//------------------------------//
// Ain't Nothin' but a Heartache. 
// Story: Rebirth of Magic: Find your Voice 
// by JimmyHook19 
//------------------------------//

Sure enough, I entered Hoofington's through the front door, as that was where most ponies entered. After a short pause to familiarize myself with the store layout, I headed to the new items section, to see what was in stock and trending. After all, I spent most of my time as an influencer. It made sense that I learn what was big in the world, and the only way to do that was to look at shelves and similar.

The interior of the store was similar to other buildings I had been inside. The walls were white, presumably to help ward off the heat, and there was gold lining on many objects. The walls were also populated with some metal plates. I could only assume this building had been built before air conditioning was built, so the design was presumably to ward off any heat. It wasn't that hot in this place, as we were pretty high up, but still the cool air was greatly appreciated.

I made my way through the aisles, looking at various different things. The stands had a lot of new shoes on display, in addition to the usual ranges of sunwear and some suntan lotion. If ponies have fur, why do they need stuff like sunblock? It didn't make much sense to me.

I spotted a familiar looking set of sunglasses nearby. They were the black, square rimmed sets we had in our collections! And it seemed that was a known fact. As worn by Princess Pipp Petals! said the text box below, with an image of me modelling them as I stood there.

Sure looks like royalty and celebrity culture around here are meshed very tightly. I checked my phone, and noticed the time. I trotted onwards looking through the store, finding myself amongst more clothes, scarves, and hats. A lot of hats.

Well, with all the sun they probably get through a lot of hats. Come to think of it, I can't think of any case where I've seen it rain around here. No wonder we grow all our food artificially in large greenhouses.

I glanced about for some more clues as to what was popular. I had looked at my subscriber count and noticed most of my followers were fillies and colts, so I figured I would head to the place I would be most likely to find such ponies.

As I made my way through, easy listening jazz music flowed over the speakers. I don't know enough about jazz to identify different genres too well, so you'll need to ask Jazz for specifics. She's a stylist from Maretime Bay. Really nice pony when you get to know her.

I continued onwards into the store, soon finding what I was looking for. Up ahead was a shop section which largely focused on toys and popular media. This would help me connect with Pippsqueaks a bit more. After all, I am young at heart, right? Always a good thing if you ask me.

I went in, and saw most of the stuff was based around popular franchises that were big in Zephyr Heights. There was stuff from Mission: Impossible, a few items from what looked like a pony version of Transformers, and on one wall Power Ponies! Power Ponies had somehow survived the fall? I dashed over to take a look. To my disappointment all of them were pegasi in this version. Seeing as unicorns and earth ponies were our enemies I knew why all of them were pegasi, but to see the franchise like this showed how things had changed. Presumably this was some sort of reboot.

I also found some Daring Do merch. Nice to see that had survived, although I suspect heavily edited from Yearling's original. It made sense they'd turn up here. Gillian Berrow wrote both the Daring Do books and the movie, after all.

It was while I was glancing about I suddenly heard a voice. "It's Princess Pipp!"

I backed up to give the kid a bit more room. "Hi! I'm just seeing what's popular with my followers! Gotta stay up to date, right?"

The kid seemed to be in awe that his idol was in front of him, and he dashed over to me. I dropped back to my haunches so I could take him in a hug. It's OK, I'm CRB checked!

Soon after, his father came round the corner. "Astral, what did I tell you about run-"

He trailed off as he saw the scene, with plenty of colts and fillies crowded around me. "Oh! Your Highness! I wasn't expecting to see you here. Please do excuse my interruption."

"It's fine," I replied. "There's nothing I love more than spending time with my fans. Then there's manicures, spooky stories, and selfies!" I switched my streaming gear on. "That is right guys, I'm here, live from Hoofington's with my fans, the Pippsqueaks! This goes out to all of you, because you guys give so much meaning and purpose to my life!"

Just then, I got a message in my inbox. "Queen Haven and Princess Zephyrina sighted at museum cafeteria?" I took a quick look, and saw a video of Mom and Zipp in the museum, whilst the crowd cheered. They were really excited to see them, it seems.

After a short pause, I continued with the impromptu meet and greet. It was during this session I came to a critical realisation.

I wasn't born Pipp, as you know. I had lived a rather bland life in the middle of nowhere, the sort of person nopony would have thought to look at. And now, here I was, living the high life of luxury as part of the ruling family of an entire nation. This meant that I was in good standing with my fans.

Not only that, I was loving every second of it. So much so, I wasn't certain I wanted to risk it. I'd had to get used to being female, of course, but once I'd gotten over that I was loving this. If asked if I wanted to go back to the old world, I'd probably have said no.





After a while, I got a notification that mom and Zipp had returned to the palace. So I did to, with the sky transport I took arriving only a few moments after theirs did. There was an organ playing for some reason. I was unable to catch up before they went their separate ways, so I decided to follow Zipp down the path she was taking. I had very strong suspicions as to where she was from, so I needed something conclusive to answer my questions. I went along behind her, keeping a plausible distance from her, and watching her move. We shuffled past the prison cells (which were currently empty), and then into another corridor where a gold panel looked slightly out of place. Zipp slid it out of place and dropped down inside before continuing downwards.

I waited a bit, and heard a pulley system engaging as Zipp rode the basket down to the bottom of the chamber. I needed to find another way down there, so looked inside the panel and spotted some ladders, presumably part of an old maintenance system for the room.

I dropped onto that and slowly made my way down the steps, climbing slowly to avoid slipping and chipping my hooves. Luckily, Zipp seemed to be preoccupied. I looked round and stopped, seeing her staring intently at a chalkboard covered in numbers and equations. So this was where she was trying to figure out how to fly! What a strange thing to try if she was indeed who I thought she was.

I slowly trotted over, trying to make as little noise as possible as I approached the target location. Zipp was waging her own battle, with numbers moving across the board at speed. She really was a determined scholar if she was concentrating so intently on what she was doing. Then again, she took the whole thing of no flying incredibly seriously, which I understood. After all, it's like if an athlete is rendered unable to run through means beyond their control. They'll go to any lengths to be able to run again and figure out a solution to the challenge.

I stopped for a moment as she seemed to glance round, sticking to the shadows as she continued writing. After a while, she seemed to be finished, with her expression shifting from one of confusion and frustration to one of excitement. "Yeah!" she said, punching the air in triumph. "That's how you figure it out!"

Moments later, I decided to speak up. I trotted up behind her and spoke up. "Zipp? What are you doing down here?"

I could tell she wasn't expecting visitors, as she wheeled around in complete shock and surprise. "Pipp? What are you doing down here? How do you know where my workshop is?"

I sighed as I stepped forward. "I have a secret to tell..."