Of course, I knew I had to try the song out. I just needed some technical help and an audience. I quickly switched on the communications unit and spoke into it. "Hey, are there any technicians available? I'd like to practice some new material I've written and see how the lights go."
"Understood, Your Highness," said the voice of the lead technician. "I'll convene my staff down there right away and get to work."
"Thanksies!" I said, before switching the unit off. I then took the chance to switch to another method of calling. It was pretty late in the day now, so hopefully mom was done with whatever work she needed doing. I selected her number on my phone and called it, waiting for her to connect.
There was a few seconds of ringing, but then this strange black void appeared on my screen. "Hello?" said an extremely muffled voice, which I quickly deduced to be that of mom.
I began to suspect the issue she was having almost immediately. A completely black screen suggests that the pony receiving the call is holding it to their ear. And I don't mean to sound mean about mom, but she's not totally up to speed with modern technology.
"Is your camera set correctly?" I asked, hoping to prompt her that this was a video call. "All I can see is darkness." Which was certainly true.
The image suddenly flipped about quite wildly, before the screen finally showed mom's face. Truth be told she looked a little embarrassed. "Ah, sorry Pipp. I didn't realize it was a video call."
I shrugged my shoulders and put on my very best smile for her. "No worries," I said with a smile, as noted before. "My song's ready, if you want to hear it."
Mom's face shifted from one of embarrassment to one of pride. "Of course! I'll get down to the throne room as quickly as possible."
"Sure thing. See you there!" The call was now ended, and I had some things that I needed to do. I popped out of my room with all the gear I needed, having made sure to send the relevant files to the sound and technical team before we were due to start the practice run. I then needed to head for the cable room to get wired up and ready to rehearse for the event. Hopefully it would look good!
After I had been wired up and lowered in, I noticed the throne room was a hive of activity (then again, when wasn't it?). I dropped onto my throne, followed by a pair of dummies to simulate Zipp and mom. This was so they could ensure the cables didn't get snagged or tangled up on one another, which would have led to quite the nasty accident.
I glanced down to see mom sitting in position, looking up at the lighting arrangements. She must have been in some sort of positive phase as she had quite a big smile on her face. Clearly something had cheered her up.
"Are we ready to go?" she called, as the last of the curtains were closed.
"Completing final checks now. Your Highness, you should feel the winding gear taking up the slack now." No sooner had I been lowered down than I was pulled back up again into the cable room. These cables could run pretty fast when they wanted to.
From down below I heard the staff running through their checks.
"Safety checks!" the lead technician called.
"Cables, check!" said the cable operator.
"Lights, check!" added the lighting engineer.
"Winch, check!" was the contribution from the winch engineer. I wasn't sure why we needed a cable operator and a winch engineer, but then again it's possible the engineering skills aren't transferrable. Who am I to second guess professionals?
"Electrical systems, check!" added the electrical engineer, clearly an expert in his role.
"Control surfaces, check!" came the final voice. Not sure what her job was as pegasi don't really have control surfaces, but oh well.
The lead technician then spoke again once more. "We are go for launch. Initiating test run."
And off we went. The three objects (myself and the two dummies) were lowered into the chamber, and as we waited the backing beat launched in, followed by pre recorded vocals and an instrumental track. This was now my chance to show what I had to offer!
"We got the light!
We're comin' in stronger/
We're in it together/
If you want it, it's all inside your mind!
We got the light!
Won't wait any longer/
We'll get it together/
If you want it, then you can paint the sky!" (hey)
I flew and bounced through the air, making the appropriate motions to produce the illusion of flying along through the air. No wonder Pipp- sorry, me- and Zipp were back in the air so quickly after the magic returned. We already knew the motions required to maintain a convincing illusion of flight, so we simply applied that logic to actually flying about.
After running the entire song, I was lowered down onto the ground and looked up at the others as the technicians switched the lighting off. "How was that, mom?" I asked, hoping for a positive response.
Mom applauded, as did the technicians. Which seemed a little self congratulatory seeing as they'd brought this display to life in the first place.
Mom then spoke. "Marvellous, dear! I have two suggestions, however, and that includes to the technicians as well, so if you wouldn't mind gathering around that would be excellent."
We then gathered around to hear Mom's words.
"Firstly, Pipp, excellent song. I see your songwriting skills are still in order. However, I would suggest slowing the tempo a little, as it's a bit fast right now."
I glanced at my phone and started taking notes. "Slow the tempo a bit. I'll ask the staff to slow the recording slightly without shifting the pitch."
Mom then had her second suggestion. "I'd also suggest making some changes to the lighting. Whilst the use of greens and blues was stunning, it also meant the cable harness was visible at points. Possibly shift the light balance to make it less obvious? If the truth were to come out it would be rather inconvenient, what?"
We played with the colours for a bit before the technicians were happy. After that, it was time for gaming!
Seriously, who sets off all the alarms in the middle of the night? Switching alarms on at Tirek's Hour is SOOOOO not funny!
I hopped out of bed, as the siren was calling us to intercept an intruder. I saw Zipp dashing past me. "Whatsh's going on?" I asked, my brain still switching on.
"Something about an intruder," Zipp replied. "We should probably go and look."
I pouted. "Why did they have to intrude at three in the morning?"
We spotted most of the commotion was coming from the cable room, and as such made our way that way towards the cable room. We sped round the corridor and stopped, just as the security forces were dealing with our intruder. They were somewhat tied up, so to speak.
"You, miss, are in a lot of trouble tonight," the Colonel said. "Haul her in."
Mom got her crown back as the thief was reeled back in. She looked cross. "Mine," she said. "We shall deal with you in the morning. In the meantime, place her in the cells. Colonel Opwinden, see to it that this is done."
Eventually, we made our way back to our rooms, not sure what was going on or what this intruder meant for the future. Clearly the crown had some importance to them, but apart from that I don't really know. It's all rather confusing really.
OK... what is happening?
The next morning we finally learned who our intruder was. And boy was that a shock! It was Misty, the unicorn who shouldn't have appeared yet! One noble somehow didn't notice her horn despite it being a rather prominent feature of unicorn biology. Her explanation didn't exactly help her case, and trying to make sense of her logic was difficult, to say the least.
Mom at least had orders for us. "Zephyrina, ensure that the equipment in the cells is in order. Pipp, I want you to monitor communications. No news of this must get out, understand?"
That was our cue to leave. I headed for my room pretty quickly and went to check social media. Luckily, there was no discussion of the incident in the palace, presumably because nopony knew it had happened.
And I had to keep it that way. So a distraction was in order. I decided to do the thing that I do best- a livestream. That would distract ponies from the panic in the palace. I must try doing this alliteration stuff more often!
As I spoke to the Pippsqueaks, I knew things were about to change. What I didn't know was how and by how much.