2 days after Zipp’s breakdown
For some, night is seen as a time for sleep, to rest the body after a long day. For others it is actually when they are most active. But there are those who fear the night and the darkness it brings.
In the dark, one cannot see. That leaves them vulnerable and without control. And ponies fear what they are unable to control. And in the Crystal Brighthouse, a prime example of that right now was occurring with Zipp Storm. The pegasus princess was tossing and turning in her bed as a dream played in her head. A dream that was also her worst nightmare.
In the dream, Zipp found herself slowly approaching the Zephyr Heights Royal Palace. However, if the guards stationed out front were any indication, this was not a friendly visit. The guards lowered their spears at the advancing mare, but Zipp didn’t stop. “Charge!” Zoom yelled as she and the rest immediately went in for the attack.
But Zipp just smiled wickedly and unfurled her wing, the tips of her feathers covered with blades, before she swiped it at those in her way. The guards all fell to the ground and didn’t get up, leaving the way to the main doors open for the pegasus.
The doors to the throne room swung open, startling the queen and princess on the throne as Zipp walked in dramatically. "Zephyrina!?" Queen Haven gasped at the sudden intrusion of her eldest daughter. "What is the meaning of this?!" She demanded.
Zipp chuckled darkly. "You mean you haven't realized? Well, let me be the first to congratulate you, Mother. You get to retire from being Queen."
Her mother was not surprised by this declaration, but still looked at her daughter with defiance. “If you think that after everything you’ve done to countless innocent ponies that I’ll hand over the throne of Zephyr Heights to you, young filly, then you are seriously mistaken!” She shouted at Zipp with flared wings.
Zipp just chuckled at Queen Haven’s resistance. “Oh, I don’t know about that.” She said in response, looking straight at her mother’s eyes. She pawed her forelegs and it was revealed there were blades attached there as well that extended like a cat’s claws. “I can be very persuasive.”
“Ergh! No!” In the bed next to Zipp’s, Pipp’s ear twitched as the sounds of her sister’s distress, waking her up from her slumber.
“Zipp?” Pipp groggily asked as she lifted her sleep mask to see what was the matter. Looking over at her sister, the pink pegasus saw that she was tossing and turning in her bed, mumbling in her sleep.
Knowing immediately that Zipp was having another nightmare, Pipp flew over to her bed to wake her up. “Zipp!” She gently shook her sister to wake her up. Seeing it didn’t work, she tried with slightly more force. “Zipp, wake up!” She urged her big sister.
The response she got from Zipp was her big sister kicking her in the gut with her hind legs. The force sent the smaller pegasus crashing into her bed. The sound of the impact woke up Sunny and Izzy as the two mares were immediately on their feet. “What’s going on?!” Sunny quickly asked, looking around frantically for any signs of danger until she noticed Zipp flailing in her bed and Pipp curled up on the floor in clear pain. She and Izzy were quickly at the pink pegasus’ side. “Pipp, what happened?!”
“It’s Zipp.” Pipp said in pain as she slowly got back onto her feet. “She’s having another nightmare. Help me wake her up!” She told them as she tried to shake her sister awake again.
“Pipp, wait!” Sunny tried to warn her friend of getting too close while Zipp was kicking so much in her sleep.
“She’s my sister!” Pipp shouted as she tried to shake Zipp awake again, only for her sister’s hoof to collide directly with her face.
“PIPP!” Sunny and Izzy shouted in panic before the unicorn pulled Pipp away before she could be kicked again.
“Izzy, let me go!” Pipp struggled in the magical grasp, her face now bleeding from a broken nose.
“Not if your plan is to go back into the line of fire!” Izzy retorted.
“Zipp would never hurt me!” Pipp shot back.
“Awake, yes! But right now she has no idea what’s going on!” Sunny told her as she could only imagine what was scaring Zipp so much in her nightmare. “ZIPP!” She called out in hopes of waking her up.
Back in the dream, Zipp placed the crown that was formerly her mother’s onto her head. “At last, it’s mine.” She said with a triumphant smile and laughed evilly. Still, her work was not done yet. There was still one pony left in the room to deal with. The white pegasus didn’t even need to look behind herself to know that Pipp was currently trying to sneak away undetected. “And just where do you think you are going?” She laughingly asked.
Before Pipp had time to react, she found Zipp standing directly in front of her. “Z-Zipp!” Pipp gasped as she fell on her haunches.
“You didn’t think you could just leave, did you?” Zipp mockingly asked, laughing at her sister’s fear.
“Zipp, please!” Pipp begged. “We’re family! We’re sisters!”
“Sisters?” Zipp gave a crude laugh. “You think after everything that’s happened you have any right to call me that?!” She asked as her anger started to grow.
“I-I don’t understand.” Pipp stuttered out in her fear.
Zipp gave another cruel laugh. “Ha! That’s to be expected! You’re just the same as the rest of these ingrates.” She growled. “I’ve been spending years trying to better the lives of everypony. Trying to return flight to the pegasi. To try and keep magic from disappearing again. To find a way to destroy the pony who wants it all for herself. And what did you do? You just sat there, playing the part of the perfect little princess.”
Without any warning, Zipp grabbed Pipp by the throat and lifted her into the air. “And what happens?! They all flock to you! They all worship you and praise you while ignoring everything I have to say! Even our own mother gives all her attention to you rather then give me any of the respect I deserve!” She screamed before throwing the younger princess against a wall.
Pipp hit the wall hard, possibly breaking her wings, and fell to the floor like a plush doll. “Z-Zipp.” She choked out through the tears that were now coming down her face. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to-“
“Shut up!” Zipp her cut off. “I don’t want to hear any pathetic attempts of an apology! You don’t deserve any! This is my kingdom! MY DESTINY! And that destiny is one without you.”
“No!” Pipp pleaded on deaf ears as Zipp raised a hoof into the air, the claws already in position. “NO! DON’T DO THIS! ZIPP!” Pipp screamed as the hoof came down.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Zipp screamed as she finally woke up from her hellish nightmare. Panting like she had just flown around the world and back, her eyes darted around the room aimlessly.
“Zipp!” The pegasus was able to get some focus when she saw her friends run over to her side, having been shouting for the last minute or so to wake her up. “Zipp, it’s okay! You’re awake now!” Pipp assured her big sister.
“Are you okay?” Izzy asked.
“Zipp, speak to us!” Sunny pleaded.
As Zipp took in their words, she noticed how her sister looked. Pipp’s face now had what seemed to be severely bruised and a bloody nose. Zipp looked down at her own hooves and that’s when she saw it.
Blood. Her sister’s blood. On her hooves. “No.” She quietly said as the realization of what she had done came in.
“Zipp.” Pipp tried to reach for her sister, but was stopped when Zipp slapped the hoof away.
“NOOOOOO!” Zipp cried as she leapt out of bed and ran down the stairs.
It happened so fast that her friends barely understood what had just happened. Thankfully, it only took a few seconds for them to realize Zipp was attempting to run away again. “Zipp, no! Come back!” Pipp cried as she flew after her, Sunny and Izzy following close behind.
Despite not being able to fly herself, Zipp was still very fast on foot thanks to years of parkour in the mountains around Zephyr Heights. This allowed her to have a very effective head start on her pursuers that she now heard following her. “I should’ve known better than to come back here!” She scolded herself in her thoughts. ”I still can’t control myself! I have to get away! Far away this time! Somewhere nopony will ever find me! It’s the only way to protect Pipp!”
She slammed open the front doors and continued on running. She didn’t know where she was going to go this time. If she had to she’d run to the other end of Equestria. The white pegasus was so distracted by her distraught thoughts that it took her a while to notice that as she was running she wasn’t making any distance. “Wha?” Looking down, she found herself surrounded by a purple glow that was holding her in place.
Instantly recognizing the glow as Izzy’s magic, Zipp began to struggle as she tried to free herself. “Eh! No!” She said through clenched teeth just as her friends came out through the doors she swung open.
“Zipp!” They all shouted together as they ran over to their pegasus friend.
“No! Let me go!” Zipp shouted as she increased her struggling.
“Zipp, you need to calm down!” Izzy told her. All of the Pegasus’ struggling against her magical hold was making it difficult for the unicorn to focus, which in turn was making it harder to keep Zipp restrained.
Seeing Izzy’s difficulty keep Zipp in place, Sunny quickly went into her alicorn form and assisted her unicorn friend in preventing the pegasus’ escape. “Zipp, please! Don’t run away again!”
“I have to!” Zipp said as she started to cry. “I still can’t control myself! I attacked my sister! And I’ll do it again if I stay here! I can’t be near you! You’re better off without me! Equestria is better off without me!”
Hearing Zipp’s cries of despair and self loathing made Pipp, Sunny, and Izzy recall when Zipp trapped herself in the cave. Once again they were shouting at Zipp, and their raised voices were just making the pegasus princess feel worse about herself. Holding her in place against her will wasn’t helping, but they had no choice in that regard.
They needed to be gentler if they wanted Zipp to listen to them. And since she was the only one not focusing her magic on keeping the pegasus from escaping, Pipp was the one who this task fell upon. Wiping her nose to make sure the blood was off, she flew over to her sister and landed in front of her. “Zipp.” She said gently.
“No! Stay away from me, Pipp!” Zipp shouted fearfully. “I’ll just attack you again!”
“You didn’t attack me.” Pipp replied as she grabbed her sister’s forehooves and held them, making Zipp stop in her flailing. “It was all an accident. You were having a nightmare, and when I got close you hit me with your hooves.”
“You see?! That’s why I can’t be near you anymore! I’ll just end up hurting you!” Zipp tried to reason with her little sister.
“Everypony has nightmares, Zipp.” Sunny told her, now able to concentrate more since the pegasus wasn’t struggling anymore. “And we can’t control what happens in them, or what we do while having them.”
“And I definitely know everypony has accidents time and time again.” Izzy said before quickly adding. “I mean accidents as in like mistakes, not…….you know.” She said with a small blush.
“B-But-“
“Zipp, it’s okay. I’m okay.” Pipp assured her sister and she now pulled her into a hug.
Being in Pipp’s embrace seemed to work in calming Zipp down to the point Sunny and Izzy could cancel their magic and not worry about her running off. Seeing their assumption was correct, they walked over to the sisters and joined in the hug.
They stayed like that for a few minutes before the four of them went back into the Brighthouse. Closing the doors behind them, Sunny saw that Zipp had broken off from the group and went over to the couch in the living room instead of upstairs and laid down on it. “Zipp?” She asked in confusion.
“I…….rather sleep down here, if that’s okay with you.”
Pipp looked like she was about to either object or join her sister, but Izzy held a hoof out and stopped her. “We understand, Zipperdoodle.” She assured her pegasus friend as she levitated a blanket over to her that covered the princess’ body. “Just don’t be afraid to call for one of us if you need anything.”
“Thanks, Iz.” Zipp said as she pulled the blanket over herself.
Seeing Zipp getting herself comfortable, the other three mares went back upstairs to the bedroom. When they arrived, Pipp looked over at Izzy. She was about to say something to the unicorn, but Izzy already knew what it was going to be based on Pipp’s annoyed expression. “She’s still coming to terms with everything that’s happened, especially the thoughts of harming you. It’s best to not overwhelm her right now and give her some space.” She explained herself to Pipp.
“Izzy’s right.” Sunny nodded in agreement. “We all knew going into this that it would take more than one heart-to-heart before Zipp started to improve. We just need to be patient and give her time to collect her thoughts rationally.”
“So what? You expect me to just go back to sleep after all that?” Pipp asked. “What if she has another nightmare and runs away again? We might not be able to find her this time!” The thought made her worries increase tenfold as she slightly started to panic.
Sunny and Izzy each went over to Pipp and placed a hoof on her shoulders. “No.” Sunny assured her. “We will each take turns watching over her, and I’ll let Hitch know first thing in the morning so he can help, too.”
Hearing this made Pipp’s worries decrease, but only slightly. “Okay.” She shakingly agreed.
Seeing Pipp still distressed, Izzy increased her hug and nuzzled against the pink pegasus. “Don’t worry, Pipp. Like Elder Flower used to tell me, it’s always darkest before the dawn. In this case the dawn will be Zipp’s full recovery.”
“But how long will it remain dark?” Pipp asked.
Izzy didn’t have an answer for that, but Sunny did. “It doesn’t matter, because we will be with her for every step of the way. Hoof to Heart.”
“Hoof to Heart.” Pipp and Izzy repeated.
Having come up with a plan going forward, the three mares went back to their beds, with Sunny saying she’ll take the first watch. Despite this, Pipp still couldn’t find it in herself to relax and fall back asleep. She was still too worried about what might happen if she dozed off for even a second.
Downstairs, her sister was having the exact same problem. Even with some more space between her and Pipp, was it enough distance? They said that it was only an accident that she hurt Pipp this time. But what about the next time? What if she blacked out and really lost control of herself and actually succeeded in killing her sister?
The worrisome thoughts kept both sisters from getting any sleep for the remainder of the night. In fact, nopony was going to be getting much rest at all come morning, when the light returned and offered some form of comfort from the darkness.