Harmannoyed

by Tirimsil

Ch. 10 :: Getting Up

"Hey."

Izzy ignored the burly greeting and continued to stare out the window, with its brass bars and its smooth glass. The last time she'd been in this same cell, she'd enjoyed the massage chair and other comforts - but this time, she ignored them. For once in her life, Izzy's brain had completely shut down and stopped inventing new fancies.

Perhaps she was not even consciously aware that she had turned herself in at Zephyr Heights as a supposed accomplice in the kidnapping of Princess Pipp, whose uncertain location and future now consumed her thoughts, along with Sunny's outraged eyes and Hitch's sad, contemplative stare.

She couldn't even see the skyline through her quiet tears.

"Hey," the voice came again. "Don't ignore me, Izzy."

Izzy's ears perked at her name and she turned just enough to recognize the white hooves of Pipp's sister standing outside the cell, as she did last time, in the corner of her vision. Her heart was suddenly pierced with fresh pain and alarm, and she jerked her head back away before she could get a good look at her face, squirming uncomfortably.

Zipp sighed. "I'm not here to yell at you," she assured her gently. "We've got our finest looking for Pipp. We'll find her. I'm sure Hitch..." Izzy's ears drooped at the name and Zipp paused, "... has got some folks looking in the Bay, too. By the time we asked him about it, they'd already heard on the radio. Wish good news traveled as fast as bad news... y' know?"

Izzy numbly nodded, flopped onto the flip-bed, and stared at the wall. She pulled her limbs in, her face red with shame. She wasn't looking at Zipp, but she imagined her face in her head, stoically glaring, a big hateful scowl. She thought about Pipp lost in some caves somewhere, completely out of her depth, stumbling around trying to get out or find food, too afraid to even be sassy.

"Uh," she heard Zipp swallow awkwardly, interrupting her grief spiral. "Listen... You didn't kidnap my sister."

Izzy sat up and timidly turned her gaze towards Zipp.

Zipp wasn't glaring at her - in fact, she looked away uncomfortably as Izzy turned to her. She looked sad and uncertain. The cogs of Izzy's brain, rusted by her tears until they halted, began to slowly turn again. She's worried about me, she realized. She doesn't know what to say. She's not mad at me at all and she doesn't want me to think she is.

But Izzy was still quite mad at herself, and certainly had no more idea what to say than Zipp did.

"You didn't," Zipp repeated, gradually speeding up her speech as she fished around for the words. "She... was nabbed right here in the castle, we're all just as responsible as you. And should I remind you, Pipp and I are princesses. Folks have been trying to kidnap us since we were born. Especially me, since I'm the heir."

Izzy shifted on the bed and looked away. What Zipp was saying made sense, but Pipp wasn't kidnapped. Not until Izzy Moonbow stuck her dumb smile in and ruined everything for everyone.

Zipp sighed. "I don't know what Sunny and Hitch said to you." She paused while Izzy wriggled uncomfortably, trying not to think about how they looked at her. "I can see you react when I say their names, so I know something happened. But this isn't your fault."

Izzy heard a shuffling noise, but continued to stare at the wall.

"Okay," Zipp said like she was relenting. "Okay, fine. You want to be guilty, I get that. That's why you're here, that's why you turned yourself in. Fine." She sighed again and her voice grew more frustrated. "But at least feel bad for the right feathering reasons."

Izzy bit her lip. Zipp was right. She was here because she felt horrible. Her friends were having fun and she wasn't, and she made up this insane conspiracy theory to justify it, and she wondered what the right feathering reasons were for anything she'd done these last few weeks.

"Y'know that song was about you, right?" Zipp asked.

"Huh..?" Izzy finally responded. She rolled over, sat up, and looked at Zipp.

Zipp was leaning against the far wall with her chin up, pouting at her. Her eyes softened when she saw Izzy's red eyes and tear-stained cheeks. "The concert you crashed," she explained. "That song was about us." She looked away for a second, wriggling against the wall uncomfortably, before looking back. "That's what she told me when I let her catch me listenin' in on a rehearsal. Pipp's not very good at expressing herself, but she's been opening up to you girls."

"And Hitch," Izzy reminded her instinctively.

"Pff, right," Zipp smiled briefly. "And she's even more open with me than she was before."

"Open..." Izzy repeated. It might've been a question, maybe.

"Yeah, open," Zipp confirmed. "Though she didn't tell me about the Harmonoid thing - it was a non-disclosure agreement, 'n' all. Us princesses, we have some limits. Pipp's realized she can't let her hair down, because for some profane reason she started livestreaming every second of her life, and if she tries to stop now, everyone'll start nosing in, asking what's wrong."

Izzy nodded numbly. That was exactly what she did. Just stupidly. What is wrong with you, echoed in her head. You crazy unicorn.

"But you mighta noticed, after the magic came back, Pipp's been letting a bit more of herself out," Zipp concluded. "She's not just that vain selfieholic who Echos pics of cute cats and dumb ponies hurting themselves. Even her music's a bit more personal and thoughtful. You're the best thing that's ever happened to her." She paused and rolled her eyes around in thought. "To us," she corrected awkwardly.

"... Pipp's in love with us..?" Izzy doubted flatly.

"What?" Zipp coughed, stumbling off of the wall. "What're you --"

"Like, all of us? That was a love song..." Izzy sighed. "I thought the old Legends of Harmony said self-shipping was dangerous, I think the Hero of Kindness got too deep into it..."

"No, hang on," Zipp shook her head, holding a hoof up while she tried to gather her thoughts.

"Actually, it makes sense if she was in love with Sunny, 'cause of the whole sun theme thing, and 'cause Sunny's cute as heck..." Izzy bemoaned. "Actually, it's really obvious now that you mention it..."

"It's not that kind of love!" Zipp stamped her hooves, her face red. "Quit it with that... that weird stuff, this is sappy enough as it is! It's friend love! The kind the Heroes of Harmony had."

"They had a menage a six though."

"They did not!" Zipp scoffed. "You know the Hero of Charity only had eyes for the Hero of Trust --" she put a wing to her mouth as she realized what she was saying. "Bah, look!" She fluffed her feathers and began pacing back and forth down the hall outside the cell. "What I'm trying to say is, you crashed a concert Pipp was holding about how much she loved and trusted you and publicly humiliated her. That's what you did wrong, not this..." she stopped to wave a wing around. "... this suspiciously-timed kidnapping."

Izzy furrowed her brows. "... suspicious?" she repeated. She looked down at Zipp's hooves, at the blue ghost-fragments strewn over the carpet at one end of her pace-path.

"What, you didn't notice?" Zipp scoffed, turning sharply with a scuff as Izzy's eyes traveled up the wall. "Like I said, someone or another's been trying to kidnap us our whole lives. There's no way some random lovesick nerd succeeded where rebels and cartels have failed. Pipp got kidnapped almost instantly - within an hour after you left."

Izzy blinked in sudden realization. You were just there, weren't you? Sunny had said. Just an hour or two ago, right? In her grief she had presumed that Sunny and Hitch were merely hammering home what she had done, too angry with her to be merciful. But now she realized that their whole conversation had changed the instant the radio had announced Pipp's disappearance. That smelled so fishy they could smell it in the Bay.

Izzy's brain-cogs were at about half-capacity now, but the tears were still flowing. Someone was waiting and ready to kidnap Pipp, she concluded. But it's still my fault that it happened. "Pot," she called out in a monotone.

"W-what..?" Zipp paused mid-pace, glaring at her dumbfounded.

CRASH! A potted plant fell from a wall shelf and shattered into pieces where Zipp was just about to step. She leapt back into a clumsy flight with a hiss, then slowly touched back down to earth, glancing back and forth between the wreckage and Izzy.

Izzy sighed and flopped back onto her prison-bed. "Y-yeah..." she mumbled. "While I was runnin' from the Whateveroids, I discovered something about my magic." She sighed again, staring at the ceiling. "I'm psychic." She raised her forehooves in consternation. "For all the good it does me... or anyone..." She let them drop, as though she'd just related an annoyance in her life, and not given earth-shattering news.

And for Izzy, that's what it was. Her overactive psychic brain connected all the dots. Including the ones that, perhaps, weren't connected. That's why all of this happened.

After a pause, her ears perked up at the sound of metal clinking. "Huh?" She rolled back over. "Whatcha doin'?"

"Whattyou mean what am I doing," Zipp scoffed, kicking the door open. "I came here to convince you to let me let you out of jail. And now you tell me you're psychic?" She grabbed Izzy gently by the shoulders, staring into her face. "You know what psychics can do?"

"Never make up our minds what we're havin' for lunch..." Izzy pouted back at her. "Constantly panic about the thoughts of strangers forcing themselves into our brains until we go crazy and have to be put in a medically-induced coma indefinitely..."

Zipp blinked back at her in wide-eyed horror.

"I've been watching a lot of sci-fi when I visit," Izzy sighed. "Do do do do ♫ ... kiiinda regret doing it now," she looked away and spoke to the wall. "Um, just in case, could you try not thinking about anything..."

Zipp shook her head with a wince. "Psychics can find missing ponies!"

"Oh phew!" Izzy let out a huge breath, eyes closed in relief. "I had no idea you were thinking that..." She gave her a weak smile. "Yeah, that happens a lot," she admitted. "Or at least they say they're psychic and they say they helped the police and most of the time the pony is found dead..." She ignored Zipp's sudden pout. "... so you'd think if they were so psychic they woulda called in sooner." She tilted her head and looked back at Zipp. "Um, where are you going with this..."

"Izzy," Zipp sighed out her nose with a puff of steam. "You're the only one who can find Pipp."

Izzy paled. "M-m-m-me?! But I'm the reason she ow!"

Zipp kicked her in the butt to get her going. "Shut up and earn your freedom," she commanded.

"Okay-okay! I'm earning! Just point me at the freedom and I'll earn it!"

Comments

[Tirimsil]

Sad part done, back to baloney.