but she was side eyeing Misty knowingly.

"Yeah," Misty confirmed. She didn't want to go into it, but she knew she had to give her mom something. "Primin got her cutie mark."

"Oh how nice," her mom commented. "I'm sure that's very exciting for her."

Misty looked back at her own blank flank. "Yep."

"I remember when I got my mark," her mom reminisced. "I was one of the last in my class to get my cutie mark, but I think it was worth the wait." She gave her own mark a fond glance.

"So does getting a mark late run in the family?" Misty asked gloomily. Though really, that wouldn't be so bad because it would mean it wasn't really her fault she didn't have her mark yet.

Her mom tilted her head in consideration. "Oh, that's not the type of thing that can run in a family, Misty," her mom told her thoughtfully. "When a mark appears has everything to do with the pony themselves."

"Well, when will I get mine?" Misty questioned. She didn't even feel like she was close. "How do I know if I'm doing the right things to get it? Like, if my mark was going to be something I've already been doing, I should have gotten it by now, right?" A bit of guilt crept in at the suggestion. She wanted to have a mark like her mom but what if that wasn't the case?

"A mark comes when a mark comes," her mom shrugged. "There's no exact science to it. So long as you pursue things you are passionate about and enjoy, you'll find your mark eventually. And just because you get a mark in one thing doesn't mean you have to stop doing everything else you like." Her mom smiled down at her softly. "A cutie mark is nothing to worry over Misty. It's just a reflection of who you are, it doesn't change anything really. If there is something you enjoy doing now, you don't have to give it up because it isn't giving you a cutie mark right this second. And if there are other things you enjoy, you should try to do more of it. You can't force a cutie mark. Just be you."

That wasn't helpful at all. "But if I'm doing the things my cutie mark will be for, why don't I have it yet?"

"Well, just doing a thing isn't enough," her mom explained patiently. "Almost all kids do things related to their mark long before they get it. You just need that moment, that click, where you really feel it deep in your soul. That's when you'll get your mark. And there's no need to feel rushed about it."

"But I don't want to be the last one to get mine," Misty lamented. If Cherry got hers first, they'd go all in on Misty's blank flank status, the only thing somewhat holding them back was not every filly in their group had theirs yet. Not that getting her mark would stop their bullying either, they were always finding something to mock, but maybe it would shut them up for at least a little while.

"You might not be," her mom encouraged. "And even you are, that just means you can wow them with how great your mark is." She bumped into Misty's side playfully. "The grand finale. Really, Misty, a cutie mark is nothing to worry about."

Misty grumbled but knew she wouldn't get anything more if she pressed further. So she changed the subject. "Are you going on a trip soon?"

"Yep," her mom confirmed, pushing open the gate to their front yard. "I'll only be gone for about a day. It's not too far this time. It's a very promising lead. If it pans out, we might get multiple tomes out of it."

"Can I come?" Misty asked hopefully. Her mom would sometimes let her come now that she was older if her mom thought it was safe enough and it wasn't a super long trip.

Her heart sank as her mom shook her head. "Not this time, kiddo," her mom denied apologetically. "This will be a boring trip anyways."

"I don't care if it's boring," Misty insisted. She just wanted to stay with her mom. Miss Camellia was nice enough, but Misty hated getting left behind.

"You can come on the next one," her mom promised. They entered their cottage and put the bags on the table.

Misty drooped at the rejection but as she caught sight of the calendar hanging on the wall she perked up again. That's right, her birthday was really close now. Maybe her mom was planning to get her a present and wanted it to be a surprise.

As she helped put away the groceries, Misty considered the odds of that being the reason. The timeline added up. This was usually about when her mom went off to get the present from Misty's dad too. He always got her one. Last year she'd gotten a seashell lamp. The year before it had been a set of Twilight Sparkle and the Guardians of Friendship toys. But she'd still never met him, didn't even know his name. Misty had given up asking a long time ago, her mom always just said it was complicated and that they'd meet when Misty was a bit older. Maybe when she got her cutie mark, her mom would finally think she was ready.

"How's some meadow munch sound for dinner?" her mom asked from where she was organizing the cans in the pantry.

"Ooh, yes please," Misty nodded. She loved her mom's meadow munch.

Thinking all the bags had been put away, Misty started to head back to her book but paused when she noticed she'd missed a bag tucked away by the flowerpot against the wall. She went to put it away, but paused when she saw what was in it.

Roller skates? Misty gazed down at the crystal embellished skates, puzzled. They were her size, but Misty didn't think she'd done anything to make her mom think she wanted roller skates. Were these supposed to be one of her birthday presents?

"Ah, Misty." Her mom was suddenly standing behind her, ears twitching nervously. "Those aren't for you. We can get you a pair if you're interested though."

Misty raised an eyebrow. "I mean, not really? Who are they for then?" They were far too small for her mom.

"Oh, they're a gift for somepony else," her mom answered vaguely. And suddenly, a shadow fell over her face, a forlorn sadness, the likes of which Misty had never seen from her mom before, and her voice grew mournful. "You don't know her." Then as fast as the sadness came, it vanished. "I'll have dinner done in a bit," she told her brightly. "Just leave those there."

Weird. Misty was disoriented by the whiplash of emotions. Were the skates for somepony at her job's kid? But why would that make her mom sad? Did she wish the filly was friends with Misty? Was that it?

Unnerved, Misty decided to help her mom cook rather than read her book. Her mom was such a positive pony, she didn't get sad even in situations that would put most ponies in tears. Was it something Misty had done?

But as she plucked the petals off the daisies for the main mix, her mom chattered on as cheerful as ever and Misty began to relax. It probably wasn't a big deal. Just one of those- weird moments.

Misty had no way of knowing.