We Say, "Ta-da!" You Say, "What?"
Sunny glanced around the throne room. It was crowded with pegasi, but a few unicorns stood in a group in the corner, talking excitedly, and one or two earth ponies were crammed into the crowd, so many ponies all squished together they probably either didn’t notice they didn’t have wings or knew, but they were too squashed to do anything about it. Pegasi hovered in the air, too, but airspace was restricted, as Pipp always did her concerts while flying, and she needed room to do her solos.
She didn’t see any of her friends, which worried her. Sure, Pipp would be backstage (or upstage, since there wasn’t really a stage, and she was probably in the room above the throne room), and Zipp would be with her mom, waiting to make a grand royal entrance, but Izzy wasn’t anywhere to be found.
“Do you see Izzy anywhere?” she asked Hitch, who was beside her.
“Sunny, all I see is this pony’s butt, that pony’s tail, and that pony’s wing feathers, which are all basically describing the same thing in this case,” he grumbled, looking completely unworried about the absence of their bubbly friend.
Sunny frowned.
“Oh, I forgot to tell you,” Hitch said, finally thinking of something else to tell her that would get her mind off of Izzy, “Sprout finally got out of jail! I put him on community service for the next few moons. He’s supposed to help build your lighthouse as an apology for destroying it.”
Sunny smiled, remembering the blueprints Hitch had shown her earlier. She liked the concept drawings of what the lighthouse would look like, although she would definitely miss her old one.
The lights in the room darkened, and chatter immediately silenced as ponies glanced upwards. The lights focused on Zipp and Queen Haven, swooping down from the room above in their typical fashion. However, it was obvious that this was real flying, as Zipp’s expression was one of sheer delight like it was every time she flew, in contrast to the disgusted and bored look she usually donned before. Queen Haven was the same as ever, smiling and waving to her cheering subjects. The royals landed gently on their seats, and Cloudpuff, Queen Haven’s pet pomeranian with wings, flew around her head, yipping happily, before settling on his special seat.
Pipp’s newest song, Glowin’ Up, started playing over the speakers. Even though she’d sung this song last time, nopony had heard the whole thing, as the concert had been interrupted by Sunny, Izzy, and Zipp’s attempted thievery of Queen Haven’s crown. Cameras from ZBS trained on the shadow of the pony in the spotlight, hovering above the throne room.
The spotlight lit up, and Pipp appeared, singing, “We got the light!”
The performance was the same as the last one, just with no interruptions, except that the unicorns in Queen Haven’s production crew really outdid themselves with special effects. Harmless lasers, color-changing spotlights, bursts of glitter, confetti, and even fireworks as the song came to a close made the whole thing seem like a new experience.
Izzy slipped inside just before the concert started, saying, “What’d I miss?” to Sunny.
“Not much,” Sunny said, relieved. “Pipp hasn’t started yet.”
She trained her eyes upward, looking for Pipp. Izzy turned to Hitch and whispered something in his ear that made him smile.
As the performance came to a close, Pipp struck a pose and everypony cheered, throwing roses and hooffulls of confetti at her as she beamed. She rose with her family back into the room above, and Izzy and Hitch both gave each other a look and trotted out of the room. Sunny, realizing that they weren’t there, saw their retreating backs and hurried after them.
“Wait! Izzy! Hitch! Where’re you going?” she cried as she chased after them. They glanced behind them, saw Sunny hurrying towards them, and broke into a run, unable to keep the smiles off their faces as they did so. Sunny urged her legs to go faster, determined to find out what this was all about. She was so frustrated! Since when did her friends keep secrets from her - especially all of her friends? “Wait!” she called again, but it was no use. Izzy and Hitch dashed into a hallway, and when Sunny turned the corner, they were gone. She slowed to a walking pace, studying her surroundings for any clues as to where her friends might have gone.
Once she found it, it seemed pretty obvious. Now she knew why she distantly recognized this place - she’d been there before! Only once or twice, but enough to know where she was. Immediately figuring out where they went, Sunny pried the tile on the floor open and dropped into a hot air balloon basket. Pushing the lever, the elevator began to descend, and Sunny raced to the edge, wanting to see the hidden station from the time of the Guardians of Harmony, but all she saw was a big, blank sheet, hiding just about everything.
Sunny’s enthusiasm deflated. Had it been destroyed? Closed for remodeling? Something awful? Her ride reached the floor, and she jumped out and hurried to the curtain, touching it gently with her hoof. It fell away, sending up a cloud of dust. Sunny waved her hoof in front of her face, coughing as she tried in vain to clear it. When she finally opened her watery eyes, she forgot all about the dust in her throat.
The station had been fixed to look like new. Previous times she’d been there, there had been old curtains and rags hanging from all the furniture, and cracks and broken pieces in the stained glass windows depicting the three crystals that helped bring the pony kinds together. Dust and dirt covered everything. But now…
“SURPRISE!” her friends all said, jumping out from their hiding places and grinning. Sunny’s mouth opened and closed, speechless.
“Did you guys - I mean, did you - THIS IS AMAZING!” Sunny ran around the whole place in excited circles. “You guys fixed everything!” she said, the tears in her eyes not from dust this time. “I mean, the window - and the books - and the artifacts - is this what you’ve been doing this whole time?”
“Remember when you went to Maretime Bay to oversee the work being done on your lighthouse?” Izzy said, unable to keep still. “I came to Zephyr Heights while you were doing that and helped Zipp and Pipp set up all of your dad’s old things, and search for other artifacts that we could put here.”
“And I helped fix this place up,” Hitch said. “There are some things that magic just can’t do.”
“Yeah, he says he helped fix this place up, but he mostly just did the heavy lifting while his little critter friends did all the work,” Zipp said, smirking. Hitch shoved her, and she desperately flapped her wings to stay upright.
“I did the window!” Izzy said proudly, pointing to the completed stained glass window that allowed the last fading rays of sunlight and artificial light from the city to filter through, lighting up the room in a golden light. Sunny stepped forward and studied the window. If she looked very closely, she could see the remaining bits of glue dripping on the glass. Most of the window had been reduced to shards, but Izzy had craftily pieced them back together. Now the middle pane, which usually was empty, showed an orange earth pony with the earth pony crystal above it.
“Yes, I can see that,” Sunny said. “I can’t believe that it was broken the last time I saw it.” She looked around the room and noticed the books on the shelves. “Where did you get those?” she asked, trotting over and studying the titles. “These are all books about their time!” she said excitedly. “Look, Predictions and Prophecies! And The Elements of Harmony, a Reference Guide! And Supernaturals: Nature Remedies and Cure-alls! Oh my stars, you guys, this is amazing!”
She dropped the stack of books she was holding and dashed over to the other side of the room, where Zipp had lined ancient artifacts on tables and shelves. “Hey,” Sunny said slowly as she began to recognize the stuff on display, “this is all my dad’s stuff.” She turned to Zipp. “Is this what you were doing with it? And why I couldn’t come see it? Because it would ruin the surprise?”
Zipp nodded. “And it's not just your dad’s stuff,” she said, coming up beside Sunny. “Pipp and I scoured the castle for all the ancient pony artifacts we could find. Unfortunately, I think your dad got to most of them, but I did find this.” Zipp gestured to a large shield sitting on the table, cracked and chipped, the image on it worn and faded. Sunny brushed it with her hoof, as if hoping that would clear the image up, but it didn’t really do anything but stir the dust that was still in the air. She studied the picture hard, and finally picked out a magenta six-pointed star that stretched to the very edge of the shield. In each gap between the points was a gem, all different colors. The shield itself must have been a rich purple once, but now it was hard to imagine that it could have ever been new.
“Wait,” Sunny said, looking up at the star in the stained glass window above the three pony crystals. “They match,” she said in wonder. “Whatever this was, it has some connection to the Guardians of Harmony.” She turned to her friends. “How cool is that? I wonder what else could have a direct connection to them. Maybe they used one of these artifacts.” She waved her hoof at all the knick-knacks her dad had collected over the years.
“Hey, Sunny, didn’t you want to see something about your map?” Pipp asked, snapping a selfie of herself just because she could. She wasn’t taking any photos of the station, as she, Zipp, Hitch, and Izzy had agreed to keep it a secret, but she had to upload a new picture every hour so her fans could be happy. Zipp rolled her eyes but managed not to sigh frustratedly.
“Oh, yeah.” Sunny reached into her bag and pulled out her dad’s journal, flipping to the page where her dad’s note was. She pulled out her map and unfolded it, laying it on an empty space on the table. “I know it looks familiar, but I can’t tell where.” She picked it up and held it as she studied the map her father had of Ancient Equestria, comparing cities and landmarks on the two maps. Her face slowly lit up with the realization.
“This map is a map of Ancient Equestria,” she said softly. “I can’t believe it. This is an actual map, from the time of the Guardians of Harmony, and it shows exactly what Equestria looked like back then!” She studied her father’s map that he had drawn based on his research. “Wow, my dad actually got it pretty accurate,” she praised. “I mean, he hardly got out of Canterlot, but given that he probably only discovered this map recently before he was kidnapped, he wouldn’t have had a chance to update this one. Oh my stars, you guys, look at this!”
She dropped the old map of Equestria on the floor so that all five ponies could see it, and Sunny pointed to the mountain in the middle. “Look, it's Zephyr Heights!” she said excitedly. “I read in that book that Zipp showed me that Zephyr Heights used to be a city full of mainly unicorns, but then the pegasi used their air dominance to kick them out.” Zipp, Pipp, and Izzy gave each other uncomfortable looks. “Apparently it was called Canterlot!” Sunny finished. “Where have I heard that name before?”
“Maybe it’s in one of your books?” Izzy suggested, waving to all the books lining the walls.
“Great idea, Izzy!” Sunny exclaimed. “Okay, guys, each of you grab a book and skim through it for any mentions of Canterlot-”
She stopped, her ears twitching.
“Sunny?” Pipp asked, slipping her cell phone under her wing after trying to search Canterlot on the Internet to no avail. “What’s wrong?” Then she heard it, too. Everypony did. The piercing wail of a siren. The blue and red lights of an emergency response cruiser flashed through the window, turning the ponies depicted in them different colors.
“We have to get down there,” Zipp said, flapping her wings and lifting into the air, reaching the elevator before her friends did and hovered above it while it ascended.
The streets were pandamonium. Ponies were either running away screaming or frozen with fear, staring wide-eyed at the outside of a shopping mall as Sunny, Hitch, and Izzy pushed past them to see what the fuss was about. Zipp and Pipp disappeared, probably going to find their mom and calm everypony down, as they were the royal family. Sunny managed to get to the edge of the crowd, but what she saw made her freeze in her tracks just like everypony else.
One of the stores had been vandalized. The windows were cracked and shattered, the door was hanging by one hinge, and graffiti had been messily splattered across the brick building, saying, crazy psychic pony and wierdos with horns and go back to where you came from, and many other horrible things. A family of unicorns was huddled outside the broken building, the adults being questioned by the Zephyr Heights royal guard while tears swam in their eyes, and the two young foals wrapped their arms around each other and cried.
Sunny felt like crying, too. This wasn’t just an attack on the unicorns, this was an attack on her, and everything she stood for. She had hoped that if anypony disagreed about the pony tribes uniting would keep quiet and maybe just stew in anger if it kept other ponies safe from their cruelty. But that fantasy would not come true apparently.
Ponies around her were talking in hushed voices about who would have done it and whether or not they agreed with the vandals, but so many ponies were there that the sound was quite loud, and Sunny could barely hear herself think, not that she had any thoughts. Her mind was paralyzed with panic just like the rest of her. She realized that Hitch and Izzy were saying her name, but it sounded like they were on the other side of the world.
“EVERYPONY CALM DOWN!!!” a voice shouted, and everypony shut up at once, the loud voice snapping Sunny out of her trance. She looked up and saw Zipp, with her mother and sister hovering behind her, high above the crime scene, the searchlights illuminating her white coat and making the multicolored feathers on her wings appear to be glowing. She held herself with authority and jutted out her chin, as if she were daring anypony to disagree with her. Sunny felt herself go speechless with awe. No doubt about it, Zipp looked downright regal, and every bit the part of queen.
“Listen to me,” she continued once everypony had stopped talking. “We cannot get divided again! We don’t know who did this, but believe me, we will be doing everything we can to prevent these kinds of things from happening again! This is exactly what caused us to separate in the first place, exactly the kind of thing that caused us to lose our magic in the first place! Do you really want that to happen again?”
“Maybe you would so you can act like you have some mystical power that none of us have that immediately makes you special while the rest of us suffer!” a pegasus in the crowd snapped, his angry voice carrying over the silent crowd, and a few ponies reared up, jeering at the royals. Zipp’s cheeks flushed.
“That wasn’t my decision!” she said quickly, her anger pouring into her voice. She took a deep breath and restrained herself. “The point is,” she said, her voice a forced calm, “this is our do-over, a chance to right our wrongs. We can’t pass up that chance.”
“Easy for you to say!” a pegasus jeered.
“We were better off before!” another answered. “We didn’t have our magic, but at least we didn’t have to worry about our brains getting fried!”
“Who’s to say that the unicorns aren’t planning to take over the city?” the first one said. “This used to be an all unicorn city before we took it over and made it the glorious place it is today. Maybe they want revenge!”
“They’ll get the earth ponies to help!” a pony cried out in fear. “They’ll come to slaughter us all!”
“What? No! I - just calm down!” Zipp protested, seeing her attempts rapidly failing.
“Says the princess who was supposed to be arrested!”
“She hangs out with earth ponies and unicorns, and so does her sister and her good-for-nothing mother! Who says they’re to be trusted?”
The jeers, the insults, they spread like wildfire, and soon even the royal guards were having trouble restraining themselves from giving the unicorns a piece of their mind. Sunny looked around in horror. It was like nothing had changed. Suddenly, dark lightning rippled across the sky, rumbling so loudly that it silenced everypony. Ponies watched as the royals’ wings suddenly failed to keep them in the air, and their screams pierced the silence as they plummeted towards the ground.
The ponies erupted into pandemonium, and Sunny had trouble thinking straight. She finally turned to Izzy and cried, “Do some magic!”
“I’m trying!” Izzy cried helplessly, her horn sparking and spluttering. “It’s not working!”
Sunny wracked her scattered brain, trying to come up with a plan as Zipp, Pipp, and Queen Haven neared the ground, flapping their wings desperately to stay aloft, but nothing changed. Hitch suddenly leaped into action, jumping off the street, rebounding off the wall of the vandalized store, and catching Pipp in midair before bringing both of them safely down on the street. Sunny and Izzy tried to copy him with less heroic results, with Izzy simply jumping really high to catch Zipp and Sunny having to run into the building next door, run upstairs onto the roof, and then jump to the ground, catching Haven safely and landing hard on the cobblestone road.
The spectators backed up while they rescued the royals, but once they were on solid ground, they continued to mock them. Hitch and Izzy led the pegasus family and a stunned Sunny away from the crime scene, getting them far enough away by navigating the back streets until they were back at the palace.
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Trying to remove the ability for a pegasus to fly, removing their advantage over the other tribe and doing it while the royal family is in the air, causing them to crash. That there is High Treason.
Oh boy this should have been a great day for sunny but apparently everything went downhill really quickly at first things were getting better at the Zephyr Heights pipp performing her song to everybody and this time without no strings and they even show her a surprise at the Air Station seen all the artifacts on the old days of generation 4 everything was just fine but until something happened outside a family of unicorns were attacked and apparently attention has really realize that the Pegasus are starting to get a little hostile and what makes things worse apparently the magic is starting to fade away that again and this is what Sunny was fearing about and everything started to crush down that everything they worked hard it's starting to Fall Apart
I'm not sure, but where is the map that WASN'T in the diary? I seems like you edited out the paragraph that introduced it or something.
11030387
it even could have been second-degree murder if Sunny, izzy, and hitch didn't save them
11030387
Well maybe they didn't realize that that would happen.
Pony Paranoia and Herd Mentality can be quite vicious, like borderline human level vicious.
For all that pones preach Harmony and Friendship, it is very clear that some of them are using it in a exclusive manner (For Pegasii, by Pegasii, all others can get stuffed).