Livestream

by bahatumay

Chapter 12

“Order, order!” Zoom shouted with a stomp, quieting down the crowd gathered in the Zephyr Heights throne room.

“One carrot dog, lightly-” Izzy started, but she was hit by no fewer than three elbows.

Queen Haven looked down. “Sunny Starscout, what do we know about Cozy Glow?”

“Not a lot,” Sunny admitted. “She was right. She’s pretty much been scrubbed from the records. I haven’t found anything even mentioning her, so whatever she did must have been pretty bad.”

“She has my daughter. Anything that could possibly be useful from the expedition is yours.”

“I’ll get right on it,” Sunny promised. “Zipp is our friend, too, and we’ll get her back.”

---

But even as she and her group of friends studied the artifacts Haven had helpfully provided (and snapped the occasional selfie), another storm was brewing.

Quite literally.

Hail fell from seemingly nowhere unexpectedly. Earth ponies quickly grew leafy plants to use as protection, but the hail tore through like it was tissue paper.

“What is with this weather?” Posey demanded.

“It’s the pegasi!” somepony else answered.

“No way, we can’t do anything like that.”

“Then it must have been the unicorns!”

“The unicorns?”

“Yeah! They’re the ones with all the magic. Does anypony even understand it? They’re a menace!”

They turned to look at the nearest unicorn.

Which happened to be Izzy, blissfully munching on a carrot dog, unconcerned with the hail because she was currently wearing a unicycled umbrella hat.

She looked up and gave a questioning ‘murr?’ at being the center of attention.

The wind picked up and blew harder.

---

Back in the Crystal Brighthouse, Izzy opened the door. “Ugh,” she said as she lit her horn and shut the door behind her. “You do not want to go out there.”

“Yeah, that storm is nasty,” Hitch said.

“Not just that. Ponies are starting to argue again.”

“And check out the trending videos,” Pipp said. She held up her phone.

Sunny watched… and then flinched. “That’s not a funny prank at all,” she said.

“But it’s spreading,” Pipp said.

“Great. Now we’ve got two criseses to work on. Crisii?” Izzy tried. “Crisen?”

Pipp scrolled through her feed. She looked up resolutely. “I know what I must do,” she said, standing. “Keep looking, everypony. I’ll be back.”

---

Pipp’s plan involved a livestream, so with lights shining and a little makeup for the camera, she sat.

“What’s your plan?” Izzy asked.

“Hold on. I’ve got to be brave.” Pipp took a steadying breath, blew air out her lips, and tapped the button to start streaming. “Hey, Pippsqueaks,” she said, forcing a smile but still sounding more subdued than usual. “It has literally been the craziest day today. My sister got taken over by a villain from over a thousand years ago, and it’s been… intense. I got to thinking of how things used to be. So I pulled up an old video from the archives, and I think you should see it.”

“Hey, everypony!” the young Pipp said excitedly. “My name is Princess Pipp Petals, and welcome to the stream!”

“Awww,” Izzy cooed, and the chat agreed with hearts flying upwards.

It was a very early stream, with shaky camera work, messy form, and nonexistent editing, but she was clearly excited to try this. For this stream, she talked to some of the guards, just quick interview-like soundbites.

She concluded, “I guess it doesn’t really matter where you’re from. You’re important and you can make a difference. Pipp Petals, out.”

‘Pipp Pipp Hooray’ flooded the chat. This stream was early enough that she hadn’t started that yet, but it was tradition at this point.

“I really like your mane,” Izzy said.

“It was the fashion back then,” Pipp said pointedly. “The point is, the important bits haven’t changed. We are stronger together. Sure, we’ll have our differences, and that’s good! We can’t all be the same thing or the same pony, and we shouldn’t all act like that.”

“Imagine an army of Izzies,” Izzy chortled. “Nothing would ever get done.”

“Maybe, but imagine how dull the Crystal Brighthouse would be without you.”

“Yeah. Wait. Like the glitter thing, or my arts, or my crafts, or my arts and crafts, my unique perspective on things, or-”

“All of that,” Pipp said.

Izzy sniffled. “I said I wouldn’t cry,” she said, who had said no such thing.

“And if you aren’t committed to that, you know where the unsubscribe button is. Pipp Pipp Hooray!” And she ended the stream.

“I think that went well,” Izzy said.

“Maybe. But I’m not looking at my follower count.” Pipp wilted. “I think I have to call it a night.”

“She’s right,” Sunny said, kneading her own eyes. “It has been the weirdest day and my eyes are having trouble focusing. We’ll help Zipp best when we’re alert. Let’s get some good rest, and get back at it tomorrow.”

Comments

[Yoshifan30]

“Not a lot,” Sunny admitted. “She was right. She’s pretty much been scrubbed from the records. I haven’t found anything even mentioning her, so whatever she did must have been pretty bad.”

Trust me you don't know half of it she did try to get rid of the magic before back in season 8 finale but thank goodness the young sux stopped her

[Yoshifan30]

So it looks like everybody know what happened during the live stream and Queen Haven really wants her daughter back from that villain but right now they need to figure out how and Ponies are starting to point at each other again but it looks like pipp give out a message to everybody not to give up hope and not letting the fear get the best of us and they had to stick together and it's starting to get the message from other ponies hopefully they will save zipp