//------------------------------// // Of Two Sisters // Story: Legends Never Die: The Search For Sunny // by bookhorse125 //------------------------------// As days passed, Zipp continued to grow more and more frustrated. They weren’t making any progress. They hadn’t found much in Maretime Bay, other than the fact that Sunny’s lighthouse had been completely trashed, and that the Elements of Harmony were really, truly gone, along with the three unity crystals that Sunny, Izzy, Zipp, Pipp, and Hitch had worked so hard to find and put together. That fact alone was enough to make Zipp angry - somepony was stealing all of their hard work, the symbol of all they had been through together. They knew that somepony with magic had to have been behind the theft, and given the fact that Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow had both recruited Permafrost and Sour Lavender and knew spells and ancient magic that other unicorns may not get their hooves on for years, it wasn’t a stretch to assume that they were capable of something like that. Without being able to go into town to talk to the other ponies, they could only guess what had happened - it was clear nopony had been around. Flurry would occasionally leave via the Hall of Princesses to return - cautiously - to the Castle of the Two Sisters to search the ancient spell books for anything like what they were seeing. She hadn’t found anything yet. Being so close to Maretime Bay - and seeing Phyllis return the day after them - was clearly hard on Sprout, so the former deputy set to learning how to make his own pizza, which resulted in several failed attempts that only made him more determined to perfect his own recipe. Izzy offered to help, and between the two of them, you couldn’t enter the kitchen without your mouth immediately watering. Hitch once said that Sprout should open his own pizza restaurant, and the stallion looked like he seriously considered the idea. So then Izzy helped him turn Sunny’s kitchen into a mock restaurant, and Pipp and Hitch would impersonate a different pony every time they went to order pizza. Hitch would occasionally sneak out of the lighthouse and into the town, under heavy disguise (this meant a mustache, a pair of wings, and a fancy wig Izzy fashioned) to hear what the news was and to get supplies when they needed it. Izzy had insisted that they clean up Sunny’s lighthouse, and Hitch had agreed, but that didn’t take long, so they decided to stay for a couple days while they planned their next move. And as they were traitors to Equestria at this point, they couldn’t leave the lighthouse or let anypony know that they were there. Which gave Zipp time to look at the book she had taken from the Castle of the Two Sisters. There didn’t seem to be any life-changing clues about the Guardians of Harmony or Ancient Equestria or anything like that, but she still found it interesting. “Zipp?” Her head snapped up and turned to see Pipp standing on the lift. “Hi?” “What are you doing?” “Just… reading,” Zipp said, closing the book and sliding it under her wing as her sister approached. “Why?” Pipp worlessly pointed behind her, and Zipp turned to see that it was dark out - like, completely dark. The only light came from Sunny’s lantern that projected glowing pictures of earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns on the glass walls of the top of the lighthouse. “Sorry,” the pegasus said bashfully, standing up. “I… didn’t realize it was so late.” “You’ve been up here for hours,” Pipp told her, sliding over a plate with a piece of cold pizza that Sprout had made earlier that day. “You missed dinner, and everypony else is asleep.” “How long did it take you to realize I was up here?” Zipp asked between bites of pizza. “Not that long,” Pipp assured her arily. “Izzy saw that the light was on upstairs, and I convinced everypony to go to bed - they’re exhausted.” She said it like she wasn’t, but Zipp could see the dark circles under her eyes and the way her sister swayed ever so slightly like she was about to collapse. She nudged her. “We all are.” Zipp slid away the empty paper plate, looked out the window at the stars, and sighed. “It really is beautiful, isn’t it?” “I know, right?” Pipp grinned, but her hoof didn’t automatically gravitate towards her phone like Zipp thought it would. “We never see stars like these in Zephyr Heights. It’s kind of nice to be away from the city for a while.” “What?” Zipp’s jaw dropped in mock shock. “Breaking news, highly popular Princess Pipp Petals reveals that she enjoys being away from the city and her hundreds of adoring fans! What will be next - will she admit that it might be time to take a break from her phone and enjoy life as it is?” Pipp shoved her, and they laughed. Zipp reached behind her to turn the lamp off so they could see the stars better, and Pipp laid her head on her sister’s shoulder. “Remember the first time Mom took us flying?” Pipp asked, and Zipp shrugged. “You were so excited because you thought it would be actual flying, and when you realized it was all fake, you made the absolute most hilarious grumpy face I have ever seen. I only wish I got a picture.” “I don’t,” Zipp shuddered, “because then you would use it to torture me every second of every day and I would never hear the end of it.” She paused and turned to her sister. “You would do that, and you know it.” “Maybe,” Pipp admitted, grinning. They were silent for a while until Zipp sighed and plucked up the courage to say something she really needed to tell her sister. “Pipp… at the Castle of the Two Sisters. I’m… I’m sorry I didn’t believe you when you said that it was a trap. I just… I wanted to find her so bad that I forgot everything else. I… I feel like it’s my fault that we lost her. If we had just been honest, maybe we could have held out a little longer… enough to find help. I grew up lying to my entire kingdom and I hated it, but now I’ve lied to one of my best friends. I really just want to keep you safe, but I feel like I’m doing a horrible job.” Zipp lowered her head, and Pipp put her hoof on her sister’s shoulder. “You’re doing an amazing job,” she told her. “Between you and Hitch and Sprout, and me, of course, we’re practically invincible. And it’s not your fault that we lost Sunny - it’s those awful villains’ fault, and we’re going to make them sorry they even considered the idea. You were just doing the best we could with the situation. I mean, sure you could have opened your mind to more ideas, but we all have our flaws. We’re not meant to get rid of them, but work around them. And besides, I don’t care if you turned evil and tried to take over the world - you’ll still be the best big sister I’ve ever had.” “I’m the only big sister you’ve ever had,” Zipp reminded her. Pipp shrugged. “Still the best. Unless, of course, you think you’re not?” Zipp whacked her with her wing, and the two laughed and hugged. Pipp’s wing brushed against something, and she broke away to see what it was. “What’s this?” “Just… something I found in the Castle of the Two Sisters,” Zipp mumbled, feeling strangely embarrassed. “I think it was written by the ponies who lived there.” “And they were sisters,” Pipp said. It wasn’t a question, but Zipp still nodded. “What’s it about?” Zipp shrugged. “Just their everyday life. It talks about their castle - did you know that there’s a Hall of Hooves?” Her sister shuddered. “I’m glad we don’t have anything like that - it sounds frightening.” “Or… do we?” Zipp tapped her chin. “Perhaps if we went exploring we would step in the wrong place and activate a trap slide that would transport us to a hidden cellar underneath the castle where Mom keeps the trophies of all the ponies who figured out our flying was fake-” She cut herself off, snickering at Pipp’s horrified expression. “I have a sinking feeling like that would be something Mom would do, and it is not comforting.” “I just found it interesting,” Zipp said. “There’s not much in there that could help us, but… I don’t know, I think it’s cool.” Pipp flipped through the book, asking, “Did they ever fight?” “A lot,” Zipp laughed, “and one of them ended with the younger sister turning to darkness and forcing the older sister to imprison her in the moon for a thousand years. I hope that none of our fights get that bad.” “Would you imprison me in the moon?” Pipp asked seriously. “What? No,” Zipp protested, then caught Pipp’s look. “W-well maybe, if you - you know - if you needed to be, but if I had a choice, then-” She stopped as the younger pegasus began snickering. “Oh, fantastic, you’ve got a sense of humor.” “Were you worried I didn’t?” Pipp placed her hoof over her heart, looking hurt, though her eyes gleamed mischeviously. “Well, I was worried you left it back in Zephyr Heights, we left so quickly, and you brought so much other stuff,” Zipp conceded, but Pipp fell silent at the mention of their hometown. “I miss it,” she whispered. “I know it wasn’t your favorite place in the world, but… I mean, Zephyr Heights was the only home I’ve ever known, and now that we’re… out here, and I see that there’s so much more to life… It makes me feel so small. And alone. I miss the comfort of having a home, a somewhat normal life, ponies who loved me…” Her eyes flitted from the stars above them to the floor. “I miss Mom.” Zipp wrapped her arm around her sister and pulled her in. “I miss her, too,” she confessed. “But I don’t have to miss her that hard - I have you.” She wrapped her wings around Pipp. “And I promise that I would never, ever, not in a thousand years, banish you to the moon.” A slightly hysterical laugh escaped from Pipp. “I think you still would.” “Maybe.” Zipp squeezed her sister tighter. “But if I do, I will have a very good reason for doing so, though I will have to restrain myself whenever you pack your canopy bed for a camping trip.” “Promise you’ll always be there for me?” She didn’t usually like to make promises - it was far too easy for circumstances to come up in which they would need to be broken. But this was one she knew she would be able to keep. “I promise.” “Thanks, sis.” Pipp yawned. “I love you.” Zipp nudged her sister gently with her muzzle. “I love you, too. Always have, always will. Even when you’re insufferably annoying with your phone.” Pipp let out a quiet laugh and leaned into her sister, her heavy eyes closing as she fell asleep. Zipp barely managed to stifle a huge yawn before she, too, felt her eyes shutting and her body lowering to the floor. And that was where the other ponies found them the next morning - two pegasi royal siblings curled up together on the floor, an open book next to them, fast asleep.