//------------------------------// // Escape // Story: Unicorn Attack! // by milesprower06 //------------------------------// Zipp watched her mom's expression carefully "If it's such a big part of ruling like you claim, then let me see for myself. Just until you get back with your curler," Zipp reasoned convincingly. The silence hung in the room for only a moment, before Haven appeared convinced. 'Well, if you have to start somewhere..." Haven said, taking her crown lightly in her hooves, turning it around, then stepped forward and placed it on her daughter's head, her styled mane poking perfectly up between the wings of the crystal. Haven smiled gently at her. "But just until I get back. I'll be just a moment, darling." With that, Queen Haven opened the door and stepped out into the hall. Knowing she wouldn't be able to keep track of how far away her hoofsteps were due to the gathering crowds down below, Zipp knew this was her one and only chance. She went over to the makeup station and took the crown off of her head, not even taking the time to see how it actually looked in the mirror. She gave it a quick look before grabbing the hoof file resting near the edge, and stuck it in between the crystal and the base of the crown, before twisting gently but forcefully. It didn't take much before the turquoise crystal popped off. Quickly grabbing the empty saddlebags on the floor beside the makeup table, she strapped them on, and dropped the crystal inside the right pocket before snapping it shut and bounding over to the door. She knew she only had maybe a minute at most. She turned the doorknob as quietly as she could, leaned out to take a quick look to make sure the coast was clear, then stepped out into the hall, before shutting the door and trotted as quickly as she could over to the tower window. She unlatched it, pushed it open, and hesitated for just a moment. There would be no turning back from this. She had left the crown in plain view on the makeup table, sans crystal. She probably had just enough time to go back to the room and continue trying to stomach keeping the royal secret, or get enough of a head start out the window to get back to the unicorn and two earth ponies, and get to the bottom of what had happened to everypony's magic. The internal hesitation didn't last long. She had come this far because she was absolutely sick of things as they were. She was tired of propping up a lie. Ponies deserved better. Ponies deserved the truth. With one more deep breath, she heard the door of her mom's dressing room open, and she stepped onto the windowsill, and jumped off, gently kicking the window shut as best she could, spreading her wings and going into a glide before gravity took full effect over her body. Because the population of Zephyr Heights weren't capable of getting airborne, there were absolutely no external patrols she would have to worry about. If she was absolutely on point, she could glide right into the abandoned airship station. She would need a favorable wind for a part of her trip around the castle to reach it. If not, she would likely have no choice but to land in the street and hopefully find an isolated sewer entrance, because getting back into the castle from the outside would be absolutely impossible. Time was absolutely of the essence, because she was fairly certain that Pipp was aware of her hideout, and the white pegasus was fairly certain that her little sister's show wasn't going to go on once word of this heist got out in what would surely be just a few moments. She hoped her new friends had taken some time to rest, because they were going to have to get a considerable distance away from Zephyr Heights before they stopped for the night. The gliding pegasus breathed a sigh of relief when she caught her first updraft, letting her gain precious meters of altitude in the sky as she made her way around the castle's outer circumference. She nearly faltered in her path when she heard the castle's alarms begin to go off. Now nailing the correct flight path was even more important. She had drilled castle lockdowns before; nopony in or out. If she didn't make the station, her only hope would be waiting for them at the bottom, and even then she didn't want to leave that kind of path for guards to follow. She kept her breathing calm and steady to minimize any unexpected or nervous movements; maximized distance was key here. A few more seconds of rounding the bend, and she saw the open entryway of the abandoned station. Waiting until the last moment to be absolutely sure she was going to make it, she leaned into a hard left, and glided through the entryway, her hooves nearly skidding on the floor. She glanced around and saw... Nopony. She glanced back towards the window and saw the rope still coiled in a pile in the bottom left corner. "Sunny? Izzy? Hitch?" She called, the castle's alarms muffled from the long-sealed doors on the far wall. She heard a creaking sound, and looked over to see the grate down to the sewers inch up above the ground, and saw a pair of eyes on her, before it popped up, and first up came the stallion earth pony, followed by the earth and unicorn mares. "We heard the alarms start to go off and weren't sure what to do," Sunny told her. "We figured it would be best to wait around for you a bit before climbing out the window." Zipp nodded affirmatively with a smile. "Well, that's where we're going, right now. I've got the crystal, and we don't have long, come on." Zipp trotted over to the coiled rope, picked it up in her front hooves, and tossed it over the edge, the other end staying hooked into the wall. "Rappel down as fast as you can, and give it some hard jiggles when you're down, so I can send the next one, and detach it when the last of you is down, and glide down to join you," Zipp instructed. "Time to put that Filly Scouts experience to good use..." Sunny said, being the first to grab the rope and step over the edge, gripping the rope with her front hooves and placing her back hooves on the outer wall. "See you at the bottom," Sunny said, then kicked off the wall, and let her front hooves slide down the wall. She repeated the motion several times, until Zipp couldn't make her out against the darkening sky. After watching the taut rope for nearly a minute, the pegasus saw the rope loosen just a bit, and then wiggle slightly. "Izzy, you're next," Zipp said, hearing muffled galloping hooves on the other side of the walls. As she never had done any rappelling in her fillyhood, she held the rope a bit tighter, but knew they were short on time, so quickly began to walk down the wall with her back hooves. With the different method, her descent took longer, and after nearly two minutes, the rope loosened from taut, and wiggled a bit at the top. "You're up, Sheriff," Zipp told Hitch, before their attention was pulled away from the window by a loud slam from the other side of the wall, as if it had been hit by a sledgehammer. A repeat of the noise made Zipp guess that's precisely what was happening. "I hope you're faster than she was. Go!" Zipp told him. With that, Hitch was over the wall, and used his slightly heavier weight to speed his descent. After another minute, the rope jiggled the last time, and Zipp pulled it up just a bit before unlatching it from the wall. With the end in her right hoof, she spread her wings, took one last look back at the sealed wall that was undoubtedly being pounded on, before leaping over the window, and spreading her wings, rapidly descending into the mountains.