Lives and phones, they had spread through all the hoofs in Zephyr Heights. Huge screens and advertising boards were hung. Sure it will bring more financial income to the royals.
Queen Heaven stood on the castle rooftop, there was a smile on her lips. It was difficult to draw citizens’s attention from flying to screens, because braking a lie is always easier than keeping one.
‘’Mom, could you tell the story again?The story you protected Zephyr Heights, the story you fought against the millennium bug?‘’ Pipp’s figure became more fascinating under the glowing screen. What kind of mother could say no?
“Second to that, mom! ” Zipp would always like to listen to that story. Again and again, she never became bored.
“Well well well, listen up girls, my memory is not that clear now, be sure to add some details if I miss!” Queen Heaven laughed, but she can’t throw the royal style away, so it wasn’t a huge laugh. She spread her wings, covered her daughters.
“At that time, the network you knew hasn’t been so powerful…” Queen Heaven closed her eyes, rose her head, and went to her past. Two girls followed their mom, managed to travel back to their past, when they were small.
Zephyr Heights citizens won’t set off physical fireworks to ring the new year after this day. After all, fire can’t be easily solved.
A glowing countdown lighted the screen at the nearby building. It was the last few seconds of this year. When the countdown is over, hundreds, millions of fireworks will burst out in the virtual world, and ring the new year.
Five
Four
Three
Two
One
‘’BANG!’’
The bang came from a white young foal.
‘’Pass another year, WU…hu？‘’
There weren’t fireworks sounds, which made Zipp a little bit awkward.
She put down the hoofs that were just covered her eyes. Looked at the night sky outside the castle window, silence.
‘’Why doesn’t it explode?’’ She asked to the air, ’’No fireworks this year?’’
‘’Sis…please just sleep.’’ Pipp pulled out the quilt, showed her little head, sleepy, ‘’Sleeping too late is bad for your skin.’’
‘’But, they didn’t set off the fireworks!’’
Young pegasus waved her hoof, loudly.
‘’Whatever…set off or not set off…it isn’t a problem, the problem is I need some sleep……‘’ Pipp muttered, turned over, and robbed the quilt which belonged to Zipp.
‘’But……’’
‘’ZZZ……‘’
Pipp gave out some snores, with rhythm, as a reply.
Tiredness poured up unexpectedly, Zipp shrugged, lay down in disappointment, and took her quilt back, then went into the field of dream.
Something was ringing in the distance…
The first ray in the dawn broke into the sisters’ bedroom on time. Accurate as the lightning shape cutie mark, her biological clock let her woke before the ray touched her butt.
First removed the big pink leg lying on her face, then got off the bed, Zipp began to scan the pink furry ball that was lying on the bed.
Pipp lay with hoofs fully spread, mouth watering, and quilt off—still in sweet dream.
Somehow, the bedside digital clock—which trained the Zipp’s accurate biological clock—lost its accurate, didn’t ring the dawn on the new year first day.
Error code filled the panel, the clock stopped running.
There was a saying: Out with the old, in with the new. But a new year came without the fireworks, made this white pegasus feel weird, for not feeling the new.
‘’Pipp Petals, get up of bed!’’
‘’Wait……what？’’ Words struck Pipp, made her jump up, ’’What……time is it, now?’’
‘’I don’t really know, the clock didn’t work.’’
‘’Well, well, can’t miss the breakfast time!’’
Share the same mother, Pipp would fast as lighting if she became anxious, so the same thing happened as she dressed up and make-up, while her elder sister was slower than her now.
Zipp wasn’t good at being an elegant pony princess, she would rather be an adventurer.
Ta Ta Ta Ta ~
Two pony rushed down the stairs, straight towards the dining table, only to find the daily breakfast wasn’t in its place.
So as the guards.
‘’Why don’t we——’’ The sisters looked at each other, laughed, ‘’help ourselves?’’
‘’I know where the box is, follow me!’’ Zipp said proudly, can’t wait to have a big meal on the first day of the new year.
With Zipp leading the way, no wonder they found the fridge so quickly. And they successfully robbed the whole fridge.
Fridge gasped, frozen air steadily breathed out, as if some worms had eaten its whole body. But the‘’worms’’just closed it without hesitation.
‘’Where is mom?’’ Pipp managed to swallow the chocolate inside her mouth, burped, then she started to think about her mother, ’’Work again?’’
‘’Hm, work is better, now we can get around.’’ Zipp gave her a twitched lips.
‘’But…the outside world ……’’
‘’You seared?‘’ Zipp winked, ‘’Come with me, won’t you?’’
‘’NO, NO!’’ Pipp‘s attitude was tough, ‘’Mom said the pony outside were not friendly!’’
Sure, royals shouldn’t contact common ponies directly, especially the fact that they couldn’t fly either, mustn’t be found by them, or the credibility of the whole royal will collapse. Queen Heaven realized this point at an early stage, so she never allowed her princesses to contact with outside ponies.
But today, one of her princesses was really to sneak outside, after all, she has been doing this for a long time.
‘’Well I guess I shall go on my own!’’ Zipp ran with the wind, soon disappeared at the end of the passageway.
‘’Mom, you should really mind your elder daughter…’’ With one hoof on the forehead, she tended to pass out, but nopony would keep her from the ground, so in the end she didn’t lose her consciousness.
Pipp grew up in the castle, she knew where she could find her mom.
Zipp ran back to her bedroom, dived into the sea of clothes, managed to draw out one, the one that was not so shiny compared to others.
She put up the clothes, dressed like an ordinary young pegasus, then ran out, removed a painting. There was a long tunnel behind it. She wormed in, and put the painting back, like nopony had been here.
Zipp smiled, disappeared in the tunnel.
While Zipp was sneaking away, Pipp finally found her mother.
Ding~Ding~Ding~
The telephone was like a pot of boiling water, noisy, and had been noising since midnight.This was the sound Zipp heard before she fell asleep.
‘’Yes, this is Heaven.’’ Another life-taking call was picked up by Queen Heaven, eyebrow twisted, ‘’Yes, sir, I can understand how you feel, a hundred years bill is unacceptable.We will make up for you.’’
‘’Yes, OK, sir, what’s your name again?’’ Heaven gave her forehead a knock, frowning. With black rims around her eyes, she almost became a panda.
Heaven turned her head on one side, clamped the telephone with head and shoulder, so she could free her hoofs. One hoof took the pen, the other one held the notebook, she started to write something.
Words filled the page, which blurred Pipp.
Queen Heaven turned her head again, the face of staying all night frightened the younger daughter.
She ended the call in a hurry and managed to give out a smile.
‘’Honey, you awake…’’
‘’Mom, Zipp sneaked away again!‘’ What a good sister, betrayed the elder one so quickly!
‘’Again? At this time——’’ What a shock to a tired mother, that she passed out on her chair after a scream.
‘’Mom?’’ Pipp could hardly know why her mom could fall asleep so quickly, but she did know that whenever the telephone rang, mom would pick it up.
What a coincidence, the telephone rings now, so the small pegasus picked it up, just like what her mom always does.
There was an anxious voice in the telephone.
‘’Your highness! Wrongs are everywhere. What should we do?We need orders!’’
‘’Who are you?’’
‘’I’m the captain of the guards——Oh my! It’s princess Pipp! Good girl, where’s your mom?’’
‘‘Ah…’’ Pipp glanced at her sleeping mother, ‘’She is sleeping.’’
‘’Sleeping?! Of course……she has been working for so long……good girl, please don’t go away, and watch your mom, we will send grands.’’
‘’OK.’’ Pipp ended the conversation by putting the telephone back to its place, having no idea what things were going on.
The captain threw the telephone down, with his dry eyes, two guards were called back to the castle.
However, the two guards were blocked by the ID system, their ID cards couldn’t be recognized, so they couldn’t enter the elevator.
‘’Dammit, the system is shut down!’’
‘’Well if anything happens to the queen and princesses, we——’’
‘’Hey,’‘ A normal young pegasus came from aside, disturbing the guards, and certainly it was Zipp, ‘’ Why don’t you just choose another way?’’
‘’Kid, we are doing an important task, so don’t bother us!’’
‘’But there are stairs, or you can just hike. Why do you have to take the lift on earth?’’
‘’Well……’’ The guards looked at each other, wordless. They always take the elevator, and didn’t mind the stairs, because they were for non-royal workers.
‘’Damm……to the stairs, quick!’’ One of the guards rushed towards the stairs on the side of the castle, with dust followed him.
‘’Thank you, kid.’’ The other guard thanked at least, and caught up with his colleague.
Zipp stepped forward, soon she saw the captain of the guards, who had been staying up since midnight. He was angry with an engineer pony who was circling around the equipment.
‘’Can you fix it or can’t you fix it?’’
‘’How many times I said? It is the millennium bug! It takes time!’’
‘’What millennium bug? Monster? Well I say we should attack it!’’
‘’It’s not a monster, it is a bug!’’
‘’It’s a bug, sure, so why don’t we attack it?’’
‘’It’s a program failure! Those pony, who designed the computer, didn’t take the millennium problem into consideration, so this crap couldn’t recognize the new year. Instead of entering it, their clock just simply went straight back for a hundred years when they passed midnight.’’
‘’Ha, so we were travelled back in time, aren’t we?’’
‘’Not ‘we’, but ‘them’! Even your grandpa was not born before a hundred years ago, of course they couldn’t recognize you!’’
‘’If, you are now back a thousand years, well you tell them Zephyr Heights belongs to Queen Heaven, guess who will believe you? None!’’
‘’But now it’s only a hundred years!’’
‘’I…I can’t say anything now, just don’t bother me please!’’
After all, he has been staying up all night, and has reached his limit. Nonsense was understandable.
The bank on the road side has been locked down. Ponies crowded, hoofs straight with necks, they wanted to get something portable. But the machine couldn’t recognize their cards either. Of course, even the ATM wasn’t born before a hundred years ago, so did the credit cards.
There was a pony sitting by the roadside, crying. It turned out that she had to pay a hundred year bill for a single call. This expensive call happened at midnight, the time she talked to her boyfriend. But she can’t give a call now, her phone service has been stopped because of an overdue bill. She couldn’t pay the bill either, because the system was failed. She was worrying about her boyfriend.
While somepony was sad, another one was delighted. He just applied for ordinary insurance before midnight. Now, one hundred years have been added by the company, enough for his lifespan.
Some ponies were in a complex mood. The tram they used to take didn’t show up, they were going to miss the work time, but it seems that they didn’t need to clock in a hundred years ago……
One pony had a quarrel with his driver, because he had to pay one more bit than usual, while the driver believed his meter……
No more rolling advertising slogans, they all become some repeating weird characters now……
Those fireworks, which should be set off at midnight, are still stuck in the launcher, they thought they should be set off after one hundred years……
What a messy world!
Zipp thought.
So she turned her head and walked back.
However, all speakers in the Zephyr Heights suddenly made a sound. Maybe royal speaker system doesn’t have its clock, or maybe someone has fixed it……It doesn’t matter, what really matter was a familiar voice quickly surrounded the whole Zephyr Heights.
‘’Citizens, this is Queen Heaven…’’
Heaven’s voice still mixed with some tiredness though she has been sleeping for a while.
‘‘Sorry for bringing you s~o much trouble. I have been working the whole night, and have been dealing with your question~s. Our work still needs time, stay safe and be aware please.’’
‘’Well next,’’ Queen Haven was glad, ’’Princess Pipp Petals want to tell you something.’’
‘’Is it on?’’
‘’Yes, honey, just speak.’’
‘’Ah……well, can’t you just stop……for a little while?’’
Sweet voice was like a cosy breeze, covered the Zephyr Heights, and brought it with peace and silence.
Received the princess’ order, the captain just stopped and simply fell down and asleep.
Ponies who wanted to squeeze into the bank for money stopped.
She stopped crying.
Pony who had long-term insurance stopped laughing.
Workers stopped their struggling thinking.
The driver and the passenger stopped quarreling.
Weird characters stopped rolling.
The stuck fireworks were still stopped, or stuck in other words.
Stop, stop.
It just a normal day, the first day of the new year, not a time traveling disaster, nor a fore-sign of an extinction.
Just, some machine went wrong, and thought they were back to the past. How could ponies act as machines?
Machine couldn’t find their own fault, run in the wrong direction.
Ponies could, they could stop and rest, change their mind, then step towards tomorrow.
Zephyr Heights stopped, like a losing spring.
‘’One more thing.’’ Pipp suddenly became serious.
Spring tighten.
‘’Zipp Storm, mom ask you to go home for a meal!’’
Everyone burst into laugher.
Cigarette and coffee, bugs and repairing. Many hoofs make light work. Engineer finally updated the database and fixed the bug before midnight.
Pony was made up.
Captain sleeping well.
Guards finally learnt the benefits of using stairs, it can strength their body, as same as hiking.
The bank reopened, but no one wanted cash furiously now.
The girl found the boy safely.
Those who were late were not fined, but those ponies who used the millennium bug as an excuse and didn’t go to work? Sorry, still were fined.
The driver decided to offer the passenger a less-one bit service.
Weird characters became order words.
Fireworks still stuck in the launcher.
But this midnight, they will be set off.
Another midnight came, it was a delayed year-leaping night, but most of the ponies would like to have it again, because there won’t be more millennium bug at this time.
Another countdown began after twenty-four hours.
Five
Four
Three
Two
One
BANG!
‘’BANG!’’ Zipp shouted cheerfully, lost her princess’s behavior, ‘’WU HU! New year!’’
Zephyr Heights now become a vivid city. What were on the screens were thousands of fireworks, flying, they enlightened the night sky. Electronic firecrackers provided sounds and generated no pollution.
A new year has come.
But this time, Zephyr Heights wasn’t on fire.