The very next Morning was no short of a thrill, and by thrill she found it a drag. The first thing on her agenda for that day was a photoshoot. Fortunately for Zipp, she didn't have to attend, unfortunately for Zipp, she had to do a small performance. More than a few Zephyr Heights residents had asked her to perform for them. They had requested this a long, long while ago, and while Zipp had never really wanted to go out acting like the one thing she wasn't, she also wished to get her mind off of everything else. So, after a long, hefty wait, the ponies got what they wanted.
She stood over the massive crowd of people that were gathered in the palace ballroom anticipating their princess's performance.
Zipp took a nice, long breath, before scanning the audience, and found no familiar faces, aside from her mother's face, of course. A small smile graced at the notice.
She glanced up at the string holding her up, she tugged on one lightly, assuring herself that it was safe.
"This should at least last me an hour before snapping," she whispered. "It could also last me five minutes..."
She tugged on the string once again, this time a little harder. Nothing snapped, so it seemed to be just right,
"Alright so it should last me a minimum of thirty minutes..." she mumbled.
Another tug was in order, was it not?
"Ok maybe a quarter till twelve?"
"We're ready for you, princess!" A stallion's voice called from behind her.
She turned her head toward him, nodded, and gazed back at her audience. The only things she enjoyed about these things were the calculating she was allowed to do for them and the flight itself. She hated the audience, the acting and most all; the lie she was telling by just flying.
She spread out her sleek, multicolor tipped wings, alerting the crowd down below. She looked up, checking the breeze in the room to see how far she'd be able to glide with it without having to call for back up. There seemed to be a few fans placed around, so the wind would probably be able to hold her up the entire time.
She took another long breath, and let it out slowly before taking one more glance at the audience. She thought she noticed something peculiar in the crowd of ponies, somepony seemed to be eyeing her a lot more than the others. She shrugged the thought away and flapped her wings. Before she could think too hard on it, the cables lifted up in the air. As soon as she was in the air, she began performing her routine.
The performance called for all sorts of stunts: flips, rolls, dives, dodges, loops and more. She was easily able to pull them off, easily able to check exactly where she needed to glide over to, and just how quickly she had to do it. She was both calculating the trajectory of her flight as well as enjoying each minute she had. She never bothered to take one glance down, never let herself slip up.
The sound of her wings beating was what she concentrated on most, forgetting the noise of the crowd being thrilled, forgetting the noise of her mom's strict lectures, forgetting the sound of her sister's shrieks. She merely thought of her wings, and how fast or slow they were going. Her eyes closed as she whizzed through the open air, mimicking all her practice up till then, which, in hindsight, wasn't that much.
The shooting sound of wings beating loudly was interrupted by a loud shriek from the audience.
"I love you, Zipp!"
Startled, Zipp pulled up, tying her wings up with the string holding her above the crowd and sending her falling to the ground.
A loud gasp was heard from the audience as they watched their princess struggle to stop her descent. None in that hall had the courage nor ability to help her. Castle guards quickly rushed to the scene, some pushing the crowd away, while other helped in trying to halt the princess.
She soon hit a pile of stashed away clothing, out of view from the audience, which, fortunately for her, cushioned her fall. Her limbs were splayed out in all directions, and some of her feathers decided that they wanted nothing to do with her and plucked themselves off. She had fallen face first into the pile, gaining an unpleasant odor as her first greeting back to the ground.
Gross!
She got out of the clothing, placed as if to cushion her unfortunate descent. She shook her head, irritated at whoever it was that had decided that it was such a good idea to startle her in middle of her performance. She nursed her head, which had been the place that had taken most of the impact,. Though she felt perfectly fine, she was never one to just ignore things like that. Once she made sure her head was perfectly fine, she checked her wings, and groaned at the sight before her. More feathers than she would have liked, were sat on the floor, not where they were supposed to be on her wing, mocking her.
"Princess! Are you hurt? Are you alright?!"
Came the frazzled screams of the Royal guard. Another groan slipped out of her, they were always checking on her, could she never get a real break from them?
"Yes, I'm fine" she answered, not looking at any of the guards before her. Instead, she found that searching for any bruises on her wings was far more important than the guards, which, in her head, was very factual.
"Nothing" she whispered.
She breathed a sigh of relief.
"Now, I think that's all for today?" she prompted the stallions in front of her.
They nodded and quickly departed to inform the ponies outside of everything they needed to know.
Zipp shook her head, frustration building up.
"I should have assumed that this wouldn't have been anything less than a disaster" she mumbled, agitatedly.
Making her way out of the ballroom they had chosen to host the event at, she promptly made sure to avoid any and all ponies that as much as moved in her direction. She trotted through the hallways, not wandering anywhere specific, just trotting.
Buzz
Went her phone.
Cinematic: Hey! I just had to ask, could you get a few more pictures for me? One from the back, a little toward the bottom, and the other from your side, a little to the bottom too.
Zipp tilted her head, slightly, comprehending the message or at least attempting to. It was quite evident what it meant but the context it was in, made little to no sense. Why would he need a picture of her back and side for a movie?
Zipp had her eyes glued to her phone as she walked away from the ballroom and just kept wandering.
Come to think of it, he had never explained to her what the movie was about. He hadn't explained further than it being a movie, not even mentioning anything about a live-action. It was almost as though this whole thing was a lie.
Her trot came to a halt, her eyes still glued to those last few words on her phone.
Zipp: What's the movie about?
She replied, hoping to get an answer to satisfy her growing queries.
Cinematic: Well, this, that, I suppose it can remain a little surprise?
Zipp: No. I want to know what it's about
She responded, firmly.
Cinematic: It's a good movie, I assure you, don't need to worry about it, alright.
Her fury and fright were both growing all at once.
Zipp: No, I want to know what it's about, and I want to know now.
She demanded. This didn't feel right, Cinematic had always been a very open kind of pony, as long she'd known him at least, so him acting so secretive caught her off guard.
Nopony catches Zipp Storm off guard
Cinematic: I just need those pictures for the movie, there's no reason for you to have to know why.
Zipp: Yes there is!
She remained adamant. There had to be a reason for him being this way, there just had to be.
Cinematic: It's like you don't believe me when I say that I've got this under control? Don't you trust me?
She went to swiftly type her answer, a nice and true reply, but mid-way through typing, her heart stopped, and her eyes slowly widened.
Her hoof fell from her phone screen and hit the ground with a soft thud. A few tears rolled down her eyes as all the dots started to align.
She had been betrayed.
She dropped her phone on the floor and ran off in the direction of her room. Her wings covered her face as she ran, not allowing any to see her tear-stained face.
She blazed past royal guards that stood outside her room, burst through the doors, shut it tight, then collapsed on her bed for what felt like the fifth time that week. She buried her face in her fluffy white pillow and wept like there was no tomorrow.
She got used, betrayed. She had trusted someone after so long, hoping that she could let loose and open up. She had been wanting to open up, she had been wanting to let others in, she wanted someone, anyone, to be there for her. She wanted to find someone but instead she got used, betrayed, her status as a princess was what that had gotten her to this spot, wasn't it? What was she supposed to do? Was she to move on as if this never happened, let no one know of how she felt? Or let someone in, with the risk of the same thing happening all over again? She risked one too many times, she couldn't again... but she needed to talk, she wanted to talk. But to who?
She just didn't know what to do anymore!
Queen Haven lightly tapped on her daughter's bedroom door. She could hear quiet weeping coming from the other side, making her worry all the more.
Her one wing was tightly tucked, held in its embrace was a silver-cased phone. She stood with as much calmness as she had in her. She had seen her daughter run off crying, she had read a little of their conversation and connected the same dots Zipp herself had.
She heard slow hoof-steps approach the door, giving her the sign that it was going to be let open.
The doors opened up, though a lot less vigorously than what the queen had come to expect of her oldest daughter. On the other side stood the pegasus princess. Tears streaked her normally perfect complexion, her posture looked wobbly, and her eyes were red from crying. She had a frown stretched across her muzzle. Her mane was not swept back like it usually was, no, at that moment it was left flat against her head, completely messed up, the strands of blue and pink standing up as though it were a bird's nest.
Her blank gaze lay firmly on her mother, more specifically, her mother's hooves, she didn't have it in her to look straight into her mother's eyes.
"I think there is something we need to talk about, sweetheart," the mother spoke, softly.
Her tone was motherly; it had an ounce of firmness but was mostly caring. Her gaze softened.
Zipp gave a half-hearted nod. Both entered the room, quiet as can be.
Queen Haven took a seat on the messy bed, clearing slightly before sitting. She patted the bed motioning for her daughter to join her. Zipp shut the door, and slowly trotted toward her mother. She took a seat beside the queen and gazed away, not wanting to look her mother in the eyes.
"Why didn't you tell me, sweetie?" she asked calmly yet with a tinge of strictness.
"I-I didn't know how..." Zipp answered blankly, "Besides you were busy with Cloudpuff-"
The Queen cut her off, lifting the pearl princess's chin to face her, "And that's no reason to not ask me."
Zipp rubbed a hoof against her other pearl coated hoof. "Well, I... didn't know if I could... trust... anyone."
The mother paused. Trust? This was about trust? Oh, why hadn't she put the pieces together quicker! Then this wouldn't have occurred!
Queen Haven brought her daughter in for a warm, refreshing hug. She rubbed the girl's untidy mane, comforting Zipp to the best of her ability.
The princess felt no need to hug back, she just sat there, barely even moving.
"You can trust me... I know it may not be easy to, but you should know that you can. If not anyone else, then trust me?" Zipp's gaze fell flat, she didn't respond to her mother, just stared away, blankly. "Alright then, if not trust, then at least know that you can come to me for anything"
The princess didn't seem to have registered what her mother had said, just yet.
By this point, they separated and sat facing one another.
"Sweetie, listen to me, we'll deal with that pony, we'll... I'll see to it that he never contacts you again"
"It's not just him! It's like everypony just wants to hurt me! Don't you remember what happened with Cloud!? She just wanted to show off, she wanted to use me to get popular, not care about anything else!" the princess retorted. "It's like every pony just cares for themselves! I can't trust anyone! I don't know who's good and who's not! I thought I could trust him, but he just wanted to use me! Like every other pony!"
By now, the princess had burst into tears, and her mother had wrapped her hooves around her teary-eyed daughter. She let the princess cry on her shoulder.
This had to be her fault. If only she had been there for her daughter. If only she had taken the time of day to hear her out, this whole thing just might not have happened. She could have lent the ear the princess so desperately craved. She could have been the mother she had to be.
But there was no time to think of what ifs. She had to think of how to help her daughter now, and the only thing she could do was lend an ear when she needed to cry and any motherly advice she had in her. The best thing she could do now was to fill the role she hadn't managed before. What she had to do now was be there for her daughter.
And that was exactly what she did. She let her daughter talk out everything she was holding back, be it cheery things or unpleasant, she heard it through. She let the mare know that she could be trusted.
She knew quite well that a trust like Zipp's was not going to be attained all that easily, so she pushed through. She let her oldest princess know that her mother was there for her, that someone was there willingly, to listen and hear her out. That there was someone for her to connect and feel free around, whether that was her mother or not.
That there was someone she could trust.