//------------------------------// // Chapter 9: Chaos at the Royal Celebration // Story: How I Became My Mother // by Halira //------------------------------// Zipp had arrived and had gotten her wires attached without saying a word. She was now staring over the railing at the room below. Haven didn't comment on this, but she could tell that something other than Pipp's performance was preoccupying her daughter's mind. The question was how to broach the subject carefully.  "I hear you paid our guests a visit," Haven remarked as she continued to work with her makeup.  Zipp turned to her in surprise. "Pipp told you?" Haven smiled. "Oh, you know she tells me everything. I wish you would tell me more. You're going to be queen one day. You'll wear this crown. And trust me, it is heavier than it looks." "Actually, there is something I wanted to tell you. The unicorns don't have any magic. I think it's tied to why we can't fly…" This again! When would she stop chasing after dreams of trying to fix their magic? That was an even more lost cause than trying to get along with the other tribes! It had to be that unicorn trying to pull a fast one over on her daughter. Zipp needed to be protected from herself. "Zephyrina!" Haven scolded as she turned to face her daughter. "I don't know what silly ideas that unicorn put into your head, but we have a duty to protect our citizens. Pegasi are happy knowing that we royals can fly. Why would you want to disrupt things?" "Because it's a lie," Zipp answered in a firm tone.  That felt like a slap to the face, but she would not be deterred. "It makes them feel safe. Oh, one day, you'll understand. Your sister does." She heard Pipp getting moved into position and turned to smile at her. "—Oh, and here she is now!" "Me-me-me!" Pipp sang as she hung suspended in the air. It was a more complex set up of wires than either of them were wearing or had ever worn and didn't allow her much freedom to move about on her own. Zipp seemed taken aback at seeing her sister in that getup.  Haven only felt excitement. She could finish dealing with Zipp later, maybe being a little more gentle. Right now was Pipp's time, and she wasn't going to let a family argument erupt and ruin it.  "Showtime!" she exclaimed as she flared her wings.  "We are go for launch," the operator said over the intercom, and she and her daughters found themselves lifted into position.  The music began, and she and Zipp started their descent. "Remember to smile!" she reminded Zipp, knowing Zipp was still in a sour mood.  Zipp seemed annoyed at the reminder, and she could only put her noble face on as they descended. Thankfully she seemed to recover relatively quickly once they were in their thrones and was smiling by the time they faced the audience. That was one of the slowest recoveries Zipp had done since she was a filly. Perhaps she had been too hard on Zipp just a moment ago. Zipp's daydreams about restoring flying were primarily just that, but she supposed she could take the time to hear her out. She was just not inclined to trust anything a unicorn said that influenced her daughter's judgment. Maybe it was unfair, but her previous encounter with unicorns still stuck with her all these years later.  Her thoughts were interrupted as Pipp began her performance, and her fake smile became an earnest one. There was never a need for phony pride and admiration for her daughters.  She bobbed her head along with the beat, watching her daughter seem to fly around the area gracefully. The operators and technicians had done a superb job with this wiring. The wires were as hidden as ever, but Pipp was covering a far greater area, using her acrobatic skills in tandem with the harness to create a perfect illusion. It was a beautiful thing to behold, and Pipp looked to be in her element. With how much work this must be on Pipp's behalf, there was no need to concern herself too much about Pipp ever getting overweight. This had to be a significant workout, and if this were to become a regular thing for her, she would be the fittest pegasus in the city.  The sound of Cloudpuff yapping caught her ear briefly, and she looked and noticed he had run off. Where had he gone off to? She heard an occasional yap, but he seemed to be on the outskirts of the crowd somewhere, and she couldn't spot him between the dim lighting and the throngs of ponies.  Oh well, he did run off at times, and he always came back. She'd have one of the guards look around for him later. She refocused her attention on Pipp.  Or at least she would have if Zipp hadn't left her seat. Haven did her best to make a show of not looking, but Zipp had gone down in front of the thrones where Cloudpuff seemed to have popped out of nowhere. Zipp was wrestling the dog for something...what was that? Whatever it was ended up breaking, and Cloudpuff took off into the crowd with Zipp hot on his trail.  Wait… was that her crown? She reached up and touched her head where the crown should be. It was there, but something seemed to be off about it. What was going on?! Her attention got diverted again as the lights suddenly flickered, and the spotlight left Pipp and went on to a random stallion who Cloudpuff was standing next to. The pegasus crystal part of the crown was lying beside them. What the buck was going on!!? Events continued at a rapid pace, too fast for her to process correctly. The stallion started doing what she could only assume was a horribly written parody of Pipp's song while the entire crowd gawked at him. A quick glance showed that Pipp was now hanging in place and just as befuddled as she and the rest of the crowd. She turned her attention back to the stallion and— was Cloudpuff bobbing his head along with that horrible mockery? The little traitor! Cloudpuff began to howl-sing along, and Haven cringed in her seat.  Her mind flipped to impossible answers to this seemingly impossible situation. Was Zephyrina staging a coup to seize the throne? A royal taking the throne by force from the reigning monarch happened at least once before in their history, but she would never have imagined Zipp to try such a thing or even want to. Zipp would have demanded she step down before taking such action anyway— which Haven would have if only to avoid the instability a coup would bring. Had Zipp and Pipp had some sort of falling out, and now Zipp was staging all this as some sort of cruel prank on her little sister? No, she couldn't believe that either. Zipp would never be that cruel to Pipp. There didn't seem to be any reasonable answer to what was going on. The only thing she was sure of was Zephyrina was definitely involved, even if it was unclear how or for what motivation.  Unfortunately, things only got worse as the wiring holding Pipp suddenly went berserk, flailing her around the air like a helpless ragdoll.  Haven's mouth dropped open in horror as she watched, terrified that a wire would snap and hurl her daughter into a wall or the amount of whipping around it was doing to her would seriously injure her. Somewhere in the back of her mind, a small part worried about the fact the public was seeing all this and the repercussions of it, but terror for Pipp drowned that out.  "Freeze!" the stallion who had been mocking her daughter yelled. He went on point at something, and Haven and the whole crowd turned to see Zipp, the earth pony, and unicorn making for the exit together. Pegasi began to scream, and those screams were only heightened when Pipp went zooming by the stallion knocking his wings off. He was yet another earth pony! She hadn't believed it before, but was this an earth pony plot to destabilize the kingdom?! A second later, Pipp's out-of-control swing on the wires came to an abrupt end, leaving her hanging, in the middle of the room, in the spotlight, upside down with her wires on full display. Haven began to breathe a sigh of relief when she saw that Pipp only appeared to be dazed and scared instead of hurt, but both her face and Pipp's quickly shifted to horror as they realized together that their secret was on full display. Pegasi began to shout in outrage at what they saw, and cameras started snapping. There was no way to spin this! Haven spared a mere second glance at where Zipp had been and saw her looking up in despair at her little sister. It was a small consolation, but it was clear that whatever Zipp was doing, this had not been part of her plan. However, the betrayal still stood because Zipp did not stay to come to her sister's rescue.  She sat, gaping in disbelief and horror, for several seconds before her brain began to function again properly. The technicians hadn't pulled Pipp back up yet; either they were in on this, or they were missing. Their allegiance was a matter to worry about later; what was important right now was she needed to get Pipp out of the spotlight and away from the eyes of the crowd.  With a few quick movements, she unfastened her wires and took off on hoof towards the operating station for the wiring. The technician was hiding with his rump out behind a curtain, and the console itself was not being controlled by anypony. Thankfully, she knew enough about how it worked that she didn't need to waste time calming the technician down; she could operate the wires herself.  A few quick flips of switches and buttons and the wires started pulling Pipp back up to the scaffolding. Pipp would be able to free herself from the tangle once she got up there. That much was done. Now she needed to do something about the outraged mob beyond the curtain. What that might be, she had no idea, but the longer she waited, the worse it would get.  She left the booth with her most noble and dignified face on. "Ponies! I know you have a lot of questions, and I want to reassure you that—" "Fake!" "You can't fly!" "Liars!" "The royals are in league with the earth ponies!" "No, they're in league with the unicorns!" "In league with both!" "Traitors!" "Somepony, arrest them!" She shook her head. "My ponies, there's an excellent explanation for all of this. If you would give me a chance to explain!" The crowd quieted and stared at her, awaiting her explanation.  Her mind was completely blank. She couldn't come up with one. Not on the spot like this! She didn't even know what Zipp had been doing! She could incriminate Zipp as a traitor, but she didn't have clear evidence of that and still didn't believe it to be true. That kind of explanation wouldn't satisfy any of these ponies anyway.  The ponies read her silence as simply stalling, and their screams of outrage began again.  She spotted Pipp had made it down from the scaffolding to the thrones. The crowd had their backs to her and didn't notice the young princess. Pipp saw what was going on and seemed ready to try to come to her defense, but Haven met her eyes and shook her head. She then made a slight gesture with her neck and head, indicating Pipp needed to get out of there. Luckily, Pipp was observant and caught sight of it. With only a moment of hesitation, Pipp took off towards the front door, pausing only briefly to pick up the pegasus crystal that had been left forgotten on the floor in all the chaos and discord.  The guards pushed through the mob to stand before her. "Your criminal highness, you're under arrest for lying to the public and possible collusion with the earth ponies and unicorns! Please come along quietly." Her ears sagged. There was no talking her way out of this at the moment. Maybe she could think of something while she waited in her cell. At least her daughters were safe for the moment.