Sneaking out of Zephyr Heights was not easy, the sun was high in the sky and there wasn't a single shadow to hide in. Thankfully Pipp had a lot of experience avoiding fans, so it wasn't that difficult to make her way around the edges of the city and stick to more empty parts of the kingdom. Initially Pipp had struggled to keep all three of them hidden, before remembering that she was the only one actually hiding. So she was able to send the two young fillies ahead.
Unfortunately her luck was not infinite and when it ended it tended to do so very abruptly. Pipp had just ducked down another alley to avoid a small crowd of pegasi who didn't look happy when she crashed straight into the side of one of the Royal guards. Pipp knew the mare by name, but knowing that her name was Zoom Zephyrwing didn't mean that the guard wasn't going to arrest Pipp on sight.
"Hi?" Pipp weakly waved as she pulled herself back onto her hooves, wondering if she should make a run back into the crowd. "Now I know that we-"
Pipp never got a chance to finish her attempt at making peace before Zoom grabbed her and bodily shoved the princess behind a trash can in the alleyway, a single hoof holding Pipp against the wall and out of sight. Pipp tried to get back to her hooves, but Zoom didn't loosen her hold at all.
"Be quiet!" Zoom Zepyrwing harshly whispered into Pipp's ear as she pushed the pegasi against the wall before turning back to the alleyway entry, her eyes narrowed. After a few tense seconds the guard let out a breath and removed the hoof holding Pipp down. "Sorry about that, the other guards nearly saw you."
"You were protecting me?" Pipp asked in confusion, rubbing her sore forehoof from the earlier shove. "Aren't you meant to arrest me or my sister on sight?"
"The royal guards are here to protect the public ponies and the royal family," Zoom Zephyrwing told her with a shrug. "My fellow guards may have decided that a few lies about flight were enough to throw away their oath, but I don't see it the same way."
"So you're okay with it?" Pipp asked carefully.
"Of course I am not okay with what your family did," Zoom turned back to Pipp with a smile, "Lying is wrong filly, but I made a pledge to keep you safe. Just because you lied about being able to fly doesn't mean that you deserve to be hurt by fools trying to get revenge. I've been guarding your family for years, also it doesn't hurt that I was there when we all got back our wings. It makes it just that little bit easier to see the good in you."
"That's good to hear, would you be willing to help me a little more?" Pip asked nervously, not that eager to take advantage of somepony that had helped her so much already. "I need to get to the Zephyr Heights ravines."
"Why would you ever want to go there?" Zoom asked carefully, giving another glance back towards the alleyway entrance to make sure that they were still unnoticed. "It'll be difficult to get out of the city today, every pegasi is on high alert for any apparent unicorn or earth pony attackers apparently."
"What if we flew?" Pipp asked nervously, flexing one of her wings out and gesturing into the sky.
"Hmm, they wouldn't be able to stop us," Zoom muttered with a look of contemplation on her face. "Though they would be able to track us down by just following us on the ground. There will be a lot of pegasi guards that'll be on us quickly. The nobles have taken a fair amount of control and appear to be very eager to protect Zephyr Heights, no matter what the queen tries to tell them."
"Wait, is mom okay?" Pipp bit her lip nervously.
"She is fine, they are just keeping her under castle arrest." Zoom chuckled. "Honestly I am not really sure what the nobles' plan is at this point. Technically she was never removed from power and no noble is willing to try and be the one to suggest forced abdication as it would basically force all of the nobles to argue over who gets to be the next king or queen. So it's stuck in this awkward stalemate as far as I can tell."
"Okay, good," Pipp smiled. "I have a plan to try and fix this mess. You saw how the magic of friendship allowed us to fly again, so I was hoping to make a live stream of that happening and make everypony learn how to do it themselves."
"Where are we going to find a unicorn and earth pony willing to be friends with ev..." Zoom Zephyrwing covered her face with a hoof and groaned. "That orange earth pony is heading here to make friends, isn't she?"
"She's more of an apricot orange," Pipp muttered before focusing back on the real issue at hand. "Sunny, Izzy, Zipp and Hitch are all going to be here in less than an hour. I want to make sure that everypony in Zephyr Heights learns that being friends is the best thing and that they don't have to be scared. To do that I need to show them being friendly with pegasi, so I need your help to get me there. I already have two pegasi fillies who are willing to try, we just have to make sure it happens and every pony sees it."
"I accept this directive, Princess Pipp Petals," Zoom Zephyrwing gave Pipp a quick bow before flaring her wings. "I will not fail you or the kingdom. Now, brace yourself. You're not the only pegasi who can fly."
Pipp barely had a chance to let out a princessly yelp before Zoom Zephyrwing grabbed her around the barrel and dragged her into the sky, the guard's wings beating furiously to propel them skyward. Pipp pulled her wings in tight to keep the air resistance as low as she could as they shot through the sky faster than Pipp thought possible.
"I can fly you know," Pipp tried to complain, but she knew that she was a long way from being anywhere near as fast as Zoom Zephrywing at full flap. The guard's wings were nearly beating the air into submission as they shot through the sky over Zephyr Heights. The wind was streaming through Pipp's mane and she couldn't help laughing at the ridiculous speed that they were going at.
It was barely more than a few minutes and furious flapping before Zoom angled her wings into a sharp dive. Plummeting to the ground and such a high rate of speed should have been scary, but Pipp could only feel excitedly vibrating through every part of herself. Even her very mane felt like it was quivering to the beat of their descent. As the ground approached Pipp pushed out of Zoom's hold and prepared to land.
Up ahead Pipp could see her four friends trotting along the path, engrossed in a deep conversation of some kind. Izzy seemed to be trying her hardest to annoy Sunny and Hitch by constantly tapping them on the barrel before jumping back as if she was a mischievous cat. Zipp was trotting in front of them with her eyes firmly on the path ahead, Izzy seemed to at least have enough self preservation to not bug the tense pegasus.
Grinning to herself, Pipp pulled her wings back as far as she could, holding them as tight as she could manage to pick up speed, leaving Zoom far above her in the clouds. The speed of the fall was exhilarating, and a part of her wished she had some way to record her, though she knew that at this speed she would have struggled to keep her phone in her hooved.
The ground approached quickly and Pipp smirked as she flared her wings as late as she felt she could, swooping out of the dive and shooting towards her friends at a frankly ridiculous rate of speed. At the last second she flared her wings as much as she could, throwing herself nearly vertical as she stopped on a dime. She quickly twisted into a backward flip to find herself landing perfectly on all four hooves only a few pony lengths away from Sunny.
"That was a sweet dive, Pipp," Zipp called out as she trotted over the Pipp and gave her a quick nuzzle. "I assume it all went well?"
"Not exactly," Pipp winced before opening her eyes wide and trying to placate her sister. "But I have a plan that should work, I even have help from a guard to make it work, as well as a few pegasus fillies who should be perfect."
"What is this about a plan?" Sunny asked with her head cocked to one side in interest.
"I know you said that every pegasi would be happy to make friends now that they can fly," Pipp rolled her eyes and turned back to Sunny. "It was a great plan, except for one little itty bitty problem. No pegasi in Zephyr Heights can fly!"
"That guard is flying," Sunny gestured behind Pipp.
"Actually, ma'am," Zoom Zephyrwing interjected as she flared her wings and landed perfectly beside Pipp. "I'm the only flying pegasi in Zephyr Heights apart from Queen Haven and Princess Pipp. Every pegasi who didn't witness your temporary ascension still can not take to the air."
"My temporary what?" Sunny asked with a raised eyebrow before shaking her head. "Look, this seems like not much of an issue. We just need to show everypony that you can fly and then everything will be fine."
"It's not quite that simple," Zoom began with a frown.
"Did you manage to make your Pipsqueaks forgive you?" Izzy cut in with a smile, shoving past Sunny before grabbing Pipp and pulling her closer to whisper in her ear. "Also who is our new friend?"
"This is Zoom Zephyrwing, she's a palace guard who agreed to help me." Pipp told her as she struggled out of the tight grip of Izzy. "However the Pipsqueaks are not entirely happy with me. Luckily, I've also got two pegasi who are still fans. And they are ready to meet us at the city edge. We're going to make sure to have a proper livestream of them learning to fly so that every pegasi in the city learns the truth. That way you don't have to deal with rioting ponies, and my family has a chance to not be locked up forever. Win win and all that."
"Sounds like you've got a real plan" Hitch told Pipp with a smile, looking impressed. "I didn't know you had some real planner skills in you. Sunny and I kind of just figured that you were just an influencer pony, but it's good that you have planning skills too."
"Hey!" Pipp shot Hitch and Sunny a dirty look. "My live streams take a lot of pre-planning thank you. You can't just start a stream and hope it works out. You need to plan it out, make sure that everything is fully charged, coordinate timelines with my chat moderators and ensure that I am not going to be interrupted by a royal duty. Not to mention planning out what to say, what things you want to show on stream, and backup plans for when things go wrong. Planning stuff is my life, thank you very much."
"Wait, you script out your live streams?" Zoom asked, sounding more than a little put out at the revelation.
"I don't script them," Pipp rolled her eyes and waved her hoof dismissively, "I think a better term would be to say that I plan them so that they aren't boring. There isn't a script of words for me to say, but there is some form of plan for what I want to do or say. Some live streams are spur of the moment, but if any last more than a minute then they are properly planned by your proficient pre-planning, Princess Pipp."
"Ooh, I always adore alliteration also" Izzy cut in as she leant over Sunny's back. Sunny quickly pushed the over-eager unicorn off her back and onto her own four hooves.
For a few moments all of the ponies stared at Izzy, unsure of how to respond. Pipp took a moment to try and straighten up some of the feathers that Izzy ruffled, before giving up and accepting that she would just need to give herself a proper preen later.
"Anyway, we probably should get our cute butts to the city and meet Pipp's pegasi helpers before it gets too late," Sunny paused to look at Izzy's smiling face again, expecting an interruption, before turning back to the others. "So w-"
"Let's go!" Izzy called out, interrupting Sunny as she shoving past all of them and trotting forward. Sunny groaned and soon they were all on a canter along the trail towards the city.
It was a hard trott up the hill and even Pipp was starting to tire from the effort. The only pony who seemed not affected was Zoom, though even her pace has slowed. Pipp was panting more than she wanted to admit, but she was still keeping a strong look out for her two younger fans, hoping that they had made it.
Eventually the ground rounded a bend and she was able to spot her two favourite Pipsqueaks sitting on the path ahead. Pipp leapt into the sky and without a word shot forward to meet her fans, closing the gap as quickly as she could. She landed roughly in front of them and pulled out her phone, fumbling with the small device to get her live stream software prepped and ready. There was only one take at this and she had to do it perfectly.
"We're ready to f-" Soarin Sunset tried to start before Pipp held out a hoof to silence them.
"Okay we're going live in a few seconds," Pipp told them, putting in her best effort to be serious. "My friends are down there and will be here very soon. I want you to meet the two earth ponies and the unicorn, just try to hear them out. The unicorn might be a little silly, but that just makes her more fun. As soon as you are feeling the change, you can fly. You don't need to say anything if you don't want to, the stream is just here to capture what happens. Okay?"
"So make friends and fly," Northern Lights clarified, nearly bouncing on her hooves as she eagerly awaited her potential new friends. "This is going to be so cool."
"Super cool with Pipp Petals too," Soarin Sunset agreed, her own adorable tapping a tell tale sign of her own excitement. "I don't know what's cooler, getting to hang out with Princess Pipp, getting to fly or getting to meet a unicorn and earth pony."
"I mean, clearly Princess Pipp is the coolest," Northern clarified as seriously as she could between giggles, before becoming a little more serious. "I am a bit nervous meeting them, are you sure that they are safe?"
Pipp didn't get a chance to respond before Soarin Sunset cut in. "They are friends of Pipps, or course they are going to be nearly as cool as her."
Pipp smiled weakly, knowing that her actual friendship with the three approaching ponies was a little threadbare for the most part. She liked Izzy, Hitch and Sunny; but she was nowhere near as close to them as Zipp was. Pipp felt more than a little bad at misleading them, but she was out of time to try and make it clearer, noticing with a bit of panic that the others were getting a lot closer.
"Excellent, okay they are nearly here, so we're going live." Pipp told them, jabbing the start button and mentally crossing her hooves that this would all work out. Obviously she couldn't actually cross her hooves for real as she still needed to be able to stand and hold her phone, but she assumed that mentally doing it would be enough.
As soon as Izzy and the others came into view, Northern Lights and Soarin Sunset cheered. Soarin Sunset turned to the phone that Pipp was holding and decided for herself to address the live stream audience. Northern didn't seem quite so eager to be on camera, but the excitement of Soarin Sunset was infectious enough to keep her from hiding.
"Hello every pony!" Soarin Sunset called out at a volume that was more than a little too loud, Pipp's phone struggling to handle the high volume being thrown at it. "Princess Pipp Petals showed us that she could fly and now we're going to show every pony how they can fly too."
Pipp smiled from behind the camera, glad to see the young pony stepping into the presenter role so easily. There was nary a trace of nervousness on the young mare as Soarin Sunset gave everyone a quick summary of what Pipp had told her.
"So that means all we need to do is learn to be friends, and we'll be able to fly." Soarin Sunset paused, looking a bit stuck. Clearly the youngling wasn't quite sure how to continue. Pipp knew better than to let Soarin Sunset flounder any longer so she quickly cut in, talking over the phone without turning the camera back on herself.
"So to learn to fly is a three step process," Pipp narrated as she gestured to the two siblings sitting in front of her. "The first step is to find a unicorn and earth pony that would make great new friends. Lucky for you two, I just so happen to have some I prepared earlier."
Pipp spun the camera around to see Hitch, Izzy and Sunny trotting up the path towards her. Zipp and Zoom were both lagging behind in no rush to catch up just yet. Pipp put a hoof out beside the camera, making sure that it was clearly in view of the camera, and gestured as clearly as she could towards her friends as they grew closer. She waited for them to get a fair bit closer, before spinning the camera back to Northern Lights and Soarin Sunset as they patiently sat there. The two fillies were clearly very nervous at what was about to happen, and Pipp could not be more excited. It was almost too difficult to hold her phone steady due to how much she was quivering in excitement.
"Northern Lights and Soarin Sunset here are going to show you all how to fly," Pipp told her live steam audience, making sure to stay out of the shot. This was meant to be about two young fillies, not her, after all. Pipp couldn't help smiling as she saw the view counter absolutely sky rocket, clearly ZBS had picked up her stream already and was broadcasting it to every pegasi with eyes and/or ears in all of Zephyr Heights.
"Are you sure that they are safe?" Soarin Sunset asked nervously, her earlier fears re-emerging as she was forced to face ponies that she had been told to be wary of for her entire life. She leant away, shrinking back a little at the approaching ponies. "My dad always said that earth ponies squish little pegasi for fun."
"My brother told me that unicorns can zap your brain and make you like broccoli," Northern Lights added, a frown appearing on her face. Clearly the two had not entirely gotten over their worries, so it was time for Pipp to do her best to help them.
"You don't need to worry, my little pipsqueaks," Pipp did her best to placate the two worried pegasi. Pipp glanced over to finally see her friends arrive, stepping back to properly get both groups in camera shot. "These are my friends, so I promise that you'll be great friends with them as well."
Sunny slowed to a stop in front of them, Izzy slightly misjudging and crashing into Sunny's behind and sprawling onto the ground. Sunny shot a look back at Izzy, before returning her attention back to the two young pegasi fillies and letting Hitch pull Izzy back to her hooves. Thankfully the two pegasi fillies found Izzy's antics more amusing than worrying and did chuckle a bit at the unicorns silliness.
"Hi, I'm Sunny!" Sunny waved to the two pegasi sisters as she stepped a little closer and held out a hoof to them. She patiently waited for either to accept a proper hoof shake with the earth pony. Hitch stayed back to give them space as well, but Izzy of course made no such attempt. The unicorn instead loped right over to them past Sunny in her excitement to meet new ponies, almost knocking Sunny over in the process again.
"Hello even more newer friends, I'm Izzy" Izzy cheered as she pulled Northern Lights into a tight hug. Luckily the pale green pegasus filly just let the older unicorn get her a proper snuggle and wasn't all that irritated at the impromptu hug.
Soarin Sunset managed to completely dodge Izzy's haphazard attempts to include her in the hugging as well. Instead ducking past and shooting Pipp a bemused expression before instead reaching out to Sunny's hoof nervously. The young pegasi filly paused for a second to gather her courage before firmly grasping the earth pony's hoof with her own.
"Welcome to Zephyr Heights," Soarin Sunset nervously told the much bigger earth pony, the size difference between her and Sunny becoming very evident as she held the much bigger pony's hoof. "Pipp said that we should be friends and then we can fly."
"That is what I said!" Pipp called out from behind the camera at them, chuckling at the nervousness of the two fillies. Pipp had to admit that Izzy was a little too energetic for the meeting she wanted to film, but it was mostly working out.
"It's good to meet you, Soarin Sunset?" Sunny told her with a gentle smile, though even Pipp could see that the earth pony was raring to do more than give a nice hello.
Noticing the eager expression growing on Sunny's muzzle, Pipp quickly took a few steps closer to properly focus on Sunny. After spending a few days with Sunny, Pipp had gotten good at knowing when the mare was likely about to start giving a big impassioned speech. It was time for Pipp to make sure that everypony heard what they needed to know.
"Myself and my friends are here to teach every pony that they no longer need to live in fear of each other. Imagine if you could have a friend who could use magic, or fly, or be...um strong or something." Sunny trailed off as she got a little stuck in her speech before shaking herself back on focus and continued, "The point is that we need to learn to be together as one, to have peace with pegasi, unity with unicorns and... something with earth ponies?"
Sunny paused and frowned, "I really need to plan out these speeches better."
"What about 'Pacifism with Ponies'?" Soarin Sunset provided.
"That's probably a little too generic," Sunny muttered before shrugging, "we can workshop it later. What I want to say is that I know that many years ago we all had magic, the earth ponies managed the land, the pegasi flew and controlled the weather, and the unicorns managed the connection between them. We were friends, we were together as one."
"So we should learn to be friends to be magic?" Northern Lights asked, having finally managed to free herself from Izzy.
"It's simpler than that," Izzy told them, sliding in beside Sunny and forcing Pipp to step back a little to get the unicorn visible to the livestream. "Friendship doesn't give us magic, the magic that we all want is friendship. It's sitting there in our hooves waiting for us to look down and notice it. There is nothing stopping us from taking it, except for ourselves believing that we shouldn't. I spent years in Bridlewood believing that friendship was something that I will never be able to get for myself, until I received a letter telling me that there were friends waiting for me in Maretime bay. However even with that I was too scared to go, afraid like you that the other ponies wouldn't like me.
"But I knew that I couldn't just stay in Bridlewood and feel my life slip by when I could instead go out there and do what I needed to do. So I made the journey to Maretime bay, I met Sunny, and now I can do this," Izzy raised here horn and focused for a second before her horn glowed a furious golden hue, the others all paused in anticipation, before a flare of magic shot out of Izzy's horn and into the sky. The magic twisted up in a graceful beam of rainbow golden arches before fading as quickly as it began. "I can also open baked beans with it, but I could do that even before I had magic. Horns are that cool."
"I'm not offering you magic," Sunny told the two pegasi fillies, "you already have it locked inside of you wanting for the instant you want to let it out. I'm just here offering you the hand of friendship. So, do you want to be our friend?"
Soarin Sunset and Northern Lights looked at each other for a second before smiling and both reaching out to Sunny and tapping hooves with her. However as soon as their hooves met there was a flash of light between them, the edges hinted with a rainbow color, before abruptly fading. Confused, the two young fillies looked around, unsure of what happened. Pipp trotted closer and gestured for the two to look down at themselves.
They did so and let out excited yelps as they saw the golden magic settling throughout their wings, lighting up the edges of their primary feathers with a beautiful soft light. Northern Lights tentatively flapped her wings, giggling as she felt herself become lighter with just that small amount of movement. Soarin Sunset copied before them two looked at each other with mischievous grins.
"First one to the castle?" Northern Lights asked Soarin Sunset cheekily.
"Starting now!" Soarin Sunset shot back before flapping her wings as quickly as she could and pulling herself into the sky. Northern Lights quickly followed after. Zipp tensed, ready to fly after the two fillies to make sure that they didn't get in trouble, but was stopped by the raised wing of Zoom Zephyrwing.
"I'll keep an eye on them," Zoom Zephyrwing told Zipp and Pipp, before giving them a quick bow and jumping into the air. "It will be good to see your new friends in the city flanked by you both."
Pipp gave her a quick wave, before realizing that she was shaking her phone and probably causing some motion sickness for her viewers. Blushing in embarrassment she quickly steadied her phone and pointed it towards Sunny, gesturing for the earth pony to talk. Naturally Sunny just looked at her in confusion, but Zipp quickly picked up on the unspoken request.
"This is what Pipp and I have wanted to share with you all for the last few days," Zipp spoke clearly, taking her time to address the phone as if talking to a crowd. Based on the number of viewers currently tuned into Pipp's live stream it was probably the largest number of ponies that either sister had ever talked to. "I know that there is a lot that we need to say and make up for, but for now we just want you to listen to Sunny Starscout first, the mare who taught us all how to be true friends."
Zipp pushed Sunny in front of the tiny camera and gestured for her to talk, but Sunny still looked a bit confused by it all.
"Who are you talking to?" Sunny asked nervously, Pipp had given Sunny a basic level of understanding of live streams but she didn't fully understand the concept. "Are these your pipsqueak fans?"
Pipp winced, "I am live streaming to pretty much all of Zephyr Heights right now. So if there is anything that you want every pony to know, this is the best opportunity you could ever have to tell them."
"Oh, excellent !" Sunny's eyes opened wide and she smiled as she saw the opportunity before her. Sunny wasn't much of a pre-planner, but she knew when to take an opportunity by the hoof. "Hello every pony, I am Sunny Starscount, and I have spent my life trying to reunite the pony tribes so that we can all learn the truth of our past. We can stay separated by distrust or false worries, or we can all learn to choose friendship and love. It's only through reaching true unity that we can all get back all that we have lost. There is more than just flight or spells waiting for us, there is friendship as well. There is love just waiting in the wings."
Sunny paused for dramatic effect, though it was slightly ruined by the ridiculous smile plastered over her face and the bouncing of Izzy beside her. However there was an awkward pause as Sunny just continued to stand there and make no indication that she was going to continue talking. Pipp groaned and knew that Sunny needed some help, so she quickly turned the camera on herself.
"We can choose friendship, we can choose love, and we can choose to be together." Pipp told her audience as she gave her best smile, "So join me in opening your hearts to every pony. Together we can be magic."
Pipp turned the camera back to the others and let the perfect silent hang, the others not wanting to interrupt the perfect moment. Until Izzy interrupted the perfect moment to pull Sunny into a hug and congratulate her on the perfect speech. However Pipp did not look away from her phone, a feeling of worry starting to hit her. The numbers were gone.
"Something wrong Pipp?" Zipp asked, trotting over to see what was worrying her little sister. "There aren't any mean comments are there?"
"No, I think it might be worse," Pipp muttered as she furrowed her brows and tapped at her phone. "The viewer count just dropped to absolute zero. No one is watching the live stream any more. No comments, no watchers, nothing."
"What?" Zipp asked, pulling her sister's hoof over so she could see the screen for herself. "Did they all leave when Sunny was talking? Or did it break?"
"No, the stream is still broadcasting," Pipp muttered in confusion. "It's like they all just decided to stop watching at the same time?"
"I think I know what happened," Hitch cut in, pointing with a hoof towards Zephyr Heights. Zipp, Pipp, Sunny and Izzy turned and were all shocked to see a strange multicolored blur floating over the top of Zephyr Heights. At first they were all confused on what the strange thing was, before they realized that it was heading closer.'
"What is that speckly mess?" Izzy asked, tapping her muzzle with a hoof in deep concentration. "It looks like a cloud, but it's all wrong and also not a cloud."
"It's not a cloud" Zipp told them all, her better pegasi eyesight quickly confirming that she was seeing something that a week earlier would have been impossible. "It's flight."
"What?" Hitch asked, completely confused.
"It's a flock," Zipp told them with a smile, "I've dreamt of this moment for years. The day that we can only join one."
"You asked for every pegasi to welcome every pony into their hearts," Pipp told Sunny with a chuckle, doing her best to clarify Zipp's dazed words. "So every pegasus with wings in Zephyr Heights is flying here to give a welcome to you three first."
Izzy, Hitch and Sunny could now make out that the massive nebulous form was not some strange sparkly cloud, but was actually thousands of pegasi all flying towards them. It was not just a simple uniform flock of pegasi flying in unison, but instead a mess of flapping wings and movement as the flapping ponies all jostled through the air in any way they pleased. Amazingly it seemed that no matter how chaotic the fliers were, every pegasus seemed to know how to ensure that not a single mid air collision occurred.
The front of the flock was already beginning to head to the ground around them, most of them made up of the royal guards that had earlier manned the castle. As soon as their hooves hit the ground they spun around, facing the landing crowd as they stood in a perfect circle around the five pony friends. Overhead the rest of the city slowly made their way to the ground as well. Two guards, in the circle surrounding them, stepped aside to allow a familiar face to land and trott over to them, Queen Haven.
"You're okay!" Zipp called out happily as she galloped over to her mother and glomped her. The two fell over as Zipp's speed overbalanced her mother's grip. Chuckling, the two pulled themselves back to their hooves and properly embraced, Pipp fluttering over to get a quick hug as well before pulling out her phone and filming as much as she could. Something told her that this was some primo content that just deserved to be captured.
They all watched as the remainder of the gigantic flying flock landed around them, the excited chattering of the various ponies reaching a nearly deafening pitch. Sunny and Hitch were absolutely amazed by the sheer numbers that surrounded them. Izzy seemed lost in her own world of amazement as she got lost in the new friends just waiting to be discovered before her.
"It's good to see you both," Queen Haven smiled as she pulled Pipp back into a tight hug beside Zipp. "Things have been a little tense over the last few days as every pony wasn't fully sold on unity. However it seems if one can't tell a pony the truth, you can always just show a pony the truth instead."
Pipp looked over at their other three friends and smiled at the progress. Izzy was already talking to some of the guards, who were in turn giving her a hoof bump in response. Sunny and Hitch were a little more hesitant but were also trying to make conversation with the nearest pegasi. The castle guards were doing a good job of crowd control, letting in some just pegasi to talk at a time and making sure that the crowd never surged forward. It was something they had been forced to learn after a few too many of Pipp's performances had gotten a little too popular.
Meanwhile Queen Haven was staying a fair distance back from the edge of the circle of guards, content to get a few more moments to talk to her daughters. It had been a nightmare for a few days and she was quite happy to see how Zipp and Pipp were fairing.
"Do you think they'll ever forgive us for lying?" Pipp asked nervously as she looked out at the happily smiling mass of pegasi that surrounded them.
"I dare say that they already have decided that there is nothing to blame on you two." Queen Haven admitted with a shrug. "They seem rather happy with how everything is right now."
"We still did not do right by them," Zipp muttered, guiltily flapping her wings.
"No. I did not do right by them," Their mother admitted, frowning as she spoke the bitter truth. "I kept that lie alive to maintain my position in life. However you two are an entirely different matter. You both did what you felt was right for your fellow pony. Pipp, you lifted their spirits and kept the dream of flight alive for them. You wanted to make them happy despite everything. Zipp, you searched for a way to bring back flight. You wanted to give them back what they had lost."
"I'm not sure I did that," Pipp muttered, no longer willing to look her mother in the eye. "I just flapped a bunch and sang. Zipp was the one that actually did something."
"What I did?" Zipp snorted, "I wanted everyone to be able to fly, but I didn't actually accomplish anything other than a few burnt out fans and some smashed chalkboards. Let's face it, neither of us actually helped."
"And yet here we are surrounded by hundreds of happy pegasi who can now fly," Queen Haven pointed out. "You two helped Izzy, Hitch and Sunny repair the unity that was always sitting hiding under the surface. I am hearing both of you desperately trying to blame yourselves for not trying hard enough, for only trying to make things better instead of succeeding. That's a fool's errand to judge yourself on your failures alone, to ignore your efforts and successes."
"They shouldn't respect us for just trying." Pipp shot back bitterly. "They shouldn't respect anything about us after everything we did."
"Everything we did?" Queen Haven asked with a smirk. "I'd say that everything you two did earnt quite a lot of respect in the eyes of every pony here. You two are the reason that pegasi were able to reunite with
"Maybe everyone can respect Zipp," Pipp argued, stamping her hoof adorably. It was hard to be stern when you were a hoof width shorter than every pony else. "I don't deserve any respect. I got revealed as a fraud to every pony, so I basically didn't have a choice."
"You can't tell me that you didn't have a fallback plan after getting exposed at your performance." Queen Haven tapped Pipp on the snout with her hoof. "You've always been the tricky little planner with escape plans and fixes hiding in that little noggin of yours. However you didn't take any of those options, when you heard of your sister's plan you switched to help her. Didn't you?"
Pipp nervously rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof. It was true that she had quite a few options to fix what happened. A few well placed sock puppet accounts and some careful messaging immediately after the performance would've gone a long way to fix her image before it really went bad.
However Pipp knew that her mother was also correct that as soon as Pipp heard what Zipp's plan was everything changed. Pipp knew that she was making life harder for herself later to not get ahead of the negative press, but she also knew that she had to help Zipp. The chance to bring back everypony's magic was too large of an opportunity to ignore. No matter the negative repercussions.
"That doesn't stop me feeling guilty," Pipp muttered before being pulled back into a hug from Zipp who then immediately followed it up by messing with Pipp's mane. Pipp shoved Zipp away with a laugh. "Stop it, I'm trying to be serious here."
"How about we stop feeling guilty about the past," Zipp told Pipp as she gave her little sister a nudge with her foreleg, "and instead try to make sure that Izzy and Sunny get to make all the flying friends they want. Got any plans for that?"
"I always do," Pipp smirked as she raised her wings and gestured towards Sunny and Izzy. With a simple nod the two sisters flapped into the air and flew over to Izzy and Sunny, tackling their friends. Queen Haven just rolled her eyes and sat back, knowing that when the two started communicating wordlessly them things were about to get silly or stupid. Queen Haven also knew better than to try and stop her daughters when they were determined.
Within seconds Sunny was in the air, held aloft in Pipp's forelegs. Izzy was a little more squirmy but Zipp was not far behind pulling Izzy into the air as well.
"Wait, what are you doing?" Sunny called out in confusion as Pipp pulled her higher. Sunny was not the lightest pony to exist, so it was more than a little difficult for Pipp to pull her into the air. However Pipp persevered and perspired, straining her wings as she flew. Soon enough
"I'm giving you a chance to make some flying friends, and to make sure that they make friends as well." Pipp cheered as she leveled off her flight, hovering in the air over the crowd with Sunny hanging beneath her. Sunny looked down and saw that her hindlegs were only a few pony lengths away from the crowd beneath. Meanwhile Izzy was chanting for Zipp to speed up and catch up to Pipp.
The pegasi looked up at the two royal sisters and their non-flying cargo. Their attention leaving each other and focusing back on Zipp and Pipp as they hovered overhead. Zipp and Pipp slowly hovered through the air before moving over onto a gentle hill, touching down as carefully as they could to not squash their friends. Soon the crowd jostled closer to try and get a good view
"Ponies of Zephyr Heights," Pipp called out, hovering just overhead to make sure that she was visible and audible to everyone. Sunny awkwardly hung beneath her looking rather annoyed with her flying friend as she dangled from her hooves. "Our friends need to talk to all of you so please be quiet and listen."
As the crowd slowly began to fall silent Pipp gently hovered down to the ground, being careful to make sure that she didn't land on Sunny again. Eventually the crowd did become mostly silent and Pipp quickly pulled out her phone and started recording again. Sunny awkwardly stepped forward to try and address the crowd, before she was abruptly interrupted by a question yelled out of the crowd.
"Are you the avatars of being friends," A young voice called out from nearby, Pipp smirked as she saw that it was Northern Lights holding up their hoof. Pipp was glad that Northern Lights had received her message. No matter how good your plans are, you still need allies to make sure that those plans come to fruition.
"I wouldn't say that we are the avatars of friendship or anything," Sunny meekly tried to respond before Pipp rolled her eyes and shoved Sunny forwards. She hadn't gone to all the effort of planning this for Sunny to chicken out.
"We literally are showing ponies how to be friends," Pipp groaned. "An avatar is the embodiment of a pony or idea, we are both of those things. So answer the question."
"Ah, we are not that at all," Sunny replied meekly, smiling weekly for the crowd.
"Sunny!" Pipp groaned and pulled Sunny back before turning to the crowd. "Give us just a second to work this out."
"Are you saying that we each represent an element of harmony and friendship," Sunny countered with a whisper to Pipp. "I'm pretty sure that isn't true, also there were six elements of harmony, and there are only five of us."
"Maybe one of us has two elements?" Izzy asked weakly before frowning at the idea, not liking the unhealthy power dynamic. There was an awkward pause as they tried to work it out. The crowd of pegasi were at least content to wait for them to figure it out. Sunny greatly preferred them over the considerably less patient Canterlogic event crowd.
"Wait, I think I get it. We don't each represent one element, we represent far more than that." Hitch realized as he turned back to Sunny. "Think of the original bearers that you told me about, were they each more than just the one element that they represented?"
"What do you mean?" Sunny asked in confusion. "Fluttershy was kind, Rainbow Dash was loyal, Applejack was honest, Rarity was generous, Pinkie Pie was always making laughter, and Twilight Sparkle was the spark of magic that held them all together."
"No, that was never the case," Pipp smiled. "You can't tell me that Applejack was never loyal, that Rainbow Dash wasn't honest, or that Pinkie Pie wasn't kind. They were all so much more than just a single trait that ruled them. They didn't represent a single element of friendship and harmony. They represented all of the elements of friendship and harmony whenever they were together. They were all kind, they all brought laughter, they all were loyal and dependable, they were all honest, they were all generous, and they were all the spark that held it all together."
"The same is true for you five. All five of you represent the elements within yourselves and what you did to bring back our flight and introduce us to unity." Queen Haven told them loudly, her voice casting out over the crowd. "However the same is true for every pony who accepts those around us. The magic of unity is something that we should all have. Sunny has shown us the way, Zipp, Izzy, Pipp and Hitch have proven that it is possible. So now we all need to raise our wings and prove that we can all embody the elements."
Sunny stepped up, knowing that there was one final thing that she needed to say. "I did not bring friendship and unity to you all. Friendship is not a one way trail, it's two or more. So I did not do it," She paused and gave her best smile, pushing away the nerves as best as she could. "We all together brought friendship and unity to one another."
"Friendship is what we can do together, and together we can all be the spark that allows friendship to truly blossom." And with an ear splitting cheer from the crowd, the five friends knew that they had started something much bigger than themselves.