As always, the first thing Pipp Petals did when she woke up in the morning was check her phone.
It wasn’t her fault, per say. It was just a kind of habit that she had fallen into because of her mother’s expectations. Ever since Pipp had shown the world her talents, Haven had wanted her to keep up a charade of a perfect social media pop star, which required copious amounts of time spent on her phone. So the first thing she did once her eyes opened was to check and see if any new notifications came.
This time, though, she wasn’t focusing on the thousands of likes and comments her many fans were posting on her newest video. Instead, she was looking at different news websites from earth ponies and unicorns as well as pegasi. She wasn’t entirely sure why; until a few weeks ago she didn’t care about what was going on outside her own kingdom. But she felt that she owed it to her new friends, and she wanted to know what was happening elsewhere. There might be hints at a new rebellion threatening to overthrow the monarchy and plunge everypony back into paranoia and mistrust.
Not that something like that had ever happened before.
Pipp sighed and wished Maretime Bay and Bridlewood would get cell phones sooner. Maretime Bay was supposed to install their cellular towers in less than a week, but the unicorns still needed convincing. They were still marveling over movies in theaters - Alphabittle didn’t think they were quite ready for phones yet.
But how were they supposed to know if they didn’t try?
Once she was done checking her phone, pulling a brush through her hair to make it look all nice and pretty, and sending a quick good morning message to her Pippsqueaks, she proceeded to pull out her journal and work on they lyrics to her new song, which she wanted to be about how everypony could get along, but she hadn’t come up with any promising lyrics yet. Just keep trying, I guess, she thought ruefully as she held the pen between her teeth, studying what she had already written.
The morning was unusually quiet, which surprised the younger princess of Zephyr Heights. Usually Zipp would be up at the crack of dawn to crash down the hallway like an elephant with no respect for beauty sleep to go fly. Pipp always woke up nowadays to her sister’s whoops and delighted yells as she soared past her window, doing flips and twists and moves that she doubted anypony else would be able to do for another year.
Pipp sighed and put her pen down, flopping across her bed in defeat. Usually, the words would just come, but not now. Not when she was thinking about her sister. They never came when she was thinking about her sister.
“Very nice, darling,” said a voice, and Pipp jumped, leaping into the air and flapping her wings a little too late. She crashed into her pile of pillows and spit out a mouthful of feathers, turning to look at the spot where the voice was coming from, and her eyes widened in shock. A unicorn was staring at her journal, reading the few words written there with an appraising look. Her pale white coat reminded Pipp of her sister’s, but her curly purple mane reminded her of her own.
“H-how did you get in here?” Pipp stammered. “And who are you? And how did you get in here, mostly?”
The unicorn shrugged. “I don’t even try to understand how it all works, darling, but I’m sure Twilight will have a lengthy speech planned with absolutely everything I need to know about spirits and the Spirit of Harmony and how they all interact and how I’m here right now, but I’d rather not listen. Don’t get me wrong, I love my friends, but at some times, they can be a bit… over the top. And my name is Rarity.”
Pipp blinked. She had no idea what the unicorn was talking about, but her explanation didn’t help at all. “I’m sorry, what?”
“You might want to make these lyrics rhyme a bit more,” Rarity commented, oblivious to Pipp’s concerns, still studying the song. “I guess they would do all right in an actual song, but…”
“I’m trying to go for a new approach,” Pipp protested. “Words that don’t completely rhyme, or alternatively rhyme… like poetry. I haven’t hit anything good yet, though.” She sighed defeatedly and her head flopped back on the bed. Rarity looked alarmed.
“Oh, darling, I didn’t mean to criticize you! I’m sure that whatever you come up with will be lovely,” she said encouragingly. Pipp grunted disapprovingly.
“Whatever. I’ll just… go have breakfast now. You can… go back to wherever you came from.”
“Oh, I will,” Rarity said cheerfully, following Pipp out the door. “I just have a few things I need to discuss with you first.”
“Discuss with me? Look, I don’t know who you are, but unless you’ve got some kind of record deal for me, you should either be talking to my mother or my sister. Trust me, the only thing I’m good for is music. And-”
“Uh, Your Majesty? Are you… feeling alright?”
Pipp’s head snapped up so fast she almost broke her neck. A green pegasus was looking at her strangely, his head tilted to one side so that the sunlight coming in through the window caught on his silver armor. Her eyes flicked to the unicorn beside her, and, for the first time, noticed that she seemed to be… there, but not there. She didn’t have a shadow, seemed to be slightly transparent, and glowed in the sunlight like… no, she was made out of sparkles.
He must not be able to see her, Pipp thought to herself. “Um, I’m fine, Thunder,” she said, plastering a smile on her face. “Just a little tired, is all. I was going over the lyrics to my new song in my head, and I must have said some out loud… Now, if you’ll excuse me, I hear a nice breakfast calling my name…”
She gently slipped past her guard, who was still giving her a concerned look, and Rarity followed. Pipp couldn’t help but feel a stab of annoyance. Having this pony around was going to make everypony think she was insane!
Maybe she was insane, if she was seeing and talking to mysterious ponies who she had never seen before.
“Come on,” she snapped, jerking her head at a door that she knew led to a broom closet. Once inside, she whirled around to face the unicorn, who was glowing and filling the small space with a calm white light. “Let me get one thing straight,” Pipp hissed. “Who are you, and what do you want with me? Whatever it is, let’s just get it over with, okay? Would that be too much to ask?”
Rarity was silent, instead looking around the closet. “You sure know this place really well,” she commented.
Pipp was taken aback. “Um… yeah. I basically know the entire layout of the castle and the city like the back of my hoof. I had a lot of… alone time when I was younger.”
“Really?” Rarity asked curiously. “Why?”
Pipp hesitated. This wasn’t exactly something she liked talking about… especially not to strange ponies she didn’t even know. “I’m not heir to the throne like Zipp is,” she began. “My mom… never really paid much attention to me. It was all ‘Zephyrina this’ and ‘Zephyrina that’. Zipp didn’t seem to care. In fact, I think she even resented all the attention. I don’t know why. I would have loved that. But since my own mother didn’t care much about my existence, and my sister focused more on ways to escape from palace life and rarely confided in me, I just kind of… hung out around town, made maps of the castle. I would sometimes hide in my room for hours on end, waiting for my mom to notice, but she never did.” She blinked back tears, recalling the painful memories. “It was only because of some of the guards that I didn’t end up starving myself.”
“What about your father?” the unicorn asked, then, seeing Pipp’s expression, hastily added, “Never mind! I was just… never mind.”
“No, no, it’s okay.” Pipp sighed. “He… Mom never really talks about him much, but I think… he left. My mom sent out guards into the city to find him, and they did a really thorough job, but they eventually returned with no avail.” She shuddered as she recalled crouching outside her mother’s bedroom door with her sister, their wings wrapped around each other, wishing they could go in and comfort her. “Zipp thinks that he didn’t like faking flying, and that’s why he left.”
She squared her shoulders. “It doesn’t matter. Now I have most of Mother’s attention. I have fans and Pippsqueaks, and now real friends. Childhood memories are irrelevant.”
“Maybe so,” Rarity conceded, “but have you ever wondered if other ponies felt the same way you did? You aren’t the only pony in this world with problems. Trust me, I’ve had to learn that lesson the hard way. You say you have followers?” Pipp nodded. “Then why don’t you use that leadership to change some things for the better? Give a little away, be a little… generous.”
Somewhere deep inside Pipp, she really wanted to follow the unicorn’s advice. All her life, she’d thought she wasn’t good for anything. Then her mother loved her for singing songs, and she refused to be bad at that. But it didn’t really feel that it was changing anything, making any difference, not like Pipp wanted. She thought of all her feelings of loneliness, heartbreak, despair. If there were others who felt like that… she wanted to help them. She sighed and looked into Rarity’s deep blue eyes. “Okay,” she relented. “How do I start?”
The citizens of Zephyr Heights must have been very confused why their social media princess was going from shop to shop, store to store, and approaching average citizens who looked like they were struggling and asking them if they needed help with anything. Though it confused quite a few ponies, it also relieved others. It was nice to see their royal family actually doing something.
Pipp would walk into a bakery, ask to see the manager (politely), and ask them if they were having any problems with their shop. The manager would then stutter, look a bit confused, and then ramble off a list of things that he was struggling to afford, were in short supply, or were substitutes for things he couldn’t get. Thunder, who was trailing Pipp and helping out while also ensuring her safety, would then make a note, and they would leave, moving on to the next shop, and so on down the street.
Rarity didn’t make any moves to help, but she followed the duo and beamed at every stop they made. The irritated feeling Pipp had been feeling that morning had vanished completely, replaced by a growing excitement for what she was about to do. She had never been a very ambitious pony, and this was very ambitious, so it was very exciting.
She didn’t stop with just asking ponies what their problems were, though. Once she passed a restaurant and saw a mare struggling with a young filly, who was wailing and screaming. Other ponies were giving the two earth ponies dirty looks.
“What’s wrong?” Pipp asked, approaching them.
The mare was too flustered to even register who Pipp was at first. She blew her mane out of her face and said, “He wants ice cream, but I just can’t afford something like that. I’ve been struggling to find a job, I’m barely able to pay rent, and it’s his birthday, so I wanted to take him out somewhere special… Uh, Your Majesty,” she added, her eyes flicking to Thunder behind the pegasus and bending her hooves in a hasty bow.
“Oh, please, don’t bother with formalities,” Pipp insisted, forming an idea in her head. “Is there any particular job you’re looking for?”
She looked shocked that royalty was asking her, a lowly earth pony, about her personal job preferences. “Uh… really anywhere that’ll take me, Your Majesty. Though I will admit that I am quite skilled with taking care of kids… unless it’s my own.” She threw a teasingly dirty look at her foal.
“What’s your name?”
“Fizzle Spark, Your Majesty.”
Pipp turned to Thunder. “Don’t some of the palace staff have foals of their own?” she asked, and the green pegasus nodded. “They would need somewhere to keep them, and somepony to watch them, I suppose,” the princess mused. “Fizzle Spark, I will talk to my mother about your job crisis. In the meantime-” she reached under her wing and pulled out a small sack of bits, which she gently tossed to the mare. “For his ice cream,” she explained, unable to help grinning at her shocked look.
“Th-thank you, Your Majesty,” Fizzle Spark stammered, whispered something to her young filly, who stopped crying and smiled.
As Pipp and Thunder continued down the busy Zephyr Heights street, the princess turned to Rarity, who was walking behind them.
“Aren’t you going to help?” she asked in a teasing voice.
“You’re doing fine on your own,” the unicorn said, her voice growing fainter. “In fact, I do believe that it is time for me to go…”
“W-what? No, wait!” Pipp wrung her hooves, looking around frantically, but unable to find any solution. “Don’t go! I-I have so much left to show you! And do! H-how will I know if I’m doing this right? What if I need your help? Please, just don’t go.”
“I thought you wanted to wrap this up quickly,” she said, sounding like she was yelling at her from across the ocean. “That’s what you said, right?”
“I-I didn’t mean it,” Pipp whimpered. “Don’t leave me.”
“If you want to be generous to me,” the unicorn whispered, almost inaudible, “be generous to others. That will be enough.” She closed her eyes and vanished.
Tears welled in Pipp’s eyes, and she quickly wiped them away. She ignored the strange look that Thunder gave her and marched back to the palace, intent on her mission.
Queen Haven, Zipp, and Hitch were standing in the throne room, talking fervently while Cloudpuff flew around above them. He yipped when Pipp entered the room, and everypony looked at her.
“Oh, thank hoofness you’re alright!” Haven exclaimed, running up to her youngest daughter and pulling her into a hug. “I was worried something had happened to you!”
“I love you, Mom,” Pipp rushed. She felt like she had never before said those words when they held actual meaning. Haven’s hug tightened.
“I love you, too, sweetie,” she said. “Now, will you please tell me why you disappeared into thin air first thing in the morning? I almost thought a unicorn captured you or something!”
“I’m fine, I just had a few errands to run,” Pipp explained. “Now, is it okay if I put on a show tonight? I want to hold a fundraiser for the citizens of Zephyr Heights who need help financially, and I was thinking I could start with something like that.”
“You want to help other ponies beside yourself?” Zipp asked incredulously, but when Pipp glared at her, there was a teasing look in her eyes. When had that started?
“Do you have a song written?” Haven asked as Pipp turned to talk to Thunder and a few of the other guards.
“Nope,” Pipp said cheerfully. “Good lyrics come from the mind…” She turned to grin at the other ponies’ astounded expressions. “But everypony knows that the best ones come from the heart.”