“Izzy! What did you do?”
Pipp’s eyes went wide, her jaw dropped in a way that seemed to be unhinged. The color of her face seemed to have drained.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Me and Sparky were playing, and things gotten out of hand.”
The pink Pegasus seemed to be in a kind of trance; eyes seemed to have glazed over. The world around her was becoming mumbled.
“Are you okay? Is Sparkeroni okay?” The ponies continued their conversation, but they just became muted to the young princess’ pony ears. The Crystal Brighthouse was a mess. Lamps were broken, the tv was busted, and everything seemed to have been burnt by dragon fire. It was unknown how just one unicorn and a baby dragon could have done so much damage. But, right now, those questions weren’t on Pipp’s mind.
Hitch held onto Sparky as Izzy was conversing with the Pegasus’ older sister, Zipp, and the earth pony, Sunny, as they tried to find the underlying cause of things and try to figure a way to fix them like always. But Pipp didn’t care about their conversation, she didn’t care about their home being in a mess, all she cared about was the item on the floor. The pink pony’s foreleg instinctively pushed herself forward, her mind was in disbelief at what she was looking at. “…”
The three types of ponies continued their conversation. It seemed like things were calming down and they were finally coming to the same conclusion. They had decided that all of them would fix the Crystal Brighthouse, their home, and they would make a day of it. It was decided that this was something that would bring all of them closer together as friends. They decided that-
“IZZY, WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO!”
The four ponies heads instantly snapped towards the fifth pony in the room as their eyes seemed to nearly pop out of their skulls.
“WHAT DID YOU FUCKING DO!” Pipp barked at the unicorn. The group of four were in total shock. None of them had even seen the diva pony get this mad before, it was like looking at a snarling dog ready to tear at her friend’s neck.
On reflex, Izzy took a step back. “I-I’m sorry, P-Pipp. I’m sorry.” she tried to defend herself.
“No!” Pipped stomped her hoof. “You don’t get to say that!!!” she barked. “YOU DON’T GET TO SAY YOU’RE FUCKING SORRY!” tears welled up in her eyes as she screamed.
“Hey, come on now, Pipp.” Hitch, the town’s sheriff, tried to step in. “It’s just a little mess. We’ll get this place cleaned up real nice and it will be just as good as new.”
“I DON’T CARE ABOUT THIS MESS!” Pipp stomped her front hoofs in frustration. “SHE BROKE IT! SHE BROKE IT!” she shouted looking down at the mess down around her ankles.
“Sis, what are you talking about?” Zipp spoke up. “Whatever it is I’m sure we can-“but as she followed her sister’s line of sight her eyes went wide. “Oh no…”
“SHE BROKE MY PHONE!” Pipp screamed. As she said, around her hoofs, was what remained of a shattered phone broken way beyond repair. The young Pegasus’ cellphone was so unrecognizable that not even a puzzle expert could put those pieces back together. “SHE BROKE MY FUCKING PHONE!”
“H-hey, hey!” Sunny came to the defense of her unicorn friend. “It’s okay, Pipp. It’s okay. We’ll get you a new one. I’m sure your Pipsqueaks will understand-“
“Shut up, Sunny!” Pipp snarled at the earth pony. “YOU do NOT get to defend HER! This is NOT OKAY!”
Izzy was beginning to freak out. “I-I’m sorry, Pipp. I REALLY didn’t mean to break your phone.” She feared if things continued to move the way as they were, something bad was going to happen.
“SHUT UP!” Pipp barked.
“Pipp, you gotta calm down.” Hitch tried his best to calm his friend.
“YOU STAY OUT OF THIS!” the pink Pegasus screamed.
Zipp looked at the mess around her sister’s hoofs. “M-maybe… Maybe we can fix this. Maybe the memory card is still intact. If we can find it…”
Pipp’s eyes sparked open. The young Pegasus quickly dropped to the floor and started to dig through the jigsaw that was the young mare’s cellphone. The others watched as Pipp searched frantically for something that was like a needle in a haystack.
“I-I…” Izzy tried to speak up, “M-maybe I can help. I can-“
-But it was Zipp this time that caused the young unicorn to shut her mouth. The older Pegasus sister shot the young mare a look that said, “Don’t you say a damn thing!”
“… P-Pipp?” Sunny stepped forward to the young Pegasus.
The young Pegasus stopped searching. Her shoulders sank and her ears drooped. Her expression was like that of someone that had lost the will to live.
“S-Sis?” Zipp stepped closer to her little sister.
The Pegasus princess brought her hoofs to her face, her eyes welling up. “It’s gone.” In her hoofs she held onto the only three pieces of the memory card that she could find. These pieces were split and cracked. There was no way they could be usable. “It’s gone, Zipp.” Tears started to fall down the sides of the young mare’s face. “It’s ALL GONE!”
Zipp took a step forward, eyes empathetic towards her sister’s loss. “…Pipp…” she walked over towards the young sibling and wrapped a wing around her sister’s back to comfort her. “I’m so sorry, Pipp.”
“It’s gone, Zipp. It’s gone.” Pipp’s voice was muffled as she started to cry into her sister’s white coat. “It’s gone. It’s ALL gone.”
“shh~” Zipp spoke as if she was speaking to a crying foal. “It’s okay, Pipp. It’s okay.” She spoke trying to comfort her baby sister.
“It’s gone…it’s gone… It’s ALL gone.” Pipp continued to cry.
“It’s okay. It’s okay.” Zipp continued to attempt to calm her sister.
“P-Pipp…” Sunny Starscout stepped forward trying to get closer to her friend. “I’m really, REALLY, sorry about your phone. I’m sure we can get this fixed. We can get you a new one and we can-“
-Zipp’s free wing shot up in front of Sunny, blocking her from getting closer to her sister. Sunny hesitantly looked at the older Pegasus sister. Zipp eyed the earth pony. She just shook her head as if to tell her “No, this isn’t the time.” Sunny lowered her head in defeat.
The white Pegasus looked back over at her sister. “Hey, Pipp.” She spoke as if talking to a little foal. “Why don’t we go upstairs and get some rest. We’ll be able to think of something later.”
“…” Pipp said nothing, only just nodded.
“That’s a good girl.”
The two of them started to move, Zipp never letting go of her sister. Pipp said nothing and only followed her older sister’s steps. The two of them headed up the steps.
“PIPP!” a voice called after the two ponies. “I’M SORRY! I REALLY AM SORRY.”
The young pink Pegasus stopped in her tracks. She turned her head to look over her sister’s wing and looked over at the purple unicorn. Eyes swollen red, hair a disheveled mess, her coat stained in her own tears. It was clear from one look that the young mare did not want to speak to the unicorn. Then she opened her mouth. “…I HATE you, Izzy.” She said.
Those words cut Izzy worst than all the yelling did. After everything that happened between the group of friends it seemed like it was over for real this time. The unicorn tried to speak, but despite having a mouth she couldn’t say anything.
“Come on, Pipp.” Zipp motioned for her sister. “Let’s get some rest.”
Pipp said nothing. She just turned her head forward – turning her back on a pony she had once called a friend. The silence was more than anything that the young Pegasus could ever say.
“Sis,” Zipp spoke as she kept pace with her younger sister. “I’ll call mom later, okay?” She looked down at Pipp. “We’ll have her send all the videos and pictures she has to your new phone. And I’ll send you everything that I have on my phone as well. We’ll get this fixed. Don’t you worry about it.”
“…” Pipp simply shook her head in defeat. “It’s not the same, Zipp. I had so many that I made and took myself. Those were all mine. Those were all I had. And now they are all gone.” Her eyes had seemed to glaze over.
“…” Zipp wanted to speak but she couldn’t find the right words. The two sisters just walked in silence. The other three ponies watched on as the two Pegasus sisters left the room.
Silence filled the room. Izzy was at a loss of words. The young unicorn looked around at the others as if she were trying to find a kind of moral guidance. She looked over at her oldest friend “…S-Sunny?”
Sunny Starscout pulled her eyes away from the stairs and looked at her unicorn friend, and then she turned back to the stairs. “Izzy, I…I…I…” Sunny had fought for years to end the misunderstanding between the earth ponies, the Pegasus, and the unicorn races, but this? This was different. This was true hatred. This wasn’t something she could manage. She turned to look at her friend, a defeated look in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Izzy.” She lowered her head and turned her back on her friend as she started to walk out of the room.
“S-Sunny?” Izzy watched as her friend walked out on her when she needed her the most. She watched as the Earth Pony slumped into the kitchen. She watched as everyone left her alone.
Another pony stepped up right next to the unicorn. Izzy looked up at Hitch as if she were looking for guidance.
Hitch’s eyes watched as Sunny disappeared around the corner, his eyes trailed up the stairway where the two Pegasus sisters had left. Then the colt spoke “I…don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know why this is happening.” He said looking down at the unicorn next to him. “But you really did mess up, Izzy.” He didn’t hide it; he simply spoke the truth to his friend.
Izzy’s heart sank. Hitch, along with a sleeping Sparky, started to move out of the room. Izzy watched as her the last of her moral support finally left her in silence.
“Pipp…Zipp…Sunny…Hitch…” tears started to well up in the unicorn’s eyes. “Please…don’t leave me…” she begged but was greeted by silence. She didn’t want to be alone. She didn’t want to be friendless like she was back then. She didn’t want to return to that time before she found Sunny’s letter. She cried silently.
After a moment of tears falling down the side of her face, Izzy’s gaze started to trail down to the floor. Her eyes fell upon the mess that was Pipp’s phone. She walked over towards it and started to study it.
The phone was destroyed. It was clearly beyond repair. No amount of unicycling was going to fix this. This was beyond her magic. She couldn’t fix this. She couldn’t fix their friendship.
Then something clicked in the back of Izzy’s mind. She couldn’t fix it. But in all actuality, she knew somepony that could. Well, someone. Well…some…things.
Her horn shined brightly. she quickly grabbed up all the pieces of the cellphone, careful not to miss a single part. She gathered everything up she can as she ran for the Crystal Brighthouse’s front door.
Hours passed…
Hours passed and Pipp found herself laying still in her own bed. Despite what the clock said, Pipp knew she had only gotten barely an hour of rest since she and her sister had come upstairs. In fact, her sister was no longer by her side – it had seemed as though Zipp had left once she was certain that her little sister had fallen asleep. Pipp didn’t mind being alone. She didn’t want to deal with anyone. She had wasted all her energy crying and now she just wanted to be left alone.
Hitch and Sunny tried to visit her, but they didn’t stay long. It wasn’t like Pipp was mad at those two, they didn’t do anything wrong, it was that she just didn’t want to speak to anypony.
Pipp laid silently on her tear-stained pillow. She was certain that her pipsqueaks realized that that night’s livestreaming was cancelled. In fact, Pipp had even just thought about quitting her online personality all together. She no longer had the desire to sing anymore.
Not like it matters anymore, Pipp thought to herself. It isn’t like you are here to listen to me.
-Knock, knock, knock-
A knocking came at the door. Pipp didn’t know who it was. It could have been Hitch, it could have been Sunny, it could have been her sister. Right now, Pipp just didn’t care.
-knock, knock, knock-
“…” the young Pegasus’ mouth was too dry to speak, but she tried anyway. “… come in.” she spoke in a deflated tone.
The door opened. Pipp had her back facing the door, so she didn’t know who it was walking in. All know was she heard the clopping against the floor as somepony was coming to her direction. Without turning her body, Pipp turned her gaze to the pony that stood at the foot of her bed. It was the one pony that Pipp didn’t want to see.
“Hey, Pipp.” Izzy spoke softly as she stood silently by the other mare’s bed.
Pipp wanted to scream. She wanted to yell. She wanted to throw the unicorn out of their shared bedroom. But she didn’t have the energy – so she did the only thing she could do. “…what!?” she asked.
Izzy was silent at first, as if trying to figure out the best way to approach the conversation. But she finally spoke. “I brought you something.”
Pipp rolled her eyes at the unicorn pony. “Whatever it is…I don’t want it. I don’t want anything that you have.”
Izzy looked at the Pegasus with a defeated look in her eye. “Pipp, please. It’s something I really want to give you.”
The young princess just stared the unicorn in the eye. “Why?”
The unicorn answered hopefully, “Because we’re friends.”
Pipp tried to glare at Izzy with what little strength she could muster. “We aren’t friends anymore.” She stated. “We will NEVER be friends EVER again.”
Izzy’s shoulders slouched and her head lowered in defeat. She squeezed her eyes tightly as if she were trying to fight back tears. Then the unicorn nodded in understatement. “Okay.” She said as she sat down beside the bed and her horn started to glow with magic.
Pipp stared at the unicorn as she saw something started to levitate from behind her. She watched as she placed it down beside her. Without moving her body, she looked at the present – she recognized it instantly. She then turned to look up back at Izzy. “That isn’t how it works.” She stated.
“Please, Pipp.” Izzy begged, pleading with the Pegasus to just give it a shot.
Pipp rolled her eyes. “Just because you buy me a new phone, one that is identical to the one YOU DESTROYED, does not mean I will just forgive you. I could buy a bunch of those easily. This isn’t how it works.” Next to the little Pegasus was a brand-new phone, one, as she mentioned, was very much the same as was broken earlier.
Izzy shook her head. “I didn’t buy you a new one.”
The Pegasus princess raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t?”
The young unicorn hesitated to speak, “I didn’t buy you a new phone.” She continued. “I got yours fixed.”
Pipp raised her head slightly to meet the mare at eye level. “You got my phone fixed.” She cocked an eyebrow.
Izzy nodded.
Pipp eyed the unicorn before turning her attention to the phone next to her. It was true that the phone was eerily familiar to the one that she was using just that morning. She looked back at Izzy eye-to-eye; it didn’t seem that the unicorn was lying.
Pipp shifted her body in her bed and grabbed ahold of her phone. She turned it on and was greeted with the lock screen. She input the passcode. CORRECT. Her phone asked for facial recognition. She was a match. Her screen came to life. There it was. The same wallpaper she always used; the same apps were in all the same places. The email app even had her email logged into and everything.
Pipp turned wide-eyed at Izzy. Izzy just smiled. Then she turned back to her phone. There was just one more thing. She opened the photo/video app and started scrolling. She scrolled past the photos of her concerts, she scrolled past the pictures she took with her fans. She scrolled past her music videos and even the commercials she took. She scrolled past everything that the diva was known for. And then she stopped on a single picture.
It was a single picture of a large gray colt. Pipp’s body moved by itself as her hoof went to cover her mouth. She thought she had already cried all she could earlier, but she could feel her tears start to well up again.
Pipp turned to look Izzy in the eye. “I-Izzy…” the young Pegasus swallowed hard to keep her tears at bay. “H-how d-did you do this? How did you fix my phone?”
Izzy opened her mouth to speak, “…” but she closed it again. She lowered her head to the mare, “I-I had…I-I found someone to fix it.” Please don’t ask where, was what she wanted to add last.
“Wow…” Pipp turned to look away from the unicorn and looked back at her phone. She just stared at the photo on her screen.
The two ponies sat in silence. Then one started to speak. “Pipp…I’m so-“
“I’m sorry, Izzy.” Pipp admitted. “I’m sorry, for everything.”
“…” Izzy closed her mouth. She recognized that this was one of those times that she shouldn’t talk.
“I’m sorry for yelling at you.” The young Pegasus continued. “I’m sorry for getting mad. I’m sorry for everything.”
Izzy listened carefully.
Pipp held the phone in both hoofs. “It’s just, this phone means so much to me. It means everything to me. I just don’t know what I would do without it.”
Izzy nodded. “It’s okay. I understand.”
“I’m really sorry, Izzy.”
“I’m sorry too, Pipp.” Now it was Izzy’s turn to speak. “I should have been more careful with your stuff. It’s my fault that I got you so mad in the first place. It’s my fault that this happened. Can you forgive me?”
Pipp looked at the picture on her phone before wiping the tears away from her cheek. “Of course.” She answered. “Can you forgive me?” she looked at the unicorn with a pleading gaze.
Izzy smiled deeply. “Of course.” She stated as if there was no question to it. Then she looked at the Pegasus. “Are we friends?”
Pipp smiled, “The best of friends.” Then the two of them reached out and wrapped a hoof around one another in a warm embrace. Old Equestria text used to state that a hug was always the best after mending one’s friendship.
Izzy pulled away from her friend. “Pipp, do you want to go downstairs and get something to eat?”
Pipp smiled but then shook her head. “Thanks, but no thanks.” She answered. “I’m still a little worn out and I just want to get some rest.” She said reassuringly to her friend.
Izzy nodded, “Okay.” She said softly. “Then I’ll see you later?” She turned her body as she was heading towards the door.
The Pegasus nodded. “Yes. I’ll see you later.” She reaffirmed. Pipp watched as her friend went for the door and left the room. Pipp smiled softly as she laid her head back down on her pillow.
She laid there for a moment before bringing the phone back to her face and looked back at the photo of the large gray colt. She smiled. “I’m so glad to have you back.” She spoke to the large Pegasus in the picture.
Pipp laid there in bed as she scrolled through her photo app. There were a lot of pictures of this elder colt. There was some in formal wear, there was some in casual wear. There were those where he was at a fancy party, there was there where he was relaxing at a beach. There were pictures of the colt taken from eye level, and there were those from somepony that was smaller than him. There were pictures where he was by himself, and there were those where he was with a mare and two little fillies.
Pipp smiled from the nostalgic images as she came across a video. She tapped play with her hoof.
The video came to life as the camera was being carried by somepony that was at knee height. “Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!” a voice called from behind the camera, a voice that Pipp was all too familiar with. And then suddenly He appeared.
It was like seeing a fairytale come to life. The large gray colt that was in those pictures was just standing right in front of the camera. Pipp could feel her eyes well up again.
“What is it sweetie?” Pipp savored that moment hearing the Pegasus’ voice.
“Daddy, I made a song. Do you want to hear it?” the pony behind the camera spoke.
The large colt smiled, “OF COURSE!” it was a warm smile.
Pipp watched as the camera was set up on a tripod. It was set up in a way so that both the Pegasus on the sofa and the pony behind the camera could go to her stage.
A little pink filly jumped up on her makeshift stage, greeted with a roaring applause from the audience of one. “FILLIES AND GENTLECOLTS!” Pipp recognized the little filly anywhere. It was her. She was probably four at the time.
She listened to her younger self sing a song. It was the same song that she would debut to the world with. This would have been the first time she ever sang for an audience. This was a song that was meant for only one pony in the entire world. Pipp could feel tears run down the side of her face.
The song ended and the sound of roaring applause came from the single audience. The colt ran up from his seat and went to the small filly.
“You did really, REALLY, great. I’m so proud of you, Pipp.”
Pipp in the present found herself crying as she watched the memories from her past play out before her. She watched herself jump into the wings of the Pegasus that had passed away a long time ago.
“I LOVE YOU, DADDY!”
“I love you too, My little Pipsqueak!”