Livestream

by bahatumay

Chapter 10

Sunny wiped down the counter. The lunch rush was over, so she got to take a quick breather and listen to the ponies around her. The magic hadn’t flickered recently, so that was hopeful.

Three fillies at a nearby table checked their phones.

“Aw, Pipp hasn’t uploaded anything recently.”

“You’re still watching Pipp?” another asked incredulously.

“Yeah. She’s grea-ea-eat,” she sang.

“She was,” the third said.

Sunny grimaced. She wanted to defend her friend, but honestly, she hadn’t seen her in a while.

When she got off work, she headed over to Mane Melody. “Hey, Jazz. Have you seen Pipp?”

“Not recently,” Jazz said.

Sunny frowned.

---

The sun shone through the windows of the Crystal Brighthouse as Sunny slid into her seat. “Thanks for coming,” she said.

“Of course,” Hitch said. “What’s on your mind?”

“I’m getting a little worried about Pipp,” she admitted. “I haven’t seen her in a while, and it’s not like her to just hole up somewhere.”

Behind her, Pipp retrieved a bag of chips from the pantry and walked back to the couch.

Izzy leaned over to look at her, then glanced back at Sunny. “Like, at all?” she prompted.

“Not mane nor feather,” Sunny said. She squinted. “What are you-? Pipp!”

“Hey,” Pipp said, her eyes still glued to her phone.

“How long have you been here?” Sunny asked.

“Not long. Mom said I had to get out of the castle, and she was right. I’m feeling better already.” She climbed onto the couch without taking her eyes off the phone once.

“So,” Hitch said, “what’s going on?”

“I’m watching Sage’s stream.”

“That can’t be good for your mental health,” Izzy observed airily.

“This time it is, because I’m going to figure out who this really is,” Pipp said resolutely. “I’m going to figure out why she’s doing what she’s doing.”

“Then what?” Sunny prompted gently.

“I’m not sure,” Pipp admitted, still in that same tone, “but I will think of something.”

Hitch hesitated. “Is this about that profile picture thing? Because if so-”

“I’ve seen your calendar. Don’t ‘@‘ me.”

“It’s for a good cause,” Hitch said defensively.

“If you say so. I don’t even know what a mortgage is,” Pipp groused.

---

Sunny poked her head in the Brighthouse. “Hey, Pipp. Still watching?”

“Mm-hm.”

“I brought you a smoothie,” Sunny said, holding it out. “Strawberry ripple, just like you like.”

Pipp took it without taking her eyes off the screen. She took a sip and set it down.

Sunny pursed her lips. She hadn’t really expected that to work, but she had other options. She sat at the table and started speaking a bit louder than usual. “So I found a few mentions of a game called Dragon Pit, and I think I’ve gotten part of the board recreated, but I don’t know exactly how it goes. There’s a mention of being ‘dropped’, but I don’t know if that means the board had two levels, or if it was just a penalty.”

“I’m down! We had a ton of fun figuring out buckball,” Izzy said. “You know, I tried to unicycle my own board game once.”

“How did that go?”

“Not great,” Izzy admitted cheerfully. “When you’ve only got one player, your options are kinda limited.”

Sunny winced. Izzy was certainly chipper, but she’d spent a lot of time alone, and she could empathize.

“Also I kept making the dice into earrings,” she continued. “Made it a little hard to play.”

“At least you didn’t eat them,” Hitch offered.

Izzy’s eyes flicked to one side. “Yeah, right? That’d be something. So, Sunny, Dragon Pit. Talk to me.”

---

“So I think rubies can only be collected by cards. I don’t think you can trade gold for rubies, like, at all.”

“Like, I know it only has to make sense in the game, but I mean, I think I’d rather have gold than rubies.”

“Really,” Izzy said, curious. “I’d rather have rubies.”

“You do like crystals.”

“Is that a unicorn joke? Maybe I just like red,” Izzy teased.

Before Hitch could come up with a witty retort, Pipp choked on the smoothie.

Sunny looked up. “Pipp? You ok?”

Pipp paused the stream and pinched the screen to zoom in. “No way,” she breathed. Without any other explanation, she took off, her wings beating furiously as she burst out the door and flew away.

“Pipp! Where are you going?” Sunny called after her.

But she was already gone.

Sunny looked between Izzy and Hitch, neither of which had wings. “My phone’s charging. Somepony, pull up the stream,” she said. “Maybe we can figure out what she saw.”

Izzy pulled out her phone, cracks spiderwebbed across the screen, and started scrolling. She found the stream quickly, but didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary right away. “What did she see?” Izzy asked, squinting at her screen. “I’m not-”

And then a door burst open.

But not in the Brighthouse.

On stream.

“You!” Pipp shrieked.

Sage Wisdom jumped at the accusatory cry. The towel slipped off her head, revealing-

“Zephyrina Alabastrine Storm! It’s been you this whole time?!”

“Zipp?” Hitch gasped. He had not seen this coming.

“No,” Sunny breathed. “How could she?”

“Were her eyes always that red?” Izzy wondered aloud.

As gasping emojis, keysmashes, shocked faces, red horseshoes, and broken heart emojis flooded the chat, Zipp stood up, flapping her wings to hover in place. “Well, well. Hey, little sis. Welcome to the stream.”

“Zipp, it was you?” Pipp asked, her ears dropping.

“Since the beginning,” Zipp confirmed with a chuckle. “Streaming just looked like so much fun, and it is!” She gestured at the chat. “Look at all the friends I’m making.”

“Look at how big of a jerk you’re being,” Pipp retorted. “You’re teaching ponies how to be meaner. You’re hurting the magic.”

“Sounds like somepony’s just a sad little Pipp that you’re not top streamer anymore.”

“No I’m not,” Pipp said, but her eyes may have flicked over to one side, and she didn’t sound thoroughly convincing.

Zipp grinned. “Come on. Pipp Petals? What a loser. I barely had to try, and I got so much more popular than you. Maybe sit this one out, like when you sat out the premiere of East Side Tale because you got so excited you peed yourself mid-livestream and you were too embarrassed to leave your room for a week.”

Hitch choked.

Sunny gasped.

And the chat blew up. A new wave of shocked emojis streamed upwards, but now some laughing emojis joined them, along with some foal emojis.

“Wow. That was low,” Izzy murmured around a mouthful of popcorn, disappointed in Zipp’s actions but deeply invested.

Hitch looked at the box of popcorn. “Where did you get that?” he asked.

“Mm-mm-mm,” Izzy said to the cadence of ‘I don’t know’.

Pipp’s face scrunched up and her cheeks burned bright red, but she took a steadying breath. “Who are you?” she asked.

She chuckled. “I’m your older sister, Pipp. And I’m always going to be better than you at anything I do, so-”

“Who are you?” Pipp repeated, more angrily, her wings flaring for emphasis.

“Ugh.” She rolled her eyes. “What is your deal, baby sister?”

Pipp took a breath, shaky but determined. “Zipp did know about that, but she helped me clean up and swore that she’d take that to her grave and never tell another pony. Now, Zipp is loud, she is crass, she is flighty, and she is more than a little bit irresponsible with things she doesn’t personally care about; but she is loyal and she is most certainly not a liar. Who are you?!”

She glanced at the chat, her red eyes flicking over the words there. “Well, the ponies have spoken. I guess it’s time for a name reveal.” She turned to the camera and waved brightly. “Hey, everypony! My name is Cozy Glow.”

Comments

[Yoshifan30]

“Zephyrina Alabastrine Storm! It’s been you this whole time?!”

[Yoshifan30]

Hitch looked at the box of popcorn. “Where did you get that?” he asked.

“Mm-mm-mm,” Izzy said to the cadence of ‘I don’t know’.

Yup totally like Pinkie Pie lol

[Yoshifan30]

She glanced at the chat, her red eyes flicking over the words there. “Well, the ponies have spoken. I guess it’s time for a name reveal.” She turned to the camera and waved brightly. “Hey, everypony! My name is Cozy Glow.”

Son of a gun and roses I knew it what the heck

[Yoshifan30]

Okay I did not see this coming at all okay so sunny was worry about pipp she's been acting a little weird lately but I guess she wanted to find out who is this Sage wisdom and she's been concentrating for almost the whole day while the others were just figuring out how to play some of these games but until pipp figure out who it is and it didn't take too long to find out who that was it was zipp she was Sage wisdom but apparently she's not acting herself lately she's really like giving out bad advice being mean to everybody but pipp knows her sister would never go this far so she's not being fooled apparently somebody is being possessed and it turns out it was cozy glow she came back