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Pipp took a deep breath, before slipping her phone back into her easily accessible front pocket on her left saddlebag.
"Alright, it's up. Now to just... Wait, and hope," Pipp commented.
The royal family had flown most of the way along with Zoom and Thunder, but once Pipp got a signal on her phone to begin the apology video's upload, they descended to the ground to continue at a slower pace.
Pipp remembered what Zipp had told her after their escape from Zephyr Heights a few days ago.
'Look, once we get our magic back, the whole kingdom will be so excited they won't even remember what happened back there. You'll be a hero, Pipp.'
Seeing as how they just recorded and uploaded a video that reminded everypony of 'what happened back there', Zipp didn't look quite as confident as she did when she had first said them. All three of them were undoubtedly nervous, and they knew why; because no matter what they said, how they said it, and how unrehearsed it was, the pegasi of Zephyr Heights still had every single right to be livid at them.
The cityscape of their hometown loomed in the distance, and they'd likely be able to spot pegasi in the sky if it wasn't for the heavy cloud cover which was pretty common most days this time of year. As they began to make their way up the mountain path, they saw an airborne pegasus pass overhead, and were pretty sure they spotted them down on the ground, because they saw the pony do a 180 and zip back into the city.
"Did they spot us?" Pipp asked.
"Does it really matter?" Zipp asked in return.
Pipp took another deep breath, and the group continued on their way up the path. As they closed in on the final turn before the gates, they definitely heard chatter you would expect from a large crowd, and sure enough, when they rounded the bend to the main gates, there was hordes of pegasi in the streets, and dozens upon dozens of eyes immediately laid upon the royal family and their two escorts.
Zipp winced as the voices grew to shouting, and she heard pounding hoof steps so great that she felt the ground vibrate. Certain that they were about to be trampled, she did a double take as nothing happened, her sister tapped her on the back, and the white pegasus realized that her eyes had been closed. She opened them, and they immediately widened in surprise.
They weren't shouting. Well, not exactly. They were cheering. And the pounding hooves wasn't a galloping stampede, but cheering. Smiles slowly grew on the three royal faces as habit slowly returned to their minds, and they began to wave as they stood just inside the gateway of Zephyr Heights. They stood on ceremony like that for a few moments until they were approached by a pair of ponies that they were all too familiar with; Dazzle and Skye, ZBS's most popular reporters, along with a camerapony.
"Greetings to everypony who was understandably unable to join the immense crowds out here in the west gates of Zephyr Heights," Dazzle began. "The moment you've all been waiting for is here; our royal family has come home!"
Cheers once again erupted from the surrounding crowd, and the reporters paused to let them get it out, before they quieted down once again.
"That's right, Dazzle," Sky said. "They uploaded an apology video for all of us just minutes ago, and we can now tell them, face to face, that it wasn't needed. Queen Haven, Princesses Zephyrina and Pipp..."
Both reporters turned to the trio of royals.
"What you did was wrong, but you returned something to the pegasi that we had lost for generations, and when we stopped to think about it, that absolutely more than makes up for your actions. Your Majesty, you were really quite impeccable at managing the day-to-day operations of our city, so to answer your proposal in the video, the Zephyr Heights City Council has voted unanimously to welcome you back."
Haven's expression was clearly touched, which brought on another wave of cheers from the citizens of their city.
"So what do you say?" Dazzle asked.
Haven took one last look at her daughters, only to get soft nods from them, and she turned back to Sky and Dazzle, and gave them, and the surrounding ponies a nod of confirmation.
The streets of Zephyr Heights cheered again, and a good amount of the ponies were clearly prepared with streamers and confetti poppers, some even taking to the sky before releasing them, and Haven winced as she saw a couple collisions as the airborne celebrators weren't watching where they were going. The pairs faltered before clumsily coming back down ot the ground.
"Yeah, to say we need some help would be an understatement," Skye commented. "Princesses, we know you two are going to be headed back to Maretime Bay to move in with your new friends, but we'd love to plan you a proper send-off as you're getting ready to leave. It's the least we can do."
Pipp was truly taken aback. Here they had taken the time and trouble of putting together that heartfelt apology video, and Zephyr Heights was so elated with getting their flight back that they were already asking what they could do for them before they left.
Fighting back tears, Pipp merely nodded in thanks, and Zipp took a step forward.
"I know it won't take long for me to pack, so maybe I could give some pointers on how to fly safely. I've only been practicing gliding most of my life. But that right there is why we're going to need to spread out to the surrounding area, because we're all going to need space to practice, to lower the risk of us hurting each other by knocking into each other in midair. Pipp and I will be here a few days at the very least, so I'll go through some of my material and see what I can come up with, but honestly, it probably won't be much. Gliding is just falling slowly with style, when it comes to flight, I'm just as new to it as you all are."
Dazzle smiled at her.
"I'm sure we'll take whatever help you can give us. Welcome home, royal family!"