“I’m the heir of the Zephyr Heights throne. Bow down before me!”
Those were words Zipp had never wanted to ever come out of her mouth. But under the influence of Misty’s necklace, she lost control of herself and said things she had always thought she’d never say.
After the incident, and the necklace was destroyed, everypony had a good laugh about what had happened and went back to their ordinary lives. Everypony that is except for Zipp. That event had frightened her in a way she never thought possible, and left behind unpleasant thoughts that kept increasing. The pegasus princess soon found herself doing things that she didn’t think she’d ever do, much less of her own free will.
It all seemed to start not long after they had gotten back to the Brighthouse after saying goodbye to Misty. The five friends were cleaning up the mess they made while under the effect of the necklace’s evil. Zipp was currently picking up items around the couch when the noticed something on the floor. Picking it up, she recognized it as the crown she wore when possessed.
She looked at the object with interest. She didn’t know where she got this from, but it did look pretty good on her when she thought she was Queen Zipp. Queen Zipp. That would be her one day when the time came. The highest authority in all of Zephyr Heights. Ponies would obey her to the word, kneeling whenever they so much as glanced at her. Actually, she would be the highest authority in all of Equestria. All Maretime Bay had as a leader was Hitch as Sheriff, and Bridlewood basically had none aside from the owner of a tea shop. Neither compared to the title of Queen. Surely ponies wouldn’t object is she moved her rule a bit beyond Zephyr Height’s borders.
Izzy noticed Zipp stopped cleaning and was about to ask her what was she doing when she suddenly stopped. Something felt different about Zipp. Outwardly she didn’t seem any different than normal. But there was something about her sparkle that was different. It wasn’t as bright as it used to be.
The unicorn continued giving a concerned look when Zipp finally noticed she was being stared at and looked at Izzy. “What?” She asked.
Her tone frightened Izzy and she immediately began backing away. “Oh, uh, it’s nothing.” She quickly said before going back to cleaning up her destroyed crafts. Zipp watched her leave and then just shrugged before getting back to her own work, but not before stashing the crown away.
She started really noticing her change in behavior when she found herself looking at the Unity Crystals more and more. While not as obsessed as she was when they were glitching, she found herself coming up to where they were and inspecting them for hours on end. She couldn’t help but think about how all the magic that ponies used came from those three beautiful crystals. How Twilight Sparkle had created them to supposedly keep magic away from an evil pony who tried to take it all for herself. An evil pony possibly still around to this day plotting their next move.
It made the mare wonder, how exactly would they go about taking the magic? Could it be something so simple that anypony could do? Like, say, a pegasus? And what would happen if they did? How much power would they have? Could they become an alicorn?
“Zipp?” Hearing her name made Zipp come to a sudden stop of her ogling as she turned around and saw Sunny standing behind her. “What are you doing?”
Her question made Zipp slightly panic. Not because she was afraid of being caught, but because she came to the sudden realization of her recent thoughts. “O-oh, I-I-I-it’s nothing.” She quickly stammered to assure her friend. “Just…..making sure the crystals are safe. You know? Don’t want any more glitches happening at random and ponies falling out of the sky. Whoo! That would be bad.” She blurted out before flying off, leaving a confused Sunny behind.
Had that been all, Zipp probably wouldn’t have worried too much. But that was just the start of her turmoil.
Her next big change came when she was with Hitch at the station, helping him with his podcast. She was currently holding Sparky, keeping him out of getting into too much trouble while his father spoke about another case.
Zipp couldn’t help but admire watching Hitch at work. The stallion’s dedication to not just his job but to his friends and family was something she found almost attractive about the sheriff. And that wasn’t even taking into account his toned muscles and his firm flank. Once more, she found herself wondering again. She is going to be Queen of Zephyr Heights some day. And every queen needed a king.
“And that’s all for now. This is Sheriff Hitch Trailblazer signing off.” Hitch said to the microphone as he ended the podcast.
Hearing that, Zipp’s smile increased as she got up and put down Sparky. “That was some fine work there, Sheriff.” She complimented him as she approached him with half-lidded eyes. “All that hard work must be exhausting.”
“Yeah, well, somepony has to get it done, as they say.” Hitch replied.
Zipp’s smirk increased as she leaned up against Hitch. “You know, I have the just perfect idea on how we can take care of that stress. Just the two of us. Right here. Right now.”
Hitch immediately caught on and blushed madly at both Zipp pressing up against him and her suggestive tone. “Z-Zipp, let’s think for a moment here.” He tried to reason with her as she leaned in more. “Sparky’s here for ponies sake. Think about what you’re suggesting we subjugate him to!”
His brief shout seemed to get through to Zipp as her eyes widened and she quickly backed away from Hitch like she was burned. “Hitch, I’m so sorry. I just……..I…..” Zipp couldn’t find the words to explain herself and quickly bolted out the door, taking flight as soon as she could.
“Zipp, wait!” Hitch tried to call out to her but was too late as she was already long gone. As he looked up at the sky with concern, Sparky, sensing his distress, walked up to his father and hugged his foreleg, making soft coos in an effort to calm him. Hitch smiled at the baby dragon and picked him up before looking at the sky again. “I don’t know what’s going on with her either, Sparky. Whatever it is, it can’t be good.”
Despite what it looked like, that wasn’t when things reached their worse. Sure she now was avoiding Hitch as much as she could, and was also staying away from any mirrors to keep the image of herself with red eyes, a crown, and a horrifying evil smile from appearing, but that was nothing compared to what she was about to experience.
It was at night. All of the Brighthouse’s residents were sound asleep in their beds. Well, three out of four were sound asleep. Zipp couldn’t fall asleep. She hadn’t been able to for nights now. Nopony knew this, as she was able to get herself cups of coffee before they woke up. But until that time came, all she could do now was just stare at the ceiling while listening to the snores of her friends and sister.
“Sister.” Zipp rolled herself over and looked directly at the pink pegasus sleeping in the bed next to hers. She looked absolutely peaceful as she slept. Zipp didn’t know what she was dreaming about, but the large smile on her face meant that it was something pleasant.
Zipp frowned at the thought. ”Look at her. No doubt she’s dreaming about how one day she’ll be Queen and rule over Zephyr Heights. And why wouldn’t she think that? She is Mom’s favorite. Of course she’d give Pipp the throne. The throne that belongs to me!” Zipp got out of bed and quietly walked over to where Pipp was. She looked down upon her sister with a frown on her face. ”Even if she doesn’t take the throne from me immediately, she could still do it. Her fans contain almost every pony in Equestria. All she needs to do is start posting her campaign against me, and ponies will be flocking to her side by the dozens. I’ll have to make sure that never happens.” She slowly raised her hooves and began lowering them at her sister.
”It might seem suspicious, but all I have to do is play dumb and those idiots will never realize it was me. Shouldn’t be too hard. These ponies are completely hopeless without my knowledge to guide them.” She smirked triumphantly at the thought of fooling her friends as her hooves made contact with her sister’s neck. ”But first to take care of any possible competition. Who knows? Poor Mother’s heart might become so broken from Pipp’s ‘sudden’ passing that she’ll be unable to rule anymore. Giving me access to all of Equestria.” She was about to apply the force when the sudden realization of what she was doing hit her like she crashed into a brick wall. ”NO!” She hastily backed away as quickly as she could before she fell over in fear.
Surprisingly, the noise she made hadn’t woken up any of her friends. They only continued sleeping, oblivious to the heavy panting coming from Zipp. She couldn’t believe herself. She was about to actually kill Pipp. Her own sister! In cold blood! Her heart felt like it was going to explode while her stomach felt like it was going to make her throw up at any moment.
Zipp tried to slow her heart down by putting her hoof over it, but it did no good. Her breathing just increased as everything she had been doing the last few days had been replaying in her mind like a clip show. Right now her friends knew nothing about what she had been thinking. But they would catch on. She just knew it. And when they did, they would come to her wondering what was wrong like the good friends they were.
“If they get close to me…” Zipp couldn’t finish the sentence as she had made up her mind. “I can’t stay here!” She declared. She wasted no time in running down the stairs and bolting out the front doors. “I have to get somewhere they can’t find me! Somewhere where I can’t hurt them!” She said as she also realized come morning they will know she is gone and begin to search for her, and one way they will do that is by following her tracks.
She immediately got herself airborne and flew as fast as she could. “My wings.” She came to another horrific realization. “They can get me almost anywhere quickly. I can escape to wherever if I encounter trouble. I’ll need to clip them. They’re too dangerous to keep without restraints.” She told herself she would do that the second she felt she was far away enough that she couldn’t hurt anypony.
The question was just how far away was that? Fortunately for the panicking princess, she knew just the place to shelter herself. No, to imprison herself.
As the sun shined into the Brighthouse bedroom the next morning, Pipp was the first to wake up. With a yawn, she removed her sleep mask and got out of bed. She looked over at Izzy and Sunny’s beds and saw that they were still asleep. Looking over to Zipp’s bed, she saw that it was empty. “Weird.” Pipp said with a raised eyebrow. “It isn’t like Zipp to wake up before me.” Shrugging it off, the pink pegasus went downstairs where she expected to find Zipp munching on breakfast already.
But to her surprise, the kitchen was empty. So was the living room, Izzy’s craft area, the critter corner, the entire ground level was devoid of all ponies besides herself. Now she was starting to get concerned. “Zipp?” She called out for her sister, but got no reply. “Zipp!?” She tried again to the same result. “Where could she have gone?”
“Pipp?” A drowsy Sunny asked with a yawn as she and Izzy came down the stairs. “What’s all the shouting for?”
“I was looking for Zipp. She wasn’t asleep so I thought that she was down here.” Pipp explained her situation.
“Makes sense.” Izzy commented before adding. “But I’m pretty sure she just went outside if the open doors are anything to go by.”
Pipp followed Izzy’s pointing hoof and saw that the front doors to the Brighthouse were indeed swung open, indicating some pony had left. At first that filled her with relief before a thought came into her head. ”Wait, why didn’t Zipp close them on her way out?” Pipp knew her sister would not forget something so important like that. She practically was almost as rule crazy as Hitch when it came to locking the doors at night after Sunny’s lantern was stolen.
Suddenly her adrenaline began to spike as her breathing increased heavily. Sunny, seeing her distress, walked over to Pipp and placed a comforting hoof on her shoulder. “Hey, now. I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about.” She assured her.
“Yeah. It’s not like Zipp panicked or something and ran away.” Izzy said, not fully realizing what she just said. Sunny sent the unicorn a glare, but the damage was already done.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!”
Within a few minutes of Pipp’s scream, Hitch came running through the Brighthouse doors. “What happened?!” He hastily asked. “I heard, actually I think all of Maretime Bay, heard Pipp screaming!”
“Zipp! Flew! Gone!” Was all the hyperventilating Pipp could tell him as she breathed into her fifteenth paper bag before it popped and she moved onto the sixteenth.
“Wha?” Hitch could only look on in confusion, unable to piece together what Pipp said.
“She’s trying to say that Zipp ran away last night.” Izzy translated for the sheriff.
“Oh, gotcha.” Hitch calmly nodded in confirmation before the news sunk in. “Wait, Zipp did what?!”
Thinking Hitch didn’t understand what she said, Izzy spoke slower this time. “She. Ran. Away.”
“Yeah, I got that the first time!” Hitch told the unicorn. “Why did she run away?!”
“We don’t know.” Sunny answered, once again comforting Pipp as her hyperventilating now turned into crying. “She seemed fine when we all went to bed last night.”
“I don’t get it.” Pipp choked out between sobs. “Why would she leave us? What did we do to upset her so much? What did I do to upset her?”
Looking at her sobbing friend on the floor, Izzy walked over to her and pulled her into a hug. “There. There. It is not your fault. You did nothing wrong.”
“How would you know?” Pipp asked Izzy, her sobbing making it sound like she was accusing the unicorn of being responsible.
Izzy frowned and looked sadly down at the floor. “Because I was noticing something different was going on with Zipp for a while now.” She admitted.
“What?” Her friends said in unison.
Izzy broke off the hug and stood up on her hooves. “After we got back from destroying Misty’s necklace, I noticed something different in Zipp’s sparkle. It was not the same as it usually was. It didn’t shine that bright. And as days passed it continued on getting darker, full of less light. Like something was messing with her.”
Sunny and Hitch were surprised to hear this, but Pipp was even more so as she glared hatefully at Izzy. “You knew Zipp was struggling with something and didn’t bother doing anything about it?!” She pointed a hoof accusingly at her.
“I thought it was best to leave it alone!” Izzy responded as tears of her own started to form. “I was worried that if I talked to Zipp about her dimming sparkle that she’d get upset with me and that might end up making things worse.” She sniffled. “I didn’t know what to do. I’ve never heard of sparkle’s going dark like that.”
“Going dark.” Sunny repeated, catching the intention of the others, as she thought back to the previous day. “When l saw Zipp with the Unity Crystals, something about her seemed off then, too. She looked captivated by them. Like she was obsessed with them.”
“Obsession?” Hitch said, the focus now shifting to him, as he thought back to what happened at the station. “Something……..happened with me and Zipp when she was helping me with my latest podcast.”
“What do you mean? What happened?” Sunny asked him.
Hitch’s response surprised her as he blushed and looked away. “I’d rather not say it, mostly since I don’t exactly know myself what was going on with her. She just suddenly flew off before we could talk about what happened.”
Judging by the blush, Sunny was able to put together what possibly happened between them. “Have you tried to talk to her about it since then?”
“I have, but she always seemed to find someway to avoid the topic and fly away.” Hitch told her.
“Hmmm.” Sunny put a hoof to her chin as she thought about what happened the day when Zipp’s change in behavior seemed to have started. “If this all started when Misty’s necklace took possession of her-“
She didn’t get to finish her thoughts when Pipp slammed her hooves on the floor furiously. “How dare you!” She scolded Sunny and Hitch. “Zipp would never become the kind of pony you are suggesting! How could you even think of that?!”
“Pipp, calm down!” Sunny tried to assure her friend as she walked over to her. “We weren’t accusing Zipp of doing anything evil!”
“Oh, I know exactly what the two of you were saying!” Pipp shot back as she slapped Sunny’s forehoof away. “You’re thinking that my sister would betray us all just to satisfy her own selfish desires!”
“I-I wasn’t saying that at all!” Sunny said with a hurt expression.
“Girls, stop it!” Hitch said as he and Izzy got in between the two of them. “Now’s not the time to be pointing hooves about whose fault it is that Zipp ran away!” He sternly told them.
“Hitch is right. We got to focus on finding Zipp before something Jinxie happens to her.” Izzy added.
Nodding in agreement, Hitch turned to Pipp, the pony that knew Zipp best. “Pipp, think. Can you think of anywhere your sister may go if she were trying to avoid everypony? Somewhere nopony possibly knows about?”
Pipp thought desperately. The last time Zipp was this upset, she was still in the Brighthouse where they talked about her recent detective work, the concert, and Portrait Day. “I know where she is!” Pipp suddenly realized.
Zipp laid down on the sandy floor of the cave she and Pipp were trapped in during Portrait Day. While it was possibly foolish to hide within Maretime Bay, there was no way anypony would think of looking for her here of all places.
The cave was near pitch black. The tunnel atop that she and Pipp used to escape was now completely covered by a large pile of rocks that she rolled on the hill and sent rolling down, diving in before they covered the hole completely so that no light was coming through the cracks. The normally bright crystals decorating the cave were now dimmed to the point of no shine admitting from them at all.
“This is for the best.” Zipp told herself, wrapping her wings around herself to keep warm. True to her word, the first thing she did once trapped in the cave was remove her wings flight feathers, which wasn’t easy in the dark and without scissors or somepony else to do it, so she couldn’t fly her way out if she changed her mind. Not that Zipp’s mind was changing any time soon.
It was cold in the cave, she was hungry, but Zipp kept telling herself she could not escape no matter what she wanted to do. “I can’t put everypony in danger like that again. Oh, why did I think it was a good idea to take that necklace? I should’ve just destroyed that stupid thing the first chance I had!” She angrily scolded herself, kicking the sand beneath her.
“Oh, don’t go deluding yourself.” Her thoughts countered. ”You know you’ve been thinking those things for a long time, regardless of any outside influences. And why wouldn’t you? You know it all to be true.”
“No! Not like that!” Zipp argued aloud with herself as she felt tears forming in her eyes again. “I don’t want to hurt anypony.” She quietly said as she curled up, possibly to take another nap. “And until I can be sure I won’t, I can’t leave this place. No matter what.”
Suddenly, there was a noise coming from the top of the cave. Zipp stopped crying and looked up. She thought she heard voices coming from atop. She was hoping that they were just curious passerby’s and would leave once they realize that there was no way to get through. But those hopes were dashed when rocks were moved and light started to come into the cave. To make matters worse, she was able to identify the voices above as those of her friends. “No, no, no!” She pleaded as she quickly got onto her feet. “What are you doing here? Leave me in my prison!” She fearfully whispered.
But Zipp should’ve known better. Her friends were not ones to give up easily as more and more light started to shine through. Zipp looked around desperately for a place to hide. If she was lucky, she might be able to throw off their trail and she could keep herself hidden. But she couldn’t find a hiding place. She couldn’t dig a hole and cover it up fast enough, the crystals were transparent so she’d just be appearing on the other side, and it was impossible for her to hold her breath in the pool long enough until they were gone if they planned on searching the cave top to bottom.
Her best bet was to hide behind the rocks near the entrance and hope to whoever that Pipp or Sunny don’t do a fly over. The self exiled princess quickly scampered behind the rocks and lowered herself as much as she could.
The last of the rocks, or at least enough of them, were moved out of the way and her friends came flying down with Izzy and Hitch being carried by Sunny, now in her alicorn form, and Pipp. Zipp held her breath as the earth pony stallion and unicorn were placed on the sand while Sunny and Pipp stayed airborne. “This is where you two were trapped during Portrait Day?” Sunny asked as she looked around.
“Yep.” Pipp responded before frowning. “Though I don’t remember it being this dark and depressing.”
“Yeah. This place has, like, no sparkle to it at all.” Izzy said as she looked at her reflection in one of the crystals, having lit up her horn to give them better light. “Really brings down the mood.”
“Then that only proves my point Zipp has to be here.” Pipp declared, making her sister’s blood freeze. “Zipp?!” She called out to her sister before her friends joined in.
“Zipp!?”
“Zipp?!”
“Zipperdoddle?!”
Hearing her name get called only frightened Zipp more and more. They were getting closer to her hiding spot with every call. And all she could do was try and make herself smaller and smaller with little change.
Finally, her luck ran out as Pipp flew right above her and saw Zipp cowering on the floor. “Zipp!” She exclaimed as she quickly flew down to give her sister the biggest hug she could.
But to Pipp’s surprise, Zipp did not seem to return the enthusiasm. “NO!” She shouted as she ran out of the way in time to dodge Pipp’s embrace.
“Zipp?” Pipp said in confusion with a hurt look on her face as the rest of their friends quickly ran over.
“St-stay away! Please, don’t come any closer. All of you.” Zipp pleaded as she backed away from her friends until she couldn’t anymore.
“Zipp, what’s wrong?” Sunny asked.
“If it’s about you running away, we’re not mad at you.” Hitch assured her. “You don’t have to be afraid of us.”
“I know that. It’s me who you should be afraid of.” Zipp warned them.
“Huh?” The four friends said together before Izzy spoke up. “What are you talking about, Zippy? Why should we be afraid of you?”
“Because I’m a danger to you, Izzy. To all of you.” Zipp said as tears started to fall. “If I stay around you all, I’ll soon lose control of myself and hurt you all. That’s why I need to stay here.”
“In a dark cave with no light, no food, dwindling air, and……” Pipp paused as she noticed the feathers at her feet. She immediately recognized them as Zipp’s and it was only then that she noticed that her sister’s beautiful wings had splotches of red on them and were much shorter. “Oh, my pony. Zipp, you didn’t?!” She pleaded with her sister.
“I had to!” Zipp retorted. “If I could still fly then that just makes it all the easier to harm everypony!”
“So your plan was to trap yourself in a cave with no ways of escape or survival?!” Sunny yelled.
“It wasn’t going to be permanent!” Zipp tried to assure them. “It was only until I started feeling better and I could come back to you all.”
“And when exactly was that going to be?!” Hitch asked. “A few days? A few weeks? A few months?”
“I don’t know!” Zipp cried. “Maybe it would have to be permanent! The important thing is that you all would be safe from me!”
Her friends looked like they were about to say something else but stopped themselves, realizing that yelling at Zipp was only making the situation worse. They had to try a more gentler approach to figure out what was wrong. And Izzy was the best pony for that. “Zipp.” She said quietly. “Is this about your darkened sparkle?” Zipp didn’t say anything this time and only just nodded her head. “Oh, Zipp.” Izzy said sadly with a hoof on her chest. “I’m so sorry. I should’ve talked to you about it. Instead I was scared that-“
“I’d yell at you, call you an idiot, maybe even slap you?” Zipp guessed what Izzy’s response would be. “Don’t worry. You were right. I would’ve done that.”
Hearing that put a shocked and almost horrified look on everpony’s faces. “W-what? Zipp, why would you even think of yourself saying that?” Sunny asked. She wasn’t hurt by this information more so that she was shocked.
“Oh, don’t act all surprised, Sunny. You saw me with the Unity Crystals. You knew I was starting to think things!” Zipp told her. “How they were created to hold all the magic in Equestria. How somepony is trying to take that magic from them. How it might be possible for ANYpony to be able to take all that magic.”
“Zipp, you’re starting to scare me.” Pipp admitted.
Zipp looked her younger sister dead in the eyes. “Good. It should be like that. You and Hitch should be the ones frightened by me most of all.”
“Us?” Hitch said in confusion. “Why would we-“
“I TRIED TO RAPE YOU, HITCH!” Zipp shouted as the dam holding her tears back burst. “YOU CAN’T PUT IT ANY OTHER WAY! I WAS FORCING MYSELF UPON YOU, AND I WAS GOING TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOU!”
Hearing that made Hitch back up in shock, having a hard time comprehending, what he just heard Zipp say. “W-why would you even think of doing that?”
“BECAUSE I CAN’T CONTROL MYSELF ANYMORE! THAT’S WHY!” Zipp shouted so loudly that it echoed off the cave walls for well over a minute. “You’re probably thinking that ‘Oh, this is just something from that necklace. It’s not the real you, Zipp ’ and that I’ve been corrupted somehow even after it was destroyed. Well, YOU’RE WRONG! I’ve always been having thoughts like these! How I am smarter than all of you! Could I possibly become an alicorn myself from the crystals?! Being Hitch’s marefriend and eventually having him as my King! How when I’m Queen ponies will be obeying me without question! How Pipp and I will become enemies!”
“Enemies?” Pipp repeated. “Zipp, I would never-“
“I TRIED TO KILL YOU, PIPP!” Zipp cut her off. There was a deathly silence before Zipp continued. “THAT NIGHT, I WENT OVER TO YOUR BED AND WAS ABOUT TO STRANGLE YOU TO DEATH ALL BECAUSE I KEPT GETTING THE DUMB IDEA THAT YOU WOULD START A CAMPAIGN AGAINST ME WHEN I’M QUEEN SO YOU CAN HAVE THE THRONE FOR YOURSELF BECAUSE YOU’RE MOM’S FAVORITE! IF IT TOOK ME EVEN A SECOND LONGER TO REALIZE WHAT I WAS DOING, YOU WOULDN’T STILL BE ALIVE!”
She looked from Pipp to all of her friends. “TELL ME! DOES THAT SOUND LIKE THE KIND OF THING A SISTER WOULD DO?! THE KIND OF THING A PRINCESS WOULD DO?! THE KIND OF THING ANY DECENT PONY WOULD DO?! NO! IT’S NOT!” She shouted so loud her voice was beginning to hurt so she paused briefly and looked down and into the pool. “Maybe the dark magic had a hoof in making these thoughts become more extreme.” She told them more calmly in a raspy voice as she envisioned her corrupted self in her reflection. “But that doesn’t mean anything when thoughts like these have always been going through my head. You all may have been made opposites of yourselves, but not me. I was showing the real me that day.” She said before collapsing and crying again. “Just make it easy for yourselves and hate me. Leave me here to rot and never think of me as your friend or sister again. It’s better this way.”
Zipp’s friends looked at each other in silence. They didn’t know what to do. Of all the things that could’ve been haunting Zipp, none of them expected something like this. They could only just watch as their friend continued crying, not knowing what to do.
Finally, Pipp stepped forward and approached her sister. Zipp heard her coming and briefly looked up to see Pipp looking down at her before burying her face back into her hooves. She could not look her sister in the face. Not even as she yelled and screamed at her for her betrayal. Not even as she rightfully punched her to the point her own face would be unrecognizable. Not even as she pulled her older sister up and hugged her.
”Wait, what?” Zipp opened her eyes and saw that Pipp had pulled her into a massive hug. “P-Pipp?” She choked through her tears. “Why?”
“Because I trust you, Zipp.” Pipp answered softly. “I know you would never hurt me. You’re my best friend. My family. I could never hate you.”
“B-but-“ Zipp tried to retort before she felt Hitch join in.
“Pipp is right. While it is alarming to hear that you’ve been having these thoughts, I know this isn’t the real you.” He told her. “Also.” He said before he gave her a kiss on the cheek. “I would be lying if I said I haven’t had some….less than appropriate thoughts about you.” He admitted with a blush and Sunny joined in the hug.
“You say that you’re a monster for feeling superior about yourself. Well, if that’s the case then I would also be like that. As the alicorn, especially after getting the mirror, I’ve started to realize how powerful I am compared to everypony else. How I could, like you, have ponies serving my every whim. No matter how hard I try, the thoughts still come to me. And sometimes they do become borderline evil. I’ve considered replacing your mother, Zipp. If you’re a horrible pony for having no control over what you think, then so am I.”
“As am I.” Hitch agreed.
“And me.” Pipp added as Izzy joined in the hug.
“Me as well. You shouldn’t be afraid of admitting things to us, Zipp. Even if they do seem bad, we’ll understand.” The unicorn said.
“You guys.” Zipp quietly said.
“You’re hurting, Zipp. You're hurting bad.” Sunny told her, softly but honestly. “You need help. Professional help.”
“You’ll probably have to go to therapy for a long time if you’ve been like this for so long.” Hitch admitted. “But you won’t be doing it all alone.”
“We want to help you.” Izzy said. “We’ll stand by your side every step of the way. Even if you somehow turn evil, which would never happen in the first place, we’d still want to help you.”
“You’re the best sister I could ask for, Zipp.” Pipp said softly as she nuzzled deep into her sister’s mane. “Please, let us help you. Don’t be afraid of us. Don’t be afraid of yourself. I need you. We all do.”
Hearing her friends vows made Zipp start to tear up again, but this time for a different reason. The white pegasus was feeling very foolish right now. She should’ve known that her friends wouldn’t hate her for this, no matter how messed up it seemed. Looking down in the water, her reflection was back to normal, showing her embraced by her friends. The ponies that would never leave her. “All right. You win.” She said with a smile as tears slid down her cheeks.
Her friends smiled brightly at that, Hitch giving her another kiss on the check that she returned this time. “Come on, everypony!” Sunny beamed. “Let’s spend the day together, just the five of us.”
“I think I’d like that.” Zipp said softly as the group made their way to the exit.
As Sunny began carrying Izzy out, Zipp opened her wings and was about to do the same before Pipp stopped her. “Aren’t you forgetting something.” She reminded her sister, pointing down to the feathers on the floor.
“Oh…..yeah.” Zipp slumped in embarrassment, remembering how she basically handicapped herself in her panic.
“It’s okay.” Pipp assured her as she grabbed Zipp and flew her up. “They’ll grow back.”
“Yeah, in a month at best.” Zipp groaned at the fact of being literally grounded for that long.
“Hey, if you need to go flying, you can always ask me.” Pipp assured her. “This lil’ Peganugget is a lot stronger than she looks, in case you have forgotten.” She bragged.
Zipp smiled and nuzzled her sister’s cheek. “I’ll think about that.”
“Just remember, Zipp. We’re sisters forever. Nothing will change that.” Pipp said as she returned the nuzzle.
The road to recovery for Zipp was not going to be an easy one. She knew that the events of the last few days will always be in her memories. She knew that she was always going to have unpleasant thoughts about her superiority to others, and dramatic concerns about the future. But, after today, Zipp could also say that she felt safer with herself. That she could start trusting herself again like her friends trust her.