Zipp kept a close eye on the sky as she and her younger sister trotted up the mountains towards Zephyr Heights.
"You think they'd be this far out?" Pipp asked.
"I certainly hope so," Zipp answered as they got closer to the city. "All those pegasi flying together within the confines of the skyline? That's bound to lead to even more injuries. Mom's gonna have to come up with some kind of traffic pattern committee."
Zipp's ears twitched as she saw an airborne pegasus overhead, and they hovered for a moment before turning around and zipping back towards the city.
"Aaaand I think we've been spotted. Ready to get mobbed? Who am I kidding, you're always ready," Zipp mused.
Sure enough, right before they rounded the last corner to the south gates of Zephyr Heights, they heard galloping hooves. A few moments later, two familiar royal guards came galloping and skidding to a halt right in front of them.
"Princesses!" Captain Zoom Zephyrwing announced, offering a quick bow alongside her partner Sergeant Thunder Flap. "I hope you're ready for quite the crowd. Keep pace with us, and we'll get you to the castle. Your mother has been quite anxious for your return."
The two pegasi guards got in formation in front of them, and they turned the corner to the gates. Four more guards came out of the gates and formed a protective escort around the two royal sisters as they came into the city, and the massive crowds waiting for them erupted into cheers and applause the moment they turned the corner. They were instantly surrounded by phones, cameras snapping and recording away.
"Princesses! Over here!"
"You did it! We can fly again!"
"You two are amazing!"
"We love you, Zipp and Pipp!"
The cheers and the praise were non-stop as Zipp, Pipp, and the six-guard escort made their way through the crowds down the main street towards the elevator up to the castle. Pipp waved, and posed for photos every few seconds, and Zipp was content to just smile as she kept pace with the guards. Just before the elevator in front of the crowds were ZBS's most popular anchors, Sky and Dazzle. Ever the shrewd reporters, they had positioned themselves along with their camerapony to be in the best spot to intercept the two princesses as they closed in on the elevator.
"Princess Zipp! Princess Pipp! Anything you want to say to the pegasi of Zephyr Heights? How does it feel to be the ponies who return flight to everypony? How did you do it?" Sky asked, holding out a microphone.
Zoom and Thunder let the trustworthy reporters get closer than the rest of the crowd, who seemed to quiet down a bit once he had asked those questions, wanting to hear their reply. Zipp, of course, stepped aside and let Pipp closer to the mic.
"First off, thank you very much for such an enthusiastic welcome home for me and my sister. Secondly, to answer your question, I have to be very clear; it wasn't just us, Skye. Flight has been returned to the pegasi of Zephyr Heights because we cooperated with the other tribes to get it back. There was no doing it alone. The earth ponies of Maretime Bay have already expressed an interest in opening dialogue with us, so that's one of the first things we're going to discuss with Queen Haven. We're quite excited to get back to our new friends, and I encourage anypony and everypony to visit Maretime Bay. They'd love to have you, and I'm hoping the same can be said for Bridlewood and the unicorns. Again, thank you, and my sister and I are looking forward to being the vanguard of reuniting with the other tribes."
There were some stunned mumbles in learning that the earth ponies and unicorns had a hoof in returning flight, but they were quickly overtaken by the cheers at the end of Pipp's speech as they got on the elevator with Zoom and Thunder.
"You heard it here first, ZH. According to the princesses, earth ponies and unicorns helped restore flight to the pegasi!" They heard Dazzle say before their voices faded into the cheers as they began to ascend to the castle at the top of the mountain.
By the time they got to the top, the front doors of the castle had opened, and Queen Haven came galloping out to meet her daughters, throwing her hooves around the two of them as soon as they stepped off the elevator.
"My sweet darlings!" Haven said, squeezing both of them in her hug. "Welcome home. I'm so proud of you," she said, with Cloudpuff yipping happily around the trio.
"Now," Haven continued, releasing her daughters from the embrace. "What is this I'm hearing about going back to your new friends?"
Zipp sighed with a soft smile.
"Yep, figured you were listening to that."
Two days later...
Sheriff Hitch Trailblazer stepped through the front doors of Canterlogic.
"I've got an appointment with Toots in ten minutes," he told the receptionist, Sweets.
"He's already waiting for you in his office, Sheriff. Please go on in," Sweets told him.
Rather than move into Phyllis' office, Toots had done his best to run things from his office. He stepped up to the door, and knocked, announcing his presence.
"Come in," came the reply.
Hitch opened the door to see the light teal earth pony sitting at his desk, hunched over a few books that had been spread out over his desk.
"Afternoon, Sheriff. Thank you for coming on such short notice," the interim CEO greeted. Hitch took a seat on the left chair in front of the desk.
"Not much hustle and bustle in here today," Hitch commented.
"I've got almost everypony out dismantling the unicorn traps, and the few ponies in here are taking inventory of what we've got to work with," Toots answered.
"Is everything okay, Toots?" Hitch asked.
Toots reached down to one of the drawers on his side of the desk, pulled it open, and came out with a plastic case, setting it on top of the books.
"I've got what you asked for," Toots told him, popping the latches open, lifting the top of the case open, reached in, and came out with a metallic ring.
"Here's the cuff, here's the key," he said, also coming up with a small key. "This will allow Phyllis to go on house arrest. I've already got it set to her address. Once she's inside, just put it on her, and it'll activate. She won't be able to leave the premises without an alarm sounding."
"Pretty quick turnaround, Toots," Hitch commented, picking up the cuff and studying it.
"It's not like there's much else to do around here. I'm glad I was able to do that for you, but I honestly wouldn't depend on anything else from us, Sheriff."
"Toots, you didn't answer my question. Is everything okay?" Hitch asked.
"Monthly service fees for the entrapment devices were due today. It doesn't feel right collecting those from everypony this month, not when we're removing all of them. We have virtually no income right now, and the factory is very, very quickly going into the red."
"But, what about the smartphones in Zephyr Heights? Surely-"
"It was a nice speech, Sheriff, but we're further up the creek than you realize. There's no reason any facility in Zephyr Heights would offload some of their production to us, and even if they could, I'm not confident we could pivot fast enough to keep everypony employed. There's enough quarterly surplus for paychecks for the next two periods."
"That's not much of a surplus, Toots."
"No, it's not. Phyllis blew the rest of it on that wreck at the bottom of the cliff. I don't even want to think about paying for the damage done to the lighthouse. The point is, by this time next month, Canterlogic will very likely be insolvent."
The room was silent for a few moments as Hitch realized the seriousness of the situation. If Canterlogic shut down, that was dozens upon dozens of Maretime Bay jobs gone, and worse, he wasn't sure there was anything that could be done to stop it.
"I'm sorry, I don't know what to say, Toots," Hitch told him.
"There's nothing to say. It's not your fault. If anything, it's ours for going along with Phyllis' insanity, and it goes back even farther than her. Our fear of the other two tribes permeated every facet of this place for more than one generation. Reunification is bound to shake a lot of things up, and for the record, I don't think that's a bad thing. If this place has to be shuttered as the price for what we've done, so be it."
Hitch took another breath, and got up from the chair, pulling the latched case over to him.
"Reunification is also a time for new opportunities, Toots. We're all going to help each other get through this on our hooves. I promise."
Toots gave him an uncertain smile, taking what comfort he could in those words.
"Thanks, Sheriff. I appreciate that."