> Path to Peace
>  by Flamewarrior02
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The Nightmares are Real
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

2 days after Zipp’s breakdown 

For some, night is seen as a time for sleep, to rest the body after a long day. For others it is actually when they are most active. But there are those who fear the night and the darkness it brings. 

In the dark, one cannot see. That leaves them vulnerable and without control. And ponies fear what they are unable to control. And in the Crystal Brighthouse, a prime example of that right now was occurring with Zipp Storm. The pegasus princess was tossing and turning in her bed as a dream played in her head. A dream that was also her worst nightmare.





In the dream, Zipp found herself slowly approaching the Zephyr Heights Royal Palace. However, if the guards stationed out front were any indication, this was not a friendly visit. The guards lowered their spears at the advancing mare, but Zipp didn’t stop. “Charge!” Zoom yelled as she and the rest immediately went in for the attack. 

But Zipp just smiled wickedly and unfurled her wing, the tips of her feathers covered with blades, before she swiped it at those in her way. The guards all fell to the ground and didn’t get up, leaving the way to the main doors open for the pegasus.

The doors to the throne room swung open, startling the queen and princess on the throne as Zipp walked in dramatically. "Zephyrina!?" Queen Haven gasped at the sudden intrusion of her eldest daughter. "What is the meaning of this?!" She demanded.

Zipp chuckled darkly. "You mean you haven't realized? Well, let me be the first to congratulate you, Mother. You get to retire from being Queen."

Her mother was not surprised by this declaration, but still looked at her daughter with defiance. “If you think that after everything you’ve done to countless innocent ponies that I’ll hand over the throne of Zephyr Heights to you, young filly, then you are seriously mistaken!” She shouted at Zipp with flared wings. 

Zipp just chuckled at Queen Haven’s resistance. “Oh, I don’t know about that.” She said in response, looking straight at her mother’s eyes. She pawed her forelegs and it was revealed there were blades attached there as well that extended like a cat’s claws. “I can be very persuasive.”





“Ergh! No!” In the bed next to Zipp’s, Pipp’s ear twitched as the sounds of her sister’s distress, waking her up from her slumber. 

“Zipp?” Pipp groggily asked as she lifted her sleep mask to see what was the matter. Looking over at her sister, the pink pegasus saw that she was tossing and turning in her bed, mumbling in her sleep. 

Knowing immediately that Zipp was having another nightmare, Pipp flew over to her bed to wake her up. “Zipp!” She gently shook her sister to wake her up. Seeing it didn’t work, she tried with slightly more force. “Zipp, wake up!” She urged her big sister.

The response she got from Zipp was her big sister kicking her in the gut with her hind legs. The force sent the smaller pegasus crashing into her bed. The sound of the impact woke up Sunny and Izzy as the two mares were immediately on their feet. “What’s going on?!” Sunny quickly asked, looking around frantically for any signs of danger until she noticed Zipp flailing in her bed and Pipp curled up on the floor in clear pain. She and Izzy were quickly at the pink pegasus’ side. “Pipp, what happened?!” 

“It’s Zipp.” Pipp said in pain as she slowly got back onto her feet. “She’s having another nightmare. Help me wake her up!” She told them as she tried to shake her sister awake again.

“Pipp, wait!” Sunny tried to warn her friend of getting too close while Zipp was kicking so much in her sleep.

“She’s my sister!” Pipp shouted as she tried to shake Zipp awake again, only for her sister’s hoof to collide directly with her face.

“PIPP!” Sunny and Izzy shouted in panic before the unicorn pulled Pipp away before she could be kicked again.

“Izzy, let me go!” Pipp struggled in the magical grasp, her face now bleeding from a broken nose.

“Not if your plan is to go back into the line of fire!” Izzy retorted. 

“Zipp would never hurt me!” Pipp shot back.

“Awake, yes! But right now she has no idea what’s going on!” Sunny told her as she could only imagine what was scaring Zipp so much in her nightmare. “ZIPP!” She called out in hopes of waking her up.





Back in the dream, Zipp placed the crown that was formerly her mother’s onto her head. “At last, it’s mine.” She said with a triumphant smile and laughed evilly. Still, her work was not done yet. There was still one pony left in the room to deal with. The white pegasus didn’t even need to look behind herself to know that Pipp was currently trying to sneak away undetected. “And just where do you think you are going?” She laughingly asked.

Before Pipp had time to react, she found Zipp standing directly in front of her. “Z-Zipp!” Pipp gasped as she fell on her haunches.

“You didn’t think you could just leave, did you?” Zipp mockingly asked, laughing at her sister’s fear.

“Zipp, please!” Pipp begged. “We’re family! We’re sisters!”

“Sisters?” Zipp gave a crude laugh. “You think after everything that’s happened you have any right to call me that?!” She asked as her anger started to grow. 

“I-I don’t understand.” Pipp stuttered out in her fear.

Zipp gave another cruel laugh. “Ha! That’s to be expected! You’re just the same as the rest of these ingrates.” She growled. “I’ve been spending years trying to better the lives of everypony. Trying to return flight to the pegasi. To try and keep magic from disappearing again. To find a way to destroy the pony who wants it all for herself. And what did you do? You just sat there, playing the part of the perfect little princess.”

Without any warning, Zipp grabbed Pipp by the throat and lifted her into the air. “And what happens?! They all flock to you! They all worship you and praise you while ignoring everything I have to say!  Even our own mother gives all her attention to you rather then give me any of the respect I deserve!” She screamed before throwing the younger princess against a wall. 

Pipp hit the wall hard, possibly breaking her wings, and fell to the floor like a plush doll. “Z-Zipp.” She choked out through the tears that were now coming down her face. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to-“

“Shut up!” Zipp her cut off. “I don’t want to hear any pathetic attempts of an apology! You don’t deserve any! This is my kingdom! MY DESTINY! And that destiny is one without you.”

“No!” Pipp pleaded on deaf ears as Zipp raised a hoof into the air, the claws already in position. “NO! DON’T DO THIS! ZIPP!” Pipp screamed as the hoof came down.





“NOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Zipp screamed as she finally woke up from her hellish nightmare. Panting like she had just flown around the world and back, her eyes darted around the room aimlessly.

“Zipp!” The pegasus was able to get some focus when she saw her friends run over to her side, having been shouting for the last minute or so to wake her up. “Zipp, it’s okay! You’re awake now!” Pipp assured her big sister.

“Are you okay?” Izzy asked.

“Zipp, speak to us!” Sunny pleaded.

As Zipp took in their words, she noticed how her sister looked. Pipp’s face now had what seemed to be severely bruised and a bloody nose. Zipp looked down at her own hooves and that’s when she saw it. 

Blood. Her sister’s blood. On her hooves. “No.” She quietly said as the realization of what she had done came in.

“Zipp.” Pipp tried to reach for her sister, but was stopped when Zipp slapped the hoof away.

“NOOOOOO!” Zipp cried as she leapt out of bed and ran down the stairs. 

It happened so fast that her friends barely understood what had just happened. Thankfully, it only took a few seconds for them to realize Zipp was attempting to run away again. “Zipp, no! Come back!” Pipp cried as she flew after her, Sunny and Izzy following close behind.

Despite not being able to fly herself, Zipp was still very fast on foot thanks to years of parkour in the mountains around Zephyr Heights. This allowed her to have a very effective head start on her pursuers that she now heard following her. “I should’ve known better than to come back here!” She scolded herself in her thoughts. ”I still can’t control myself! I have to get away! Far away this time! Somewhere nopony will ever find me! It’s the only way to protect Pipp!”

She slammed open the front doors and continued on running. She didn’t know where she was going to go this time. If she had to she’d run to the other end of Equestria. The white pegasus was so distracted by her distraught thoughts that it took her a while to notice that as she was running she wasn’t making any distance. “Wha?” Looking down, she found herself surrounded by a purple glow that was holding her in place.

Instantly recognizing the glow as Izzy’s magic, Zipp began to struggle as she tried to free herself. “Eh! No!” She said through clenched teeth just as her friends came out through the doors she swung open.

“Zipp!” They all shouted together as they ran over to their pegasus friend.

“No! Let me go!” Zipp shouted as she increased her struggling.

“Zipp, you need to calm down!” Izzy told her. All of the Pegasus’ struggling against her magical hold was making it difficult for the unicorn to focus, which in turn was making it harder to keep Zipp restrained.

Seeing Izzy’s difficulty keep Zipp in place, Sunny quickly went into her alicorn form and assisted her unicorn friend in preventing the pegasus’ escape. “Zipp, please! Don’t run away again!”

“I have to!” Zipp said as she started to cry. “I still can’t control myself! I attacked my sister! And I’ll do it again if I stay here! I can’t be near you! You’re better off without me! Equestria is better off without me!”

Hearing Zipp’s cries of despair and self loathing made Pipp, Sunny, and Izzy recall when Zipp trapped herself in the cave. Once again they were shouting at Zipp, and their raised voices were just making the pegasus princess feel worse about herself. Holding her in place against her will wasn’t helping, but they had no choice in that regard.

They needed to be gentler if they wanted Zipp to listen to them. And since she was the only one not focusing her magic on keeping the pegasus from escaping, Pipp was the one who this task fell upon. Wiping her nose to make sure the blood was off, she flew over to her sister and landed in front of her. “Zipp.” She said gently.

“No! Stay away from me, Pipp!” Zipp shouted fearfully. “I’ll just attack you again!”

“You didn’t attack me.” Pipp replied as she grabbed her sister’s forehooves and held them, making Zipp stop in her flailing. “It was all an accident. You were having a nightmare, and when I got close you hit me with your hooves.”

“You see?! That’s why I can’t be near you anymore! I’ll just end up hurting you!” Zipp tried to reason with her little sister.

“Everypony has nightmares, Zipp.” Sunny told her, now able to concentrate more since the pegasus wasn’t struggling anymore. “And we can’t control what happens in them, or what we do while having them.” 

“And I definitely know everypony has accidents time and time again.” Izzy said before quickly adding. “I mean accidents as in like mistakes, not…….you know.” She said with a small blush.

“B-But-“

“Zipp, it’s okay. I’m okay.” Pipp assured her sister and she now pulled her into a hug. 

Being in Pipp’s embrace seemed to work in calming Zipp down to the point Sunny and Izzy could cancel their magic and not worry about her running off. Seeing their assumption was correct, they walked over to the sisters and joined in the hug.

They stayed like that for a few minutes before the four of them went back into the Brighthouse. Closing the doors behind them, Sunny saw that Zipp had broken off from the group and went over to the couch in the living room instead of upstairs and laid down on it. “Zipp?” She asked in confusion.

“I…….rather sleep down here, if that’s okay with you.”

Pipp looked like she was about to either object or join her sister, but Izzy held a hoof out and stopped her. “We understand, Zipperdoodle.” She assured her pegasus friend as she levitated a blanket over to her that covered the princess’ body. “Just don’t be afraid to call for one of us if you need anything.”

“Thanks, Iz.” Zipp said as she pulled the blanket over herself. 

Seeing Zipp getting herself comfortable, the other three mares went back upstairs to the bedroom. When they arrived, Pipp looked over at Izzy. She was about to say something to the unicorn, but Izzy already knew what it was going to be based on Pipp’s annoyed expression. “She’s still coming to terms with everything that’s happened, especially the thoughts of harming you. It’s best to not overwhelm her right now and give her some space.” She explained herself to Pipp. 

“Izzy’s right.” Sunny nodded in agreement. “We all knew going into this that it would take more than one heart-to-heart before Zipp started to improve. We just need to be patient and give her time to collect her thoughts rationally.”

“So what? You expect me to just go back to sleep after all that?” Pipp asked. “What if she has another nightmare and runs away again? We might not be able to find her this time!” The thought made her worries increase tenfold as she slightly started to panic.

Sunny and Izzy each went over to Pipp and placed a hoof on her shoulders. “No.” Sunny assured her. “We will each take turns watching over her, and I’ll let Hitch know first thing in the morning so he can help, too.”

Hearing this made Pipp’s worries decrease, but only slightly. “Okay.” She shakingly agreed.

Seeing Pipp still distressed, Izzy increased her hug and nuzzled against the pink pegasus. “Don’t worry, Pipp. Like Elder Flower used to tell me, it’s always darkest before the dawn. In this case the dawn will be Zipp’s full recovery.”

“But how long will it remain dark?” Pipp asked.

Izzy didn’t have an answer for that, but Sunny did. “It doesn’t matter, because we will be with her for every step of the way. Hoof to Heart.”

“Hoof to Heart.” Pipp and Izzy repeated.

Having come up with a plan going forward, the three mares went back to their beds, with Sunny saying she’ll take the first watch. Despite this, Pipp still couldn’t find it in herself to relax and fall back asleep. She was still too worried about what might happen if she dozed off for even a second. 

Downstairs, her sister was having the exact same problem. Even with some more space between her and Pipp, was it enough distance? They said that it was only an accident that she hurt Pipp this time. But what about the next time? What if she blacked out and really lost control of herself and actually succeeded in killing her sister?

The worrisome thoughts kept both sisters from getting any sleep for the remainder of the night. In fact, nopony was going to be getting much rest at all come morning, when the light returned and offered some form of comfort from the darkness.
> Sisters Forever
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

9 days after Zipp’s breakdown

There was nothing that Pipp valued more than her family. While the exact definition can be debated from pony to pony, Pipp knew exactly who the ponies she called family were. And none of them meant more to her than her sister Zipp.

When they were fillies, they were the definition of opposites attract. They would do everything together despite their different interests. And whenever one was feeling down, the other would be there to pick them back up. 

So seeing how her sister was now broke Pipp’s heart. That was actually the first part of the problem, she rarely even saw Zipp nowadays. The older pegasus sister kept maximum possible distance from Pipp, pretty much refusing to share the same room with her out of fear of attacking her again, despite what the rest of her friends kept telling her about it being an accident. If Pipp wanted to so much as catch a glimpse of Zipp for more than a few seconds, it would’ve had to have been while watching her big sister while she slept and made sure she didn’t have nightmares. If she did, then Pipp would have to get Sunny or Izzy to wake Zipp up while she stayed out of sight so her sister wouldn’t freak out at the sight of her and assume the worst again. 

And what little Pipp did see worried her immensely. Actually, it worried all of Zipp’s friends.  Zipp was starting to look worse instead of better. She was rarely eating, barely groomed herself, only slept for about an hour at most, and had lost quite a few pounds. This was especially worrisome as Zipp’s feathers wouldn’t grow back if her body wasn’t healthy.

If there was any comfort for Pipp, it was that Zipp at the very least didn’t avoid her friends like she did for her. They could sit by her and talk with the white pegasus, but they weren’t getting much back in terms of conversation. Sunny had tried to set up an appointment with a therapist known as Dr. Uaminifu, who helped her when her father passed, but Zipp’s lack of opening up was no doubt going to make the sessions go nowhere.

Nopony really knew what to do going forward regarding Zipp’s recovery, and it was making them all worry. Pipp didn’t have the luxury of worrying all the time. She was an influencer/pop star/mane stylist/product designer, and she had an appearance to maintain. In actuality, all her work was actually something she welcomed with open hooves, more so than usual. It distracted her and allowed to think of things other than her sister.

So Pipp kept on doing more and more activities to distract to herself while her friends handled Zipp. It seemed to be working quite well. However, there was one detail that Pipp either overlooked or chose to ignore. When she overworks herself she gets sick. And the more she overworks, the sicker she becomes.





“Aaah-aaaah-ACHOOOO!” Pipp sneezed into her tissue with so much force that it flew out of her hooves and right onto Sunny’s face. “Sorry, Sunny.” She apologized before resting her head back on the pillow. “Uuuuuuuugh.” 

“It’s okay, Pipp.” Sunny assured her friend as she removed the tissues from her face, boogers and all. “Uck!” She said in disgust as she threw it into the trash. “Just a minor price for taking care of a sick friend.”

“And believe me when I say it’s very much appreciated.” Pipp said before coughing a fit. 

“Oh, no! Are you about to lose your lunch?” Izzy worryingly asked as she levitated over a bucket. “Because I don’t want you to lose that tea I made you.”

“No, Izzy. It was just coughing this time.” Pipp eased the unicorn’s concerns as Hitch brought her a bowl of soup. “Thank you, Hitch.” She said before taking a sip.

“No problem.” Hitch replied before asking. “Is there anything else that we can get you?”

Pipp put down the bowl and laid her head back down. “You could put me out of my misery.” She groaned in pain.

“Anything within reason?” Hitch asked again.

Pipp thought for a second and then just rolled onto her side, facing away from her friends. “I think I just need to rest.” She told them as she picked up her phone to stream something.

“Okay.” Hitch nodded. “We’ll give you your privacy so you can sleep. But remember-“

“No work. I know.” Pipp repeated what she had been told over twenty times that day. “Trust me, everypony, I feel so crummy right now that I can’t do anything no matter how much I tried.” 

“I was going to say call if you need anything, but that also works.” Hitch replied as he, Sunny, and Izzy went back downstairs, though not before Sunny shot one last concerned look at the sick pegasus. 

In the living room, Zipp simply laid on the couch, presumably attempting to take a nap. But her nagging thoughts and pounding heart were preventing the pegasus from being able to relax herself. Her ears twitched when she heard the hoofsteps of her friends coming down the stairs. Opening her eyes, she saw them as they reached the floor level.

She was going to ask them how Pipp was but stopped herself. The less she knew about how weak her sister was right now the better. That was the whole reason she refused to go upstairs at all. Zipp knew that seeing Pipp in such a vulnerable state was too great a risk. She already tried to kill her once, and she vowed she’d never do it again. It wasn’t easy avoiding her sister, but if it kept Pipp safe then she welcomed the pain.

Unfortunately for Zipp, her plan hit a snag when her friends walked over to her. “Uh, hey, Zipp.” Hitch said awkwardly. “So…..Pipp’s doing fine.” He told her.

“I mean once you get pass the sneezing, and the coughing, and the throwing up, then yeah, she’s doing great.” Izzy interjected before chuckling nervously at the annoyed looks Hitch and Sunny sent her.

“That’s good to hear.” Zipp muttered. 

The three friends looked at each other with concerned looks. They knew that the nightmare from a week ago was scaring Zipp into keeping herself away from her sister. They had hoped that the issue might’ve resolved itself by now, but it was clear that wasn’t the case, and definitely wasn’t going to become the case unless they stepped in.

Zipp clearly needed her sister, just as much as Pipp needed her.

Sunny shared a look with Hitch and Izzy that told them she would try and make the effort. “Well, I guess I better get back to the station to check on Sparky.” Hitch said as he left to check on his dragon son.

“And I should get started on more soup for Pipp.” Izzy said as she left for the kitchen, leaving Sunny and Zipp alone in the living room.

Now that she was alone with Zipp, Sunny thought very carefully about what she would say to her friend. While she was trying to push Zipp into taking action, she also didn’t want to force her hoof. The pegasus princess clearly was afraid of herself at the moment. And somehow Sunny had to convince her to confront that fear in a possibly extreme way that could easily backfire and send them all back to step one.

But Sunny wasn’t a pony to give up just because the odds were stacked against her. Especially when it was related to her friends. She sat down next to Zipp and told her. “You know, there is one medicine that we’ve been trying to get Pipp that we haven’t been able to acquire.”

Zipp already knew what she was talking about. “I’m not going up there.” She told her firmly.

“But, Zipp, she’s your sister.”

“The sister I nearly killed!” Zipp lifted her head off the couch and yelled at Sunny. “Or did you just so happen to forget that ‘little’ detail?” She asked rhetorically with a glare at the earth pony. 

Sunny winced at Zipp’s tone. Truth be told, she did kind of forget that Zipp did openly admit to nearly strangling Pipp to death when they found her in the cave. “Zipp-“

“Had I not realized what I was doing a second too late, Pipp would be dead and I’d probably be preparing to go after my mom next.  And now I’m getting dreams where I’m killing them both more graphically than strangulation. So you tell me, why I should go and see my sister when she’s too weak to even move?”

Sunny said nothing as she placed a hoof on Zipp’s shoulder. She knew what she was going to say, but she wasn’t proud of it. ”Forgive me.” She said silently before saying what she needed to say.

“Zipp, I know you think that by keeping yourself away from Pipp that you are protecting her from whatever harm you see yourself doing. But the truth is……you’re doing to exact opposite by avoiding her like this.”

Zipp looked confused and surprised at what Sunny told her. “Wh-what?”

“You know why Pipp is so sick?” Sunny asked her with a serious look on her face. 

“Because she overworked herself again.” Zipp answered.

“Yes, and you know why she has been overworking herself?” Sunny asked, but this time didn’t wait for Zipp to answer before saying. “Because she was looking for anything possible to distract herself so she wouldn’t be constantly thinking about you. I know because…” She paused as the unpleasant memories played in her mind. “I was the same when my father died.” She said with a choked sob.

The orange earth pony quickly wiped her eyes before continuing. “I would do anything possible so I wouldn’t think about my dad and the circumstances surrounding his death. But that did nothing to help me and only ending up hurting me, both figuratively and literally. And now Pipp is in the same situation I was in. She’s hurting because of you.”

Zipp was taken aback by this and shook her head in defiance. “N-no, I’m not hurting her. I’m protecting her!” She tried to say otherwise, but her tone was indicating she was starting to believe Sunny.

Sunny slowly shook her head. “I’m sorry, Zipp, but that’s not true. How can you protect Pipp if your plan is to not even be a part of her life anymore? You’re not just hurting her, you’re hurting all of us.” She took Zipp’s hooves in her own. “We want you to get better, Zipp. We all hate seeing you like this. But you can’t get better if you don’t want to and not put in the effort to better yourself. So I have to ask you this, do you want to recover from all of this?”

Having said all she needed to say, Sunny left to go help Izzy in the kitchen, leaving Zipp alone to think about everything Sunny said.





Despite all her best efforts, Pipp just would not fall asleep. No matter what she tried, which wasn’t much given her lack of energy, she just couldn’t get comfortable. So she just decided to lay in bed and stare at the ceiling. She heard hoof steps approaching her bed, but didn’t look to see who it was. She just assumed it was somepony bringing her more soup. “Just leave it on the table.” She told them.

Their response surprised her as they actually got into bed with her and wrapped their hooves around her, pulling her into a hug and using their chest as a pillow for the pegasus. Before Pipp could ask who it was, she felt a pair of wings embrace her, telling her exactly the identity of the pony who was hugging her. “Zipp?” She said quietly, and a bit hopefully, as she looked to see her sister’s gently smiling face.

“Hey, Pipp.” Zipp spoke to her sister for the first time in a week. “Comfy?” She asked. Her response was Pipp nuzzling into her sister’s coat like a cat would. This adorable gesture made Zipp chuckle and she rubbed Pipp’s mane with her hoof, earning giggles from her younger sister.

“Mmmm. Much more now that you’re here.” Pipp replied verbally.

Despite the heartfelt answer, Zipp could help but frown. “I’m sorry, Pipp. I still haven’t really been a good big sister, have I?”

Shocked at what her sister said, Pipp lifted her head and looked at Zipp with a pained expression. “What? No!” She shook her head in defiance. “Zipp, you’re the best sister anypony could ask for!” She told her.

“You don’t have to lie to me, Pipp. I know that you’ve been missing me.” Zipp responded. “I’ve been so worried about what I would do to you if I got close that I didn’t think about what being far away from you might result in.” The older pegasus stopped briefly to sniff as she felt tears forming in her eyes. “You shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to get me to notice you, Pipp. I should’ve just-“

“Zipp, stop.” Pipp said firmly as she placed a hoof over her sister’s mouth. “Look, I was the one being needy and constantly trying to distract myself because I couldn’t give my sister some space.”

“You’re not needy for wanting to be able to have a basic conversation with me, Pipp.” Zipp said once Pipp removed her hoof. “You should be able to talk to me whenever you want about whatever.”

“I know, it’s just….” Pipp paused as she thought if she could continue. Zipp already felt horrible with herself as it was. Did she really need more guilt thrown onto her by her little sister?

Zipp noticed something was bothering Pipp and tightened her embrace. “There’s something else, isn’t there?” She assumed. “Pipp, you can tell me what’s wrong. I promise I won’t get upset if it’s about me.”

Pipp sniffled before burying her face into Zipp’s coat. “I don’t want to lose you again. You know how mom would say that as fillies we were attached at the wings?” She felt her sister nod against her head and continued. “As we grew up, we drifted apart and soon we barely spoke with each other. It wasn’t until we returned magic and moved here that I realized how much I had missed the days when we were always together. I feel like we were finally coming back together, maybe even more than as fillies. I just….” She paused as she hiccuped through her tears. “I just don’t want that to end. I don’t want to be a stranger to my sister anymore, just as much as I don’t want her to be a stranger to me.”

Hearing Pipp’s confession broke Zipp’s heart, realizing Sunny was right. She had been so focused in feeling sorry for herself, that she didn’t think about how much her friends were worried for her. How afraid they were for her. She knew that if things continued as they were that they’d all continue to remain miserable. She promised her friends she’d improve in the cave. It was time to start fulfilling that promise.

“Pipp, look at me.” The younger sister complied and removed her head from Zipp’s chest and looked at her with tear strained eyes. “I promise that I will never leave you alone again. That I will always be there for you to lean on.” 

“Y-you mean that?” 

“Hoof to heart.” Hearing that promise gave Pipp some much needed reassurance and comfort. She rested her head back on Zipp’s chest and smiled. “So, what were you watching before I came up here?” Zipp asked.

“Oh, just some YouHoof videos.” Pipp said with a yawn. “You can pick the show first, this time. I hear a certain show you like has dropped some new episodes.” She sang playfully before giggling at Zipp’s excited face.

“Seriously? Man, it feels like only yesterday since chapter 4 dropped.” Zipp said as she grabbed her sister’s phone and opened up the proper streaming service. 

“I still don’t understand how you are so obsessed with a show that’s nothing but big lizards smacking each other around.” Pipp said teasingly.

“I believe you answered that yourself when I questioned what’s the deal with your favorites shows. ‘Spoken like an uncultured mind’ were your exact words.” Zipp joked back before tickling Pipp’s stomach with her wings.

“Zipp, you ass! Not while I’m sick!” Pipp laughed as she tried and failed to keep the wings at bay. 

“I’m waiting, Pipp.” Zipp said expectantly.

“Come on! Can’t you just give me a break while I’m feeling ill?” 

“Hmmm.” Zipp pretended to consider Pipp’s request before giving her predetermined answer. “Nope!” She said as she now got her hooves involved to make up for her shortened wings.

“Okay! Okay! I’ll say it!” Pipp surrendered. Zipp stopped her tickling, but still held her sister firmly to make sure she didn’t try and escape. “I’m your Pretty Pink Petite Pony Princess Pillow Pipp Petals. Trademark.” She said with a groan.

“You know, I was thinking of some other P-words that could be added. Perhaps plushy? Or poofy? Maybe plumpy?” Zipp laughed as Pipp gently punched her in annoyance. 

Despite her sister’s annoying shenanigans, Pipp couldn’t help but smile. “Oh, how I’ve missed this.” She said as she gave another yawn. 

“Aww, don’t fall asleep yet. We haven’t even gotten through one episode yet.” Zipp playfully complained.

“You’re not the one who’s sick, Zipp. Besides, you’re the one who always pesters me to rest.” 

“And when you wake up, I will still be right here.” Zipp assured her sister.

“I know.” Pipp said as she felt her eyes getting heavy as sleep finally overtook her.





Two days later, and Pipp was back to her regular self. However, instead of live streaming to all of her fans now that she had the energy again, the pink pegasus was instead using this time to be with her sister. Zipp has finally mustered up the strength to leave the Brighthouse and go and meet with the therapist Sunny suggested. Knowing she’d need the support, Pipp decided to accompany her. 

The two sisters were now sitting in the lounge of the office, waiting for their turn when the door to Dr Uaminifu’s office opened up and a brown earth pony mare stepped out. “Zipp Storm.” She called out for her next patient.

Hearing her name, Zipp hopped out of her seat and walked over to the waiting therapist. “That’s me.” She said with a weak smile. 

“Nice to finally meet you, Zipp.” Uaminifu said as she shook the pegasus’ hoof. “Now, why don’t you step inside and tell me what’s on your mind.” She requested as she moved out of the way and allowed Zipp to enter the room.

Just as she was about to close the door, Pipp stopped her. “Can I please come in? She’s my sister.” She asked the therapist.

“I’m very strict when it comes to doctor-patient confidentiality. Unless Zipp herself says that-“

“She can come in.” Zipp said. “I’d honestly feel better if she was in here with me.” 

Dr. Uaminifu looked back at the white pegasus and smiled. “If that is what you want, dear.” She said before allowing Pipp to enter the room and join them before closing the door behind herself. “Now then, Zipp. Tell me what has been troubling you?” She asked as she sat on a large chair while the sisters sat on a couch.

Zipp looked down, hesitating to reveal such details to a stranger, even if Sunny vouched for her. She felt a hoof place itself on her own and looked up to see Pipp’s comforting face. “It’s okay, Zipp. I’m here.” She assured her big sister.

Seeing her little sister’s smile made Zipp smile herself. Truly there was nopony that she could rely on more than her sister. The most important pony in her life.
> Moments of Reflection
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

11 days after Zipp’s breakdown

“Now then, Zipp. Tell me what’s been troubling you?” Dr. Uaminifu asked as she sat down on her chair.

Zipp looked hesitant, still having reserves about sharing such private things with a stranger, no matter how much Sunny vouched for her. Pipp sensed her sister’s worries and placed a hoof over her own. “It’s okay, Zipp. I’m here.” She assured with a smile.

Having Pipp with her eased Zipp’s concerns and she smiled back. She then sighed and looked at the therapist. “Honestly, there’s been so much crap going on that I don’t even know what to say or how to say it.” She answered the question.

“Perhaps at where it started would be good?” Uaminifu suggested.

“That doesn’t exactly help narrow it down for me.” Zipp replied before asking. “Don’t you already know why I’m here?”

“If you mean specifically why, then no. Sunny only told me that you were in need of help and I volunteered to assist in your recovery to the best of my powers.” The therapist explained. “Other than that, I know nothing of your story and only request for a brief summary. Assuming that isn’t too much to currently ask for.”

“It’s not.” Zipp said as she decided on a starting point. “I’d say it all started when I got my hooves in our friend Misty’s necklace. I have always had my suspicions of her, and I was certain that necklace she was always wearing had something to do with it. So, when she took it off for whatever reason, I stole it and brought it back into the Brighthouse to investigate it. And like an idiot I decided to get my friends involved.”

“Zipp.” Pipp said softly. 

“It’s the truth, Pipp.” Zipp countered. “I knew there was something up with that necklace, and I decided to just lay it on the table in front of you all instead of working in private like a proper detective should.” She scolded herself before she continued the story. “The necklace turned out to be full of dark magic that ended up taking possession of all of us, making all of my friends into corrupted opposites of themselves.” 

Pipp frowned at what her sister said. She still considered what happened to as her true self being revealed, not her corrupted self.

Uaminifu wrote down this information before asking one of the biggest questions. “And what about you? I can only assume the dark magic did something to you as well.”

Zipp looked down in shame, already knowing the therapist her answer before she responded. “That is correct.”

“Could you tell me what it was like under the influence of that magic?” Uaminifu carefully asked. She could tell this was really uncomfortable territory for the pegasus, but she had to travel in if they were to make any progress.

As expected, Zipp hesitated greatly in her response. “I…..I…..I…..I.”

Seeing her distress, Pipp gave her sister a hug. “It’s okay, Zipp. I’m right here.” She assured her sister, not just because of Zipp reliving unpleasant memories, but also that she wouldn’t judge her not matter what she said.

This comfort helped ease Zipp slightly, but not by much. Having Pipp hear what she was about to say, or rather what she knew would be connected to what she says, was the biggest thing holding her back. And from how Dr. Uaminifu was watching them, it seemed she picked up on the same idea. "Ms. Petals, would it be too much to ask for you to step outside for a bit?" She requested of Pipp.

Pipp was taken aback by this suggestion. "Excuse me? You just said I could be here, and now you're kicking me out?"

"Please understand that this is all in Zipp's best interests." Uaminifu tried to reason with the princess.

This only upset Pipp even further as she got up from the couch and walked over angrily to the therapist. "Don't tell me what's in Zipp's best interests! I am her sister, and I am not leaving her just after I got her back in my life!" She yelled.

Zipp began to feel really uncomfortable at the signs of an argument starting between Pipp and Uaminifu, especially when she was the reason for it happening. She also was feeling guilty for giving Pipp the implication that she wasn't comfortable sharing personal information with her. She was her own sister for hoofness sake. If there was any shoulder she could expect to lean on when she needed it, it should be hers.

With a sigh, she said one word that stopped the argument between the other two mares. "Freedom.”

This got Pipp and Uaminifu to forget what they were disagreeing about and look at Zipp in confusion. “Huh?” They said simultaneously before returning to their seats. "Explain what you mean by freedom." Uaminifu requested. Of all the feelings she expected Zipp to say she experienced under the necklace’s influence, freedom was not one of them. If anything, she expected the opposite.

Zipp gave another sigh and looked at Pipp, who looked back at her older sister with concern and confusion. She had always wanted to keep a lot of this secret from her sister. From everypony honestly. But, like almost everything in her life, it was too good to last forever. Looking down at her hooves, Zipp began to explain what she meant.

“Being the heir to the throne has always been stressful for me. Mom would often scold me for sneaking off to do stunts, or research flight, or frankly anything that wasn’t what she wanted, saying that it wasn’t how a queen should act. And as I got older, the more I hated the idea of being the future queen. It felt like I wasn’t allowed to ever be myself, instead being the pony others wanted me as. Even after moving to Maretime Bay and having Mom become more accepting of who I am, the feeling still doesn’t go away. It often returns, like shackles weighing me down. The thought of how everypony is going to be looking to me for answers. How I have to be perfect in every way. Not once allowing even the smallest mistake to happen. It all builds up to the point I’m honestly surprised I haven’t had a heart attack or something similar by now.” She joked with a crude laugh before continuing.

“So when I got infected with the necklace’s dark magic, instead of feeling trapped within my own mind, it instead felt like a huge wave of relief washed over me. It was the first time I was accepting my position as the heir, yet still feeling like my own self. It was as if the shackles holding me down had been cut and I was free. It was the most exhilarating feeling since magic returned and I could fly for real that I didn’t even care at all for what I was saying or doing.” 

“I see.” Uaminifu said as she wrote this information down. 

Pipp was shocked to hear what Zipp was saying. She knew that her big sister always seemed to hate her princess title, hence why she gave herself the nickname in the first place so she wouldn’t be reminded of her destiny with her full name, but she didn’t expect it to affect her this much.  She honestly felt like she had been selfish now for worrying so much about her own perfection when Zipp had it worse than she ever would.

“So, when Misty came in and saved us, I initially thought that was the end of it and assumed it was just me acting the opposite of myself like the rest of my friends.” Zipp paused to sniffle as she felt tears of shame from in her eyes. “But I was wrong. I was very wrong. I wasn’t made into the opposite of myself. Instead, I showed the real me that day, and she was intended to stay.”

“Zipp, that’s not true.” Pipp tried to convince her otherwise.

But Zipp shook her head. “No, Pipp. It is the truth. Why else is it that I’m the only one suffering from aftereffects of that day? I told you before, nothing that came into my head wasn’t something I haven’t considered before.”

“Aftereffects?” Uaminifu said with interest. “Care to elaborate?”

Zipp nodded and did exactly that. “In the days after the event, I would be trying to recapture that feeling of being in control of my life again in many ways. All of which were horrible. I tried to block the urges out, but they just kept coming back and I would find myself nearly forcing myself onto Hitch or trying to take the magic from the crystals.” She said before pausing, almost afraid to mention the next part.

Uaminifu noticed the pause in the story and looked at her patient. “Zipp, if you wish to stop and continue this another day, there is no problem in that.” She assured the distraught pegasus.

Knowing what was coming up in the story, Pipp found herself agreeing with the therapist as she got onto her hooves and lightly tugged her big sister’s. “Come on, Zipp. I think that’s enough for today.”

“No, no.” Zipp retorted with a sniffle. “I can do this.” She said before resuming the story. “Despite my efforts, I still kept finding myself turning to the darkness just so I’d feel comfortable with myself. And then one night, it all reached its peak. I….I……….I TRIED TO KILL PIPP!” Zipp shouted as she started to cry in shame with herself. “I stupidly kept telling myself that since Pipp is Mom’s favorite that she’d take over as heir to the throne. And with all the power I’ve been foolishly allowing myself to feel, I actually believed it! So I went over to her bed and was about to strangle her to death!”

“It was only then that I finally realized in full the pony I had become. I was disgusted with myself. How could I let myself become this tyrant? How could I do this to my friends and family? And when I realized that they’d soon notice and approach me to ask what was wrong, I knew I had to get away from them. But it was more than that. I wanted myself to suffer. To feel the pain that I was going to inflict on those I loved just because I thought I was above them. So I trapped myself in a cave and waited for the slow and agonizing end. The only reason I’m still here now is because I chose a terrible hiding place in my panic and my friends found and rescued me, convincing me to try again. And here we are.” Zipp finished her story with tears in her eyes.

"This feeling of punishing yourself, has it ever gotten to the point of you considering or even trying to take your own life?" Uaminifu asked the question she was always cautious of asking the most with any client.

Surprisingly, Zipp shook her head. "Maybe in the past when it was just stress and fear weighing me down, if only for brief moments before they were pushed aside. But now, with what I have done, I find myself wanting to drag out my punishment for as long as possible." She admitted.

She wasn’t the only one crying as Pipp also had tears now coming out of her eyes. "Zipp." She said quietly. "Why did you never tell me any of what you were feeling before?"

"Like I said, I didn-" Zipp was interrupted by Pipp now sounding almost angry with her.

"I don't mean that! I mean why would you not tell me about how much being heir stressed you out!?" Zipp winced at the shouting, and made Pipp realize the mistake she made. "I'm so sorry, Zipp. I didn't mean to shout. I guess I'm just upset with myself for not noticing any of this sooner." Pipp said as she sat next to her sister and hugged her tightly. "I really care about you, you know that."

"I know." Zipp said with a soft smile. "I just wish I truly knew that years ago." 

"Huh?"

"You never noticed anything wrong with me because I always kept it hidden from everypony. This is the first time I said any of this out loud to somepony besides myself." Zipp said.

"Why?" Pipp asked.

With another long sigh, Zipp explained herself. "As a filly, I always felt like I wasn't being listened to by Mom, and I expected the same from you since you were always closet to her, hence why I keep saying you're her favorite. And as I got older, I guess I just didn't want to come off as a whiny, diva princess that wasn't happy with her life. It's not like I can do anything to change my destiny. One way or another, I will become Queen and have to rule over Zephyr Heights. Complaining about it is just pointless."

"Zipp, that doesn't mean you should keep these concerns of yours bottled up." Pipp told her. 

"I agree." Uaminifu said. "There's nothing wrong with admitting something is bothering you to those who care about you. Keeping all of this bottled up within yourself is unhealthy and can have major consequences down the line." 

"I understand." Zipp nodded, taking in what she was told.

"Good." Uaminifu said as she finished writing down her report. "I believe you've been kept in here long enough. You're free to go." She said as she got up and opened the door for the two sisters to leave.

"Thank you, Doctor." Zipp said as she got to her feet with Pipp at her side, a wing draped around her.

"Think nothing of it, sweetie. My door is always open." She said as the two of them left.

Once they were out of the building and on their way back to the Brighthouse, Pipp decided to say one last thing that had been eating her up. "Zipp, I'm sorry."

"Huh?" The white pegasus looked at her sister in confusion. "What for?" She asked.

"Even if you were deliberately trying to hide your stress and worries from me, I still should've noticed. But I was so wrapped up in my own things, thinking how much harder I have it than you with everything, that I never took the time to really consider how much pressure you would be under. I'm a celebrity popstar princess. I have much work to do with organizing songs and dance routines to please my fans. But none of that should compare to being the queen of Zephyr Heights and all you have to do as training for that. I'm sorry it took me you nearly killing yourself to finally realize that."

"Hey." Zipp said with a soft smile as she pulled Pipp into a wing hug. "Like I said, I was keeping all of this from you and Mom. Neither of you would've noticed no matter how much you looked. I guess I was just spiteful of how things were going so perfect for the two of you that I didn't trust you with my own problems."

"Well, I hope you know now that you can. Zipp, Mom loves you just as much as she loves me. Not just because of you being her successor, but because of the daughter you've grown up into. Please, don't think that you're not important to us at all besides being the future. You mean the world to us both."

Despite still having some reservations with what Pipp said, Zipp nodded. "Yeah. I think I can start doing that now."
> Short chapter: Mare in the Mirror
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

12 days after Zipp’s breakdown

“Here you go, Zipp!” Sunny said with a smile as she handed the smoothie to her pegasus friend. “A brand new smoothie just for you!”

“Thanks, Sunny.” Zipp said as she took the drink and looked at it. “So, what flavor is it?” She asked.

“I’d tell you, but I want you to figure it out for yourself first.” Sunny replied.

“Ooh! A mystery!” Zipp said teasingly as she took a sip. After taking a moment to swish it around in her mouth, getting a good taste, she swallowed and gave her answer. “Tastes like peanut butter and banana with a hint of…..is that chocolate?” She asked with hopeful eyes.

“Yep!” Sunny beamed in response. “A new type of smoothie I made just for you!”

“Aww, Sunny! You didn’t have to.” Zipp said bashfully as she starting gulping down the contents of her cup.

“I know. But you’re my friend, and I’m always looking for new ways to make everypony’s day better.” Sunny replied. 

The two of them shared a laugh before Zipp went back to her smoothie. As she drank, her ears twitched when she heard ponies walking behind her. While that normally wouldn’t get her attention, what she overheard them saying did. “Look at that poor mare.” One of them whispered. 

“She’ll be fine.” A pegasus assured them. “The feathers will soon grow back.” 

“Still, makes you wonder what happened to make her lose all her feathers like that.” A third pony said before they trotted out of earshot.

Despite them whispering their conversation, Zipp still heard everything they said, and that brought down her mood. The pegasus looked at her wings, the flight feathers just now starting to grow back, and sighed. Sunny noticed her friend’s saddened look and exited the cart to wrap a hoof around her friend. “You okay?” She asked her.

Zipp sighed again before answering. “Look at me, Sunny. I’m a pegasus that clipped her own wings. A pony so broken she spent the past week doing nothing but moping around and starving herself. I couldn’t even leave the Brighthouse until yesterday.”

“Zipp.” Sunny said, wanting her friend to stop this self loathing rant.

“All of it because I am afraid of myself and the pony I could very much become.” Zipp finished before she looked the earth pony in the eyes. “How do you do it, Sunny?”

“Huh?” The orange mare blinked in confusion. “How do I what?”

“How do you handle being the alicorn?” Zipp asked again. “You’re the most powerful pony in Equestria with all that magic. How is it you’re not a mess like I am? You told me yourself that you’ve had intrusive thoughts before. How do you stop them from ruining your life?” She asked almost pleadingly as she looked into Sunny’s eyes, begging for an answer.

Sunny didn’t reply, at least not immediately. This was a question that she had to answer carefully and not just spit out the first answer that comes to mind. Why was she the lucky one and didn’t have corrupted and unwelcome thoughts popping into her head that drove her to panic and nearly banish herself from her friends forever? It wasn’t like she never thought about how powerful it was to be the alicorn. Like she said in the cave, there was a time she was considering replacing Haven as Queen of Zephyr Heights. But she quickly shook those feelings away when she told herself what it would mean for Zipp and Pipp, really all of the pegasi, if she did that. 

To Sunny, her friends were her power. She constantly told herself that the pony she currently was was the one her friends wanted and deserved. They didn’t want Alicorn Sunny, they just wanted Sunny Starscout their friend. That was what she told herself in the mirror every morning.

“Mirror.” Sunny thought as an idea came to her. ”That’s it!” 

The orange mare quickly went back into the cart and grabbed her alicorn mirror. Opening it up, she placed it on the stand and turned it so it was facing Zipp. “Tell me, Zipp, who do you see in the mirror?”

“Myself.” Zipp answered dryly, not understanding where Sunny was going with this and how it answered her question.

“I mean what kind of pony do you see?” Sunny rephrased her question.

Understanding what her friend meant now, Zipp looked more in depth at her reflection. “I see a pony that’s a sad, pathetic excuse of themselves.”

“Okay.” Sunny said. “Not exactly what I wanted to hear.” She thought to herself before asking. “Anything else?” 

“What else is there?” Zipp responded. “I just see myself for the complete unstable mess that I am.” 

“Try looking deeper.” Sunny suggested as she gently pushed the mirror towards her friend. 

Despite not believing it would make any difference, Zipp complied at looking more at her reflection. Still the same useless, broken mare as before. It wasn’t going to change no matter how much she stared at the mirror. 

However, that soon began to change as the Zipp in the mirror began to change. The pegasus’ eyes widened as her reflection morphed into one she was all too familiar with. One with a tiara she was sure to destroy, blood red eyes, and an unnerving evil smile. “No!” Zipp suddenly exclaimed as she punched the mirror away before backing up in fear. “No! No! No! No!” She whimpered until she backed herself against the nearest building.

“Zipp!” Sunny exclaimed as she ran over to her friend’s side to comfort her while the white mare curled herself up. “Zipp, what did you see?”

“Her.” Was all the pegasus said in reply.

“Her?” Sunny said in confusion before slowly putting the pieces together based on Zipp’s previous behavior. “You mean the evil you?”

Zipp nodded in response. “No matter what I do, she just keeps appearing. I don’t know how to make her go away.” She paused to sniffle. “I don’t know if I can.”

“Of course you can!” Sunny exclaimed, slightly startling her friend at her sudden enthusiasm. “You know why?” She asked as she stood back up and helped Zipp back onto her hooves. “Because you are stronger than her. You are above her. You are not the same pony as her. And you will never be her.” 

Sunny went back to grab her mirror before opening it in front of Zipp again. It made the pegasus recoil at seeing her reflection again, but the earth pony mare knew she had to do this. “Say it”. She told her friend.

“What?”

“What I just told you. Say it to your reflection.” Sunny said.

Zipp looked at her reflection, wincing at seeing herself like that, and said half heartily. “I’m stronger than you.”

“Louder.” Sunny urged.

“I’m stronger than you.” 

“Louder!”

“I’m stronger than you!”

“Say it like you mean it!” 

“I’m stronger than you!”

“So everypony can hear it!”

“I’m stronger than you!”

“Look that you in the eyes and tell it to her directly!”

Zipp looked her reflection dead in the eyes with a serious look on her face and her wings flared. “I’M STRONGER THAN YOU! I AM ABOVE YOU! I AM NOT THE SAME PONY AS YOU! I WILL NEVER BE YOU!” She yelled at her reflection, just barely resisting the urge to smack the mirror away again in her adrenaline. 

“Now tell me who do you see!?” Sunny excitedly asked, thinking her plan was working.

Zipp looked at her reflection closer this time and saw it morph back into her own. Only this time it showed her differently. “I see a pony who is strong.” She told Sunny.

“Yes! And?” 

“I see a pony who is confident!”

“Who do you see?!” Sunny asked.

“I see myself!” Zipp shouted with pride.

“Eeeeeeh!” Sunny shouted with glee as she dropped the mirror and went up to hug her friend. “I’m so proud of you, Zipp!”

“Thanks, Sunny.” Zipp said back with a smile. 

They stayed like that for a minute or two before Sunny broke the hug. “Just remember to tell yourself what I told you the next time you see that evil you, and keep on saying it until she goes away. Can you do that?”

“……..Yeah, I think I can.”

But what neither of the mares knew was that the mirror was open and facing towards them as they spoke. And on the other side was Opaline, watching the entire scene playing out. “How interesting.” She said as she cut off the magic feed. “Seems our little princess was affected by that necklace more than I thought.”

This was the first the alicorn had heard about Zipp’s condition. And from seeing the state the pegasus was in, she was delighted at this news. “Oh, how wonderful. For me.” She said aloud. Opaline wasn’t a fool. Despite what it looked like, she knew Zipp was far from better. The state of her wings was proof enough of that. It would take time for her to find her footing again, if at all. She had little doubt that any of Zipp’s friends truly knew how to properly handle her OCD condition.

“With that annoying little detective picking up the pieces of her pathetic self, that’ll leave me without anypony sticking their noses in to my business and getting in the way of my plans. Allowing me to continue my schemes unopposed until the time is right to attack.” Opaline said as she looked at a photograph of Zipp before setting it on fire. “Be prepared, Princess. Be prepared.” She said to the burning photo before laughing evilly.
> A Mother’s Love
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

14 days after Zipp’s breakdown

There comes a time in everyone’s lives when they must question their actions.

Some will take responsibility and face the consequences for their actions, be they good or bad.

Others will try and lie their way out through excuses.

But some actions cannot be forgiven.





“You tried to kill you own sister?!” Queen Haven shouted from her throne. 

Zipp said nothing and just looked down in shame. That was all the confirmation Haven needed.

“Mother, please. Give her a chance to explain!” Pipp begged from the sides, not able to watch her sister standing trial.

“Silence!” Haven yelled in her queen voice, letting Pipp know there was no room for argument, before turning back to Zipp. “I thought I had raised you to be better than this, Zephyrina. But it seems I have failed as a mother, and now you must be rightfully punished!”

Pipp and her friends looked on in horror as the other ponies in the crowd began shouting over one another at Zipp. 

“We don’t want you!”

“Put her on trial!”

“Judgement day is here!”

“Judgement! Your judgement!”

“Yes, your day is-“

“EXILE!” Queen Haven declared the verdict.

“NOOO!” Pipp screamed with complete distraught on her face.





“And that’s when the dream ended.” Zipp finished recounting her story to Dr. Uaminifu. 

“I see.” The doctor said as she wrote down the details shared. 

Sitting directly next to her, Pipp wrapped a wing around Zipp and pulled her into a hug. “Zipp.” She said softly. 

“I made a promise to never abandon you again, Pipp. But now I’m realizing that if Mom were to find out what I almost did to you…” Zipp couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence.

“Zipp, Mom wouldn’t just put you on trial without giving you a chance to explain yourself.” Pipp assured her sister. 

“Your sister brings up a good point.” Dr. Uaminifu interjected. “From your story, you never explained to your mother everything else that had been happening that led up to this said incident. All you confessed to was attempting to kill Pipp here. You never even mentioned how you stopped yourself.” She pointed out.

“Because Mom wouldn’t see it like that. Her instinct would be to keep Pipp safe from whatever endangers her, which in this case would be me.” Zipp answered.

“Hmmm.” Uaminifu hummed in concern as she jotted down more notes. “I might have something that can help.” She pulled out a card and handed it to Zipp. “Give that to the local pharmacist. After our recent sessions, I feel some medicine might help with lowering your stress levels throughout the day.”

“Medicine? Are you sure about this?” Pipp asked.

“I checked with the pharmacist himself, and we both agree that one pill before bed every night should help reduce Zipp’s anxiety.” Uaminifu assured them before she looked at Zipp seriously. “However, I need to empathize that these pills are a treatment, not a cure. So please don’t rely on them to make all stress disappear. I shouldn’t have to explain what the consequences might be if you overdose.”

“No, Doc. I got it. One pill a night.” Zipp assured both the therapist and her sister, who she felt slightly tremble at the single thought of her demise.

“Thank you.” Uaminifu smiled as the two sisters got up to head back home. They had to prepare for the afternoon’s events.

Their monthly brunch with their mother.





Under the normal circumstances, the two sisters would be excited for their monthly brunch, a tradition they had started since moving to Maretime Bay. It allowed for the whole royal family to catch up on what they’ve been doing and spend time together.

But this time they did not have normal circumstances. After weeks of Zipp struggling with dark thoughts, followed by thoughts of self loathing, the older pegasus sister was still showing the results of her turmoil. While it wasn’t at a concerning level, it was still very clear that Zipp had lost a noticiable amount of weight. And even though she was starting to eat more regularly again after her moment with Pipp, the new stress she was feeling once again took her appetite away to the point she only ate one meal a day. 

And that was without mentioning her obviously clipped wings. She didn’t even have to look to know that whenever she went out that ponies would stare and whisper possible theories on what happened to her. Zipp knew that it’d be all but impossible for her mother to not notice what had happened to her. And when she did, she would ask what was wrong. Zipp wasn’t a good enough liar to come up with a believable excuse.

Her best option was to hide her injuries and hope to whoever that their mother didn’t ask too many questions. That is how she found herself wearing the same cloak she wore when she and Pipp pretended to be unicorns when they first went to Bridlewood. Right now she was at the Brighthouse with the other girls, waiting for Queen Haven to show up.

The anxiety she was currently feeling was eating away at her while she paced around the bedroom as Izzy watched her from atop her own bed. “Uh, Zipperoni? I know you’re concerned, but can you maybe tone it down with the pacing? Unless you’ve already eaten today, I don’t think you should be burning calories.”

Zipp stopped her pacing and looked at the unicorn. “I can’t help it, Iz. Mom’s going to be here soon, and I have to be able to pull this off without making her suspicious.” 

“If you’re worried about looking suspicious then why don’t you just not attend brunch this time?” Izzy asked.

“Because then Mom would know for sure that something’s wrong with me, probably assuming I’m sick, which I might as well be, and then she would stay here until I get better, which then would lead to her finding out I nearly iced Pipp and she’d take me back to Zephyr Heights to either be put in a mental institute or put on trial.” Zipp ranted as her pacing resumed, now a steady trot.

”And I thought Pipp was bad when it came to worrying.“ Izzy thought, now starting to get dizzy from watching Zipp moving in circles so quickly. 

At the same time, Pipp and Sunny were having their own conversation regarding the pegasus’ concerns about today’s brunch. “You really think your mom will drag Zipp away when she finds out what happens?” Sunny asked her worried friend.

“If Zipp doesn’t tell her the full story, I feel that she might. I know Mother is a very understanding pony, but I fear that she might not be so understanding if all she gets from Zipp is ‘I tried to bump off my sister’.” Pipp explained her concerns.

Sunny looked like she was about to ask another question, but Pipp knew what it was and stopped her. “It’s Zipp who needs to be the one to tell her. She’d never forgive me if I told Mother about her pain behind her back.”

This knowledge gave Sunny another question. “And if your mother decides to ask you about what’s wrong with Zipp?” 

“I don’t know.” Pipp answered truthfully. “I’m afraid that when Mom asks all I’ll be able to say is that ‘It’s Zipp’s story to tell’, and that’ll lead to her nagging Zipp about it until something bad happens.” She sighed and looked at her phone, hoping to somewhat distract herself. “I want Mom to be able to help with Zipp’s recovery, but she can’t if she doesn’t know about it. And she won’t ever know about it if Zipp is too afraid of breaking her promise to me to tell her.”

Sunny nodded slowly in understanding. She knew that there wasn’t much she could do in this situation. Pipp was right. Zipp had to be the one to tell her mother about her corrupted thoughts and breakdown. All they really were able to do in this case was try and convince Zipp to tell Queen Haven the full truth. 

Speaking of the queen, the Brighthouse doorbell rang, alerting everyone inside of the arrival of their royal guest. Zipp gave a long sigh as she went to answer the door. “No turning back now.” She told herself as she opened the doors with Pipp by her side.

Upon seeing her daughters, Queen Haven pulled them into a massive hug. “Oh, my Darlings! It’s been too long since I’ve seen you!” She said happily.

“It hasn’t been that long, Mom.” Zipp muttered.

“Speak for yourself.” Haven said. “I haven’t heard I peep from you, Zipp, in weeks. Is there something going on with you, young filly?”

Zipp’s eyes widened, though her mother didn’t notice, not expecting that question to come up. She quickly broke off from the hug and stuttered out the first excuse she could think of. “Oh, I’ve just been busy. You know? Lots of detective work to do.”

Pipp cringed at Zipp’s lie. Not even a minute in, and already the thin ice her sister was standing on was starting to crack. 

Thankfully, Queen Haven seemed to either take the excuse or was distracted by what her daughter currently had on. “And why are you wearing that cloak?” 

Thankfully, Zipp did have a cover story for this. “Oh, this? I thought I’d just wear this for the occasion.” She answered.

Queen Haven looked sternly at the nervous, white pegasus for a minute before she smiled. “Well, it looks really good on you.” 

“Thanks, Mom.” Zipp said while Pipp quietly breathed one large sigh of relief. 

“So, where are going to eat today, Mother?” Pipp asked.

“Oh, I found this wonderful new place we should try out.” Haven answered as she opened her wings and took to the skies. She expected her daughters to be following close behind, but was surprised when she turned around and saw only Pipp had got off the ground. Zipp hadn’t even opened her wings up yet. “Is there something wrong, Zipp?” She asked her oldest daughter as she turned around and landed.

Once again, Zipp was in trouble. There was no way she could let her mother know she was currently unable to fly. “Oh, uh, I just felt like walking there instead.” She explained herself. 

Haven looked at her daughter with more skepticism, and that just made Zipp more nervous. Thankfully, she had Pipp come to her rescue. “You know, she has a point. A little walk would be nice. Would give us all time to catch up.” The pink pegasus said.

Queen Haven’s skeptic look disappeared and she nodded. “Yes, I suppose we could walk there.” She said as she turned around and led them to the restaurant on foot now.

With their mother’s back turned, Zipp was able to whisper to Pipp. “Thank you.”

“Just try not to bring anymore attention onto yourself, and we’ll call it even.” Pipp replied as they followed their mother into town.





Once the royal pegasus family arrived and got their meals, things seemed to go relatively smoothly. Zipp ate her meal a bit slower than normal, no doubt losing her appetite due to her constant worries. But Pipp continued to keep their mother distracted by constantly talking about whatever, the older sister making sure to chime in every now and then to not stay completely quiet. 

It all seemed to be working out for Zipp, and it seemed she was going to make it through this brunch without any issues whatsoever. Come next month, her feathers would have grown back, and she wouldn’t have to worry about her mother ever finding out about what she did.

Pipp had just finished talking about her latest single when she excused herself to use the restroom, leaving her mother and Zipp alone at the table. Not expecting any conversation to happen, Zipp continued on eating her meal, now picking up the pace to her usual speed without any worries weighing her down. But Queen Haven had other plans. “All right, Zipp. Now that  we are alone, let’s talk.”

Zipp nearly choked on her fries. “T-talk? About what?” She hastily asked.

“About what exactly you’re hiding from me, young filly.” Haven answered with a serious look.

“I’m not hiding anything.” Zipp tried to convince her otherwise.

It obviously didn’t work as her mother began listing all of the strange behaviors she had seen in the past hour. “Your nervous attitude, not speaking to me in weeks, suddenly wearing a cloak, refusing to fly. I am not oblivious to what is going on around me, Zephyrina.” 

It was at that moment that Pipp had come out of the restroom. When she saw the looks on her mother and sister’s faces, she immediately regretted leaving. “Oh, no.” She said quietly as she ran over to diffuse the situation. 

Back at the table, Zipp tried a different strategy to make her mother back off. “I’m not a foal, Mom. You don’t need to know every single thing I am doing.”

“While it is true I do respect your privacy, as your mother I make it my business to know when something is troubling either of my little fillies.” Haven retorted.

Zipp was feeling like she was trapped in a corner at this point. Pipp made it to the table and tried to break up the potential argument. “Hey, everypony, why don’t we-“ She didn’t get to finish as her mother blocked her face with a wing.

“Not now, Pipp.” Haven told her youngest without taking her eyes off her oldest. “Zephyrina Storm, I have had just about enough for this fooling around. There was something that happened recently that I don’t know about, and as your mother I demand to know what it was!” She yelled as she stomped her hoof on the table.

That seemed to be the last straw for Zipp as her look now changed from panicked to dark and serious. “You really want to know what has been going on with me?” She daringly asked her mother. 

"Oh, no." Pipp whispered as Zipp got up from her seat and grabbed her cloak. Before Pipp had a chance to attempt to stop her, the older pegasus sister ripped the cloak from her body, completely revealing herself as she flared her wings to make sure her mother saw everything.

Queen Haven gasped in horror when she saw her daughter's wings. By now there were tiny feathers growing in place of the ones plucked, but they were still nowhere near the point they could be used for flight. "Z-Zipp, wh-wha, how did this happen?!" She stammered out. 

Pipp looked at her sister with pleading eyes, afraid for what she was about to say next. But Zipp either didn't notice or ignored them. "I DID IT!" She screamed at her mother. 

If Haven wasn't speechless before, she definitely was now. "Wh-Why would you do that to yourself?" She asked much quieter now.

But Zipp didn't lower her voice as tears started to fall down her eyes. "BECAUSE I'M SICK IN THE HEAD AND CONSTANTLY KEEP THINKING ABOUT KILLING MY SISTER! THAT'S WHY!" She yelled before she ran out of the restaurant in tears. 

"Zipp!" Pipp cried out to her sister to no avail. 

She was about to fly after her, but her mother stopped her with a question she did not want to answer. "Pipp......Is what she said true?" Her shaky tone telling Pipp that she desperately wanted to be told that she was wrong. That this was all some sick joke. That this was nothing more than a nightmare that she’d soon wake up from.

Pipp felt mixed emotions right now. She was mad at her mother for pushing Zipp into confessing, but she knew it wasn’t fair to just blame her. She didn’t know what was going on with Zipp. “There’s more to it than what she said, but it’s true.” She revealed to her mother before she flew out the doors and after her sister. 

She expected their mother to be too stunned by the news to follow after her. But she soon heard the sounds of a pegasus following her and turned around to see Queen Haven’s worried face. “Where is she going?” She asked.

“If we’re lucky, back to the Brighthouse to pack.” Pipp answered before she and Queen Haven picked up the pace, hoping to arrive at the Brighthouse before Zipp.

Unfortunately, when they arrived, they saw Sunny, Izzy, and Hitch in the living room with worried looks on her faces. That let them know that Zipp had already made it back before them. Once they saw the queen enter, the three friends immediately ran over to the royal pegasi. “Your Majesty, I know what it sounds like, but please let us explain!” Hitch begged her.

“Zipp isn’t a bad pony! She’s just really lost and confused right now!” Izzy followed suit.

“Please don’t send her away! She needs us!” Sunny said. 

“All of us!” Pipp added as she stood by her friends.

Queen Haven was no doubt touched by the loyalty Zipp’s friends were displaying for her. But she was still very confused by everything that had just happened and needed more information. Information from the source. “I need to speak with her alone.” She told them, sounding serious but making sure not to look unsympathetic.

While none of the four younger ponies couldn’t say they didn’t want this to happen, they didn’t want it to happen in these circumstances. “B-but, Mom!” Pipp pleaded.

“I need to know what happened from her.” Queen Haven said as she walked upstairs to the bedroom, but not before casting the worried friends an assuring look, letting them know she would take their worries into consideration. 

However, this did not ease their worries as the four of them waiting downstairs with bated breath.





Zipp has attempted to start packing up her things, but she just couldn’t finish the task. She was too distraught right now. That was how Queen Haven found her, collapsed on her bed and crying into a pillow. “Zipp?” She called out quietly to her daughter.

Zipp didn’t respond, but the twitch of her ears let Haven know that she heard her. The pegasus mother walked over to her daughter’s bed and sat down next to her. With a hoof placed on her back, Zipp finally spoke. “I’m sorry.” She said through her tears. “I know you’re probably disgusted with me right now. Thinking that you’ve failed as a mother to have raised such a criminal. But it wasn’t your fault. You were a wonderful mother. It’s all my fault. I’m the one who kept thinking such horrible things. The one who put everypony in danger. The one who…”

Just like when she broke down in the cave, the last thing Zipp expected was for her mother to pull her into a hug. “Shhhh.” She gently said to her daughter. “Zipp, I’m sorry for pushing you into this. As your mother, I worry about your safety, and love you no matter what. So, please, tell me what happened. And don’t leave anything out.”

And that’s exactly what Zipp did. In her mother’s hooves, she told her everything that had been going on. From her corruption, to her darkened thoughts about becoming Queen and the Unity Crystals, her strong advances on Hitch, her almost strangling Pipp, her self-exile, her clipping her own wings, her friends finding her and being told everything in the cave, her new nightmares, her second attempt at running away, her therapy sessions, everything.

When she was done, she went back to sobbing into her mother’s coat. “I didn’t tell you because I knew you’d be disappointed in me. You’d send me back to Zephyr Heights to be locked up or banished. And I couldn’t face that. Not after the promise I made to Pipp and my friends.” She cried.

“Shhhh.” Haven comforted her daughter again, now beginning to gently rock herself like a cradle. “My sweet baby girl, don’t cry. It’s okay. Mommy’s here now. And she still loves you.” She said through soft tears of her own. Even if it wasn’t her fault in anyway, she felt guilty for not being there for Zipp. To not be there for her daughter to lean on and instead coming off as an obstacle in her recovery. 

Mother and daughter remained like that until Zipp’s crying stopped and was replaced by the soft breathing of a sleeping pony. Still, Queen Haven did not let her go. “Mommy’s here.” She said again to assure her sleeping daughter. 





When Zipp finally woke up, she found herself surrounded by her friends and family, each with gentle smiles. “Are you feeling better now, Dear?” Queen Haven asked her daughter.

“A little.” Zipp admitted before frowning. “Mother, I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I-“

“You didn’t want to abandon your friends or sister.” Haven finished for her daughter. When Zipp looked down in shame, she pulled her into another hug. “Oh, my sweet Zephyrina. Never be afraid to tell me when something is bothering you. I know we’ve had issues in the past, but I will always support you and help you through your struggles.” 

They stayed like that for a while before Haven spoke up. “Listen, Zipp. After hearing all of what you have been through, I’m fighting the urge right now to carry you back home with me so I’d never let you out of my sight. But I know that here you have ponies who care about you, too. Who love you and want only the best for you, just like me.”

Zipp looked up at her mother with hopeful eyes. “You mean?” 

Haven nodded. “You can stay here in Maretime Bay.” She told her before getting hugged by now both of her daughters.

“Thank you, Mom.” They both said together.

“You’re very welcome, my dears.” Haven said as she broke the hug. She then looked at Zipp with a very serious expression on her face. “There is still one condition you must abide by, Zipp.” 

“Yes, Mom?” Zipp asked with a confused and somewhat worried look on her face.

“I want no more of this hiding information from me. From now on, I’m expecting regular reports from you about everything, especially your therapy sessions. Do we have an understanding?” 

Zipp nodded. “Yes, Mom. I promise.”

Haven smiled and pulled her daughters back in for another hug. 

Forgiveness is something that’s not easily given. For Zipp, it’s especially hard to feel earned. However, even if she still has issues coming to terms with it herself, the reminder that there are those who love her regardless he’ll her move just one more step forward every day.
> Is This Real?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

16 days after Zipp’s breakdown

Love can be a beautiful thing. A feeling of utter bliss and tranquility. Like your mind just stops thinking about all else but that one special pony. 

However, love can also be blinding, leaving ponies unable to see the truth in front of them. That what they see as love is actually a lie.

And right now there was no couple in Maretime Bay that this reflected more than the newest pairing of Hitch Trailblazer and Zipp Storm.





Ever since the sheriff first kissed the princess in the cave, the two of them have been the talk of the town. It wasn’t everyday one of the royal daughters found love, or that a mare magnet like Hitch would finally make a choice on a marefriend.

However, with everything that happened surrounding how they officially became a couple, the two of them haven’t spent much time together, just the two of them. Both of them decided it was about time to change that, thus leading to right now where Zipp was being prept for the night out by Sunny and Izzy while Pipp and Hitch talked outside the Brighthouse. “You guys really don’t need to do this.” Zipp groaned as Izzy combed her mane. 

“Nonsense! A little touching up never hurt anypony.” Izzy brushed it off, both what Zipp said as the pegasus’ mane.

“You’d be surprised how many ponies would prove you wrong, Iz.” Zipp dryly responded, having hear several stories from Pipp of things going wrong at Mane Melody.

“Don’t worry, Zipp. It’s nothing major. We’re already about done.” Sunny assured her as she and Izzy stepped back to see their work.

“Hmm. Looks good, but could use a little something else.” Izzy said.

Zipp cringed at the thought of being touched up even more. “Guys, I really don’t think-“

“Hang on. I think I got it.” Sunny said as she quickly ran over to her bedside and pulled something out of a drawer. 

Heading back over to the group with the object in hoof,  Zipp was able to see the object and recognized it as the present that Izzy gave Sunny for her birthday. Izzy also recognized the item and gasped. “Is that the mane-cessory I made for you?” She asked with a big smile on her face, immediately catching onto Sunny’s plan.

“It is!” Sunny replied back with equal excitement. 

“Sunny, I-I can’t take that.” Zipp protested.

“Nonsense!” Sunny told her. “It’s not like I need it right now.” She said as she started looking for a place to hang the accessory from. Problem was Zipp’s mane wasn’t as long as hers so there weren’t many places to display the object.

This was reinforced by Izzy critiquing every place Sunny suggested. “No. No. No. Oh, that’s a big no. Uh, i’m pretty sure wearing it like that is Jinxie.” She informed her friend. 

Sunny groaned in defeat and fell onto her haunches. “Ugh. I thought for sure it was going to be perfect for your mane.” She told Zipp with disappointment in her voice.

“Ah, don’t worry about it.” Zipp assured her with a wing pat. 

Suddenly, Izzy gasped loudly. “Wait, the mane-cessory was original a bracelet before you put it in your mane.” She said before she took the object with her magic. “So, maybe…” She said as she tried something different.

With the accessory in place, Izzy and Sunny took a step back to marvel their work. “It’s no Pipp work. But I think it’s a pretty good job.” Izzy said as she levitated a mirror over to show Zipp her new look.

Zipp gasped at what she saw in the mirror.

Downstairs, Pipp was unable to work on her sister’s appearance because she was busy having an important talk with Hitch. Even if she was the younger sister, that didn’t mean she was not at all protective of her big sister. “Pipp, I swear on my badge as Sheriff that I-“ Hitch was about to promise before Pipp held up a wing and stopped him.

“Hitch, if you want threats, then go ask my mom for some that I’m pretty sure she made once me and Zipp were old enough to start dating. We all know you would never hurt or take advantage of Zipp. It’d be pretty much impossible for you to do so. No, instead I need to warn you about…something else.” 

Pipp looked to the side nervously, confusing and concerning Hitch. "Something else?" He asked her.

Pipp took a deep breath before speaking, hoping that Zipp wouldn't be too upset with her for saying this. "Listen, my sister is one of the strongest willed ponies I know, if not the strongest. But while she can be as sturdy as a house made from titanium, she also is as fragile as if it was made out of glass. And I'm not just talking about all the crap she's been dealing with recently. This has gone on longer than that."

"It has?" Hitch asked.

Pipp nodded sadly as she recalled the night she discovered it for herself. "She's had these feelings before. Feelings of not being good enough. Of being a failure."

Hitch's eyes widened at this information. Much like Pipp, he never expected Zipp to be troubled with such things. Especially before the corruption and breakdown.

Pipp continued. "I'm telling you this because there's a very high chance that she might start thinking that she's not worthy of you. That you deserve somepony better as a marefriend. Are you understanding what I'm telling you?”

Despite having a hard time believing what Pipp was saying, not that he believed Pipp actually thought those things, Hitch still nodded. "And what should I do if that does happen?" He asked.

"Really, I'd say do this throughout the whole night, but don't be afraid to show her affection. Let her know that you chose her specifically and that you aren't changing your mind." The pink pegasus offered her advice before asking. "Can you please do that?"

Once again, Hitch nodded. "You have my word." He promised.

Pipp smiled at his response just as she heard somepony coming down the stairs and turned around. "Oh, speak of the pony, and she shall appear." She said as she moved out of the way, allowing Zipp to come into view. When Hitch saw her, he stopped breathing.

While Sunny and Izzy's touch ups were subtle, to the sheriff they were still as clear as day. Her mane glistened like the night sky, her hooves looked polished and shined like silver from a china shop, her wings appeared softer than the softest blankets, the little touch ups to her face highlighted  her snow-white fur and those beautiful blue eyes you could get lost in, and to top it all off she had Sunny's mane-cessory hanging from her ear like an earring.

There was no other way of putting it. She looked absolutely gorgeous. 

Zipp noticed Hitch gawking at her and chuckled. “Why don’t you take a picture, Sheriff? It’ll last longer.” She teased.

Hearing her voice, especially with laughter in it, snapped Hitch out of his stupor. “Oh, uh, sorry. It’s just that, uh, you look, uh.” He tried to say but his brain was still not functioning properly, unable to come up with the proper adjective. Finally, he was able to settle on. “Beautiful.”

Despite the smile on her face, Zipp felt that Hitch’s description wasn’t accurate. “Oh, come on, Hitch. It’s not that impressive.” She told him.

Hitch shook his head. “It doesn’t matter how little of a change it is, you always manage to look beautiful in my eyes.”

Hitch was rewarded by an adorable blush that covered the white mare’s face as she cutely tried to hide it. “S-so.” She squeaked out before she quickly corrected herself and spoke normally. “So, you said you have the evening planned for us?” 

“Yep. I think the two of us are going to have a lot of fun tonight.” Hitch said as he offered his date a hoof, which Zipp gladly accepted as they headed off to town.





It goes without saying that the evening was going wonderfully for the two love birds. 

First they stopped by the Maretime Bay Arcade and played some games. When they played laser tag, Hitch found himself getting zapped by his marefriend consistently while never being able to get a hit himself thanks to her agility and stealth. Zipp would deny it, but he knew she was enjoying seeing him failing miserably.  

He was able to get some revenge when they played Pony Kart, managing to beat her 3-0. While it was admittedly mean to do so, Hitch couldn't help but laugh at Zipp's misfortune. 

After some more games, the two of them went to catch a movie. Throughout the film, which was an action-comedy, Hitch had a hoof around Zipp, while the pegasus wrapped one of her wings around his back, and they snuggled close to each other. 

All that leads to now where the two of them were currently having dinner together. Hitch knew that Zipp wouldn't be a big fan of a fancy restaurant where they had to wait for who knows how long for their meal, so instead they went to a fast food place and took theirs to go and ate out at the public tables. 

Throughout the meal, Hitch would dip some fries into dipping sauce and fed them to Zipp, to which she happily accepted each time. "How many more fries are you going to be feeding me, Sheriff?" Zipp asked teasingly. "I'm pretty sure I've eaten more of your plate then you have at this point."

"Just want to make sure you are properly fed, Milady." Hitch replied like a gentlecolt, to which Zipp couldn't help but blush and chuckle at. "Although." He said as he suddenly gave a sheepish smile as he got up from his seat. “I should probably get some more. Be back in a jiffy.” He said before leaving. 

Zipp smiled as she watched Hitch leave before deciding to focus on the food on her own plate. Everything felt good right now. So good that as she ate, she didn’t notice three mares approach her from behind until one of them spoke up. “Well, if it isn’t Princess Zipp herself.”

Turning around, Zipp saw the Filly Three: Sugar Moonlight, Rosedust, and Lily, approaching her. She frowned. These three have caused trouble for her friends in the past, namely with using Sunny for her alicorn form as a way to raise their status. “Can I help you?” She asked as the three mares stopped at her table.

“Oh, we’re not the ones who need helping, Zipp.” Sugar spoke up. “Instead, it’s your new coltfriend who you need to be helping.”

“Hitch? What’s wrong with him?” Zipp asked, now starting to get upset at the possible implications the three mares were getting at about him.

But to her surprise, Sugar instead said. “It’s it obvious? The problem he’s dealing with is you.”

Zipp took a step back with widened eyes. “Wh-what?”

“You heard me loud and clear. Hitch deserves someone better than you.” Sugar told her. “I mean, look at you. You really think he’s attracted to whatever this is?” She said as she gestured to all of Zipp.

“He told me himself that-“ Zipp tried to defy before being interrupted by Sugar.

“Obviously lying just to make you feel better about yourself. That’s really the only reason he’s even giving your relationship a chance, anyway.” She said as the three of them started circling Zipp like sharks.

“Yeah, why would he want to go with somepony who is crazy enough to have their wings clipped and become crippled?” Rosedust asked.

“Somepony who is an even worse helper that Sprout was, and can’t seem to do her job as a detective without messing it up?” Lily asked.

“Somepony like you?” Sugar finished as they came to a stop circling and looked directly at their victim, taking pleasure in the distraught look on her face. “Face it, Zipp. There’s nopony in all of Equestria that would want to truly be with you. The closest chance you have at any love is whatever stallion your mother forces to be your suitor just so you can produce an heir.”

“But I’m pretty sure by that point she’ll realize that she’s better off with just giving everything to your sister since that poor colt would rather be with her anyway.” Rosedust added.

“As annoying as she can be, at least she isn’t some coward who hides her face anytime somepony with a camera shows up. And she’s actually attractive.” Lily pointed out. 

Sugar nodded at her cronies responses before going in for the final strike. “Hitch shouldn’t be wasting his time with an emotionally unstable, unattractive, foolish mare like you. So stop holding him back from the pony he’s truly meant to be with. The pony he deserves. Because it’s clearly not, and never will be, you.”

Zipp looked utterly devastated once they were finished. She tried to fight back, refute everything they have just said, but nothing would come out of her mouth. Because she believed that deep down they were right. This was all nothing but a lie she was telling herself just so she doesn’t have to face the truth. 

Unable to form a response, Zipp ran away, tears streaming down her face, all while the Filly Three watched her leave with triumphant smiles. Now that she was out of the way, Hitch was all theirs. 

Speaking of the stallion, it was then that he finally returned to the table with more fires. “Sorry that took so long, Zipp.” He apologized, not realizing his date was gone. “For a place that advertises themselves for putting the fast in fast food, you’d think they wouldn’t have line problems.” It was only when he put the food on the table that he realized that the Filly Three were the ones present and not Zipp. He immediately knew that something happened while he was gone. “Sugar, where’s Zipp?” He asked the ringleader.

Oblivious to the seriousness of the sheriff’s tone of voice, she responded with. “Ran off crying because she just couldn’t seem to accept the fact that despite being a princess she’ll never be the mare for you.” She said before the three of them laughed at what they considered a job well done.

Hitch looked both horrified and furious at what he just heard. “What?” He was all he could stammer out before Sugar spoke again and only increased his rage.

“We simply did you a favor and told that freak to go and stop holding you back from finding the perfect mare. Like me for exam-“ She didn’t get to finish as Hitch’s hoof forcefully made contact with the side of her face.

Rosedust and Lily gasped at what they just saw while Sugar staggered back, a hoof on the cheek the stallion slapped. She was about to yell at him for slapping a mare like that, but stopped when she saw the look of utter fury on his face.  “I will deal with you three later.” He said before running off to find Zipp.

What he or the Filly Three didn’t know was that Posey was standing nearby and recorded the whole thing. “Oh, I think somepony else might beat you to that, Sheriff Hitch.” She said as she sent the video to the pony she knew had to see this.





Zipp found herself on a small cliffside looking over the beach. It was a cruel irony that this place looked perfect for a romantic setting, but here she was sobbing her eyes out from having her heart broken. 

What the Filly Three said to her kept ringing through her head like a bell. How could she have been so stupid? Of course this relationship wasn’t actually one of true love. She flat out told Hitch she wanted to rape him for ponies sake. Even if that wasn’t true, that alone should’ve been enough to tell her that Hitch only returned her affections just so she could feel better about herself. But she couldn’t keep doing that to Hitch. He deserved better than her. He deserved better than a stupid, unattractive princess that spent her days crying like a newborn foal. 

She was so caught up in her misery that she didn’t hear Hitch call out to her when he found her, run over to her, and sit down next to her until she felt a hoof wrap around her and pull her into a hug. “Zipp, I'm so sorry you had to hear that. I shouldn’t have left you alone back there!” He scolded himself for being so stupid.

“No, I’m the one that’s sorry, Hitch.” Zipp said through her tears. “I shouldn’t have been wasting your time by being your pretend marefriend and just accepted the facts.”

“Pretend? The facts?” Hitch repeated, unable to believe what he heard.

“Yes, the facts. Look at my mom and Pipp. They’re-“

“Nowhere near as beautiful as you.” Hitch cut Zipp off, unable to hear her criticize herself so harshly. “Zipp, when I called you beautiful before I meant that. Never in my life have I met a mare as stunning as you. No offense to the rest of our friends, but they don’t hold a candle when it comes to who is the most attractive.” He blushed slightly at realizing he probably should’ve said something other than attractive, but kept going. “Your face, your coat, your mane, your eyes, your wings, your hooves, your athletic body. All of that put together make the perfect pony.”

“You don’t have to lie and try to make me feel better, Hitch.” Zipp told him.

“The only one lying to you right now is yourself.” Hitch retorted as he gently backed away from the hug and wiped the tears off Zipp’s face with a hoof. “Zipp, I love you for everything you have. Not just for your appearance on the outside, although that doesn’t not help, but also for the pony you are on the inside. You’re the kind of mare who continues to protect those she cares about, even in the face of doubt. You’re a caring and sweet mare who just wants what’s best for those in her life. I can’t even count how many times you’ve helped me get out of sticky situations. We’ve been the perfect team since the day we first met. Sparky’s been seeing you as his mother long before we started dating. He knows that you’re the pony for me.” 

“You think that I deserve somepony better, but I don’t want a ‘better’ marefriend, I want you. I chose you because you and you alone are the only mare I want to be with. I love you, Zipp Storm. I always have, and I always will.” He finished by gently taking Zipp’s hoof in his own.

“Hitch.” Zipp said as tears started to form in her eyes, but not ones of sadness. “That’s……that’s the sweetest thing anypony’s ever said to me!” She cried before she hugged him with so much force she tackled him to the ground, aggressively nuzzling him the entire time. “Thank you so much!” She cried happily.

Hitch chuckled as he accepted and returned the affection without any hesitation. “You’re welcome, Zipp.” 

They stayed like that for a few minutes before Zipp finally backed off slightly to allow her coltfriend to stand up again. “But what about the Filly Three?” She asked him. “What if they-“

“I think that slap I gave Sugar is more than enough to send the message straight to them.” Hitch assured her.

Zipp looked surprised, and a little impressed at what she heard. “You actually slapped somepony?” She asked him. 

Hitch chuckled and rubbed the back of his head with a hoof. “Yeah, well, ponies do crazy things when they’re in love.” He told her.

Zipp just smiled at his response. Before Hitch could react, Zipp gave him a big kiss on the lips. Just as soon as it happened, the pegasus broke off from the kiss and smiled at the sheriff. “I love you too, Hitch. And I wouldn’t want to be with anypony else either.”

Hitch smiled in response before he pulled Zipp in for another kiss that she happily accepted.

For the two of them, right now nothing else mattered. There was only each other and the love that they shared. A true love.

A real love.





“I cannot believe he did that to me!” Sugar hissed as she rubbed her cheek while she and her lackeys sulked in defeat at their failure in breaking up the new couple. “What kind of sheriff goes around slapping mares in the face?! I swear, I’ll sue him for assaulting me!”

“Oh, I think he’ll be the least of your problems.” Turning their heads, the three mares saw Pipp descending from the sky and landing in front of them with an annoyed look on her face.

“What do you want, Pipp?” Sugar hissed at her, not in the mood to deal with their biggest rival on social media.

Pipp smiled sweetly at them, but as she spoke her face turned to one of anger. “Oh, I was just minding my own business when a certain friend of mine showed me a very interesting video showing you three making my sister cry!”

From the tone and stamping of her hooves, Sugar had a pretty good idea of what Pipp was thinking and backed up fearfully with Rosedust and Lily. “Y-you can’t be serious. What would Hitch say when he finds out you attacked three ponies?!”

“Yeah, I took that into account and made a little call.” Pipp said as she looked up. “And here she comes now.”

A shadow swooped over the terrified Filly Three before Queen Haven landed next to her daughter. “So, you’re the ponies who dared to make my baby girl cry!” She said angrily with her wings flared out as she and Pipp slowly approached them.

“Like they say, Sugar, never side against the family.” Pipp told her.

“No, no! J-just let me explain. I-i-i-i-it wasn’t what it looked like!” Sugar pleaded, but they fell upon deaf ears. “No! NO! NOOOOO!”
> Short chapter: How to Mother a Dragon
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

20 days after Zipp’s breakdown

“Are you sure you don’t want to come with us, Zipp?” Sunny asked as she and her friends stood by the doors to the Brighthouse. Each were dressed up for another late night party they were invited to. Everypony except for Zipp. She was invited, but chose instead to remain at the Brighthouse for the night.

Zipp nodded. “I’m just feeling really tired right now and would rather rest here than go out tonight.” She explained.

“That makes sense.” Pipp admitted before asking. “But do you think you can handle being alone for a few hours?” The others nodded at this question. Zipp rarely, actually almost never, was by herself nowadays. Having a friend nearby seemed to help ease her worries about herself. 

Still, Zipp seemed sure in her decision. “You ponies have been looking forward to tonight. It wouldn’t be fair for you to miss out because of me.” She told them. “Besides.” She gestured to Sparky, who she was holding in her forehooves. “I got Sparky here to keep me company, and vice versa.”

“And are you sure you want to be the one who dragonsits him?” Hitch asked. “Because you already know how much of a hoofful he can be.” 

“I’m sure, babe.” Zipp answered.

Her friends, or at least three of them, still looked unsure about this. That is until Izzy spoke up. “I mean, it’s not like she’s going to use his dragon fire to make herself into an all powerful tyrant that’ll destroy us all and take over the world. If she tried, Sparky would just burn her alive.” She said rather casually regarding the subject material.

“Izzy!” Pipp, Hitch, and Sunny all scolded her.

“What?” Izzy said in her defense. “We were all thinking that she was thinking she was going to be thinking that at some point tonight, so I decided just to get rid of all that tension now.” She explained.

Despite the annoyed looks she was still reviving, Zipp couldn’t help but chuckle at the unicorn’s antics. “Thanks for that, Iz. I’ll have a much easier time sleeping knowing that can never happen.” She joked.

“You’re welcome!” Izzy cheerfully replied. 

Seeing that the rest of her friends didn't seem all that convinced, Zipp decided to take a more physical approach at reasoning with them and literally started pushing her friends to the door. "Look, you ponies have been working hard all week. Take some time off and enjoy yourselves.”

“But, Zipp-“ Pipp tried to retort but was stopped by her sister.

“If anything goes wrong I’ll call you. I promise.” Zipp assured her and the rest of her friends.

Seeing that Zipp wasn’t going to budge, the rest of the ponies decided that there was no use arguing anymore. Hitch walked over to his marefriend and gave her a hug and quick kiss. “Both of you be good now.” He said to both Zipp and Sparky.

“Yes, Sheriff Hitch. We’ll behave ourselves.” Zipp replied teasingly before Sparky made his own inaudible reply and joined in on the hug.

“Okay.” Sunny said once Hitch broke the hug. “We’ll be back in a few hours. Call if you need anything. Take care!” Sunny said as she and the rest of the party goers departed, leaving only Zipp and Sparky in the Brighthouse.

With nopony else around, Zipp placed Sparky on the floor and looked at the baby dragon. “Well, kiddo, looks like it’s just the two of us now.” She said with a smile as she knew what was coming. “Do your worst.”

Sparky gave her a look that said he was ready to do just that.





“Wheee!” Sparky cried happily as he flew around. “Whoohooo!”

Well, he felt like he was flying. But in actuality he was being balanced on Zipp’s hoof while she laid on the floor. “Hehe. And up we go!” She said before she gently bounced him up into the air before catching him with the same hoof, much to the dragon's delight. 

After much running around, it was nice to find a game they could play that didn't involve much movement on Zipp's end. And she could tell that Sparky was really enjoying it. This was probably the closest he's ever been to flying himself, not counting the times he's ridden in the Maresteam as that's a vehicle. 

Seeing the little guy enjoying the fake flying made Zipp briefly look at her own wings, and the feathers still growing back. In a few more weeks, they would be at the point she could use them for flight again. She would be flying again. Something she hadn't done since she clipped her wings twenty days ago, unless she counted the few times her sister carried her. 

And while she was grateful for Pipp's support, it wasn't the same as when she was flying with her own wings. By herself, she had no limitations on how fast she could go, or what tricks she could perform.  She had freedom to do whatever she wished. 

Freedom to do whatever she wished.

Sparky noticed that Zipp's hoof wasn't moving as much as it originally was. Looking down, he saw the pegasus looking sad. He didn't know why, or really at all any of what was going on with her lately, but he knew that he couldn't leave her like this. With a determined look on his face, he jumped off Zipp's hoof and began his plan.

Zipp was too distracted by her thoughts to notice Sparky jumping off. It was only when she unconsciously moved her hoof and heard no noise coming from the dragon did she notice he was gone. When she did, she sprang to her hooves and looked around frantically. "Sparky? Sparky, where are you!?" She called out for him.

Thankfully, she didn't have to worry long as she suddenly felt something land of her head and snuggle into her mane. All her worries evaporated away as she knew immediately the identity of the culprit and softly laughed. "Ha, ha! You little sneak." She playfully scolded the young dragon as he grabbed him off her head.

Sparky cooed in reply, and Zipp seemed to understand what he was saying. "Yeah, I'm feeling better now. Thank you, Sparky." She said with a smile as she nuzzled his nose.





A few hours later, and all was calm in the Brighthouse. Both Zipp and Sparky had exhausted themselves and now were sleeping on the couch, the pegasus having a wing draped around the baby dragon. 

From outside, a pony's head appeared in the window. It was Misty. Obviously having been sent by Opaline to get Sparky's dragon fire, she was expecting to find him at the party with the others. Realizing she wasn't there, she decided to check the Brighthouse next. Sure enough, she was both lucky and unlucky at the same time, finding both Sparky and Zipp there.

As the unicorn was pondering just how she could acquire the dragon without waking up Zipp, she heard the pegasus groaning and mumbling. Thinking she was waking up, Misty quickly dove back into the bushes and waited for what would happen next.

But Zipp wasn't waking up. Instead it seemed she was suffering from another nightmare. But before she could start flailing, Sparky unconsciously, or perhaps consciously, started to hug and snuggle the pegasus like a large stuffed animal. It wasn't much, but Sparky's comfort seemed to work as Zipp stopped shaking and was sleeping in peace again, a smile forming on her face as she brought Sparky in closer with her wing.

Having watched the whole thing, Misty was experiencing two emotions simultaneously.  One was the unnamable feeling of seeing something cute. After that display of kindness and love, Misty knew she couldn't break that up.

But that was also competing with the feeling of fear she felt at the idea of grabbing Sparky. She felt that if she so much as laid a hoof on that dragon that what ever Zipp would do to her would make what Opaline would do to her for her failure pale in comparison.

With a mixture of guilt and terror, Misty decided to try again some other day and retreated, leaving the step mother and son to continue sleeping in peace until their friends came back from the party.

And when they did, you can bet Pipp took many pictures of the scene in front of her.
> Return to the Sky (Content Warning)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

30 days after Zipp’s breakdown

Freedom. 

It is something that everypony desires. The exact definition of freedom differs from pony to pony. For Zipp, nothing says freedom like flying high in the sky, unrestricted by the troubles on the ground. And for nearly a month, she had been without that freedom due to her wings being clipped. But now, as the feathers started to grow back, Zipp began to think about something important.

What was she going to do when she regained that freedom?





Zipp was currently at a wing physician's office, getting her wings examined. More specifically her flight feathers and if she was ready to use them for flight again. Letting somepony else, especially a stranger, touch her wings made Zipp uncomfortable, but she knew that the easier she complied the sooner she would be out of there. After a few minutes of measurements, the physician gave their diagnosis. "Well, Princess Zipp, it seems that your flight feathers have fully recovered. I'd say you should be back in the air by first thing tomorrow."

“That’s……..great news.” Zipp said as she left the room. 

Her friends were all waiting in the lobby, all anxious to know if this was the day or not. When they saw the white pegasus enter, they immediately got up from their seats and approached her. “Well? Don’t keep us waiting, Sis. What’d they say?” Pipp eagerly asked.

Zipp gave her a soft smile. “I should be flying by tomorrow.” She told her sister and friends.

This made her friends cheer in excitement. “Oh, Zipp! I’m so happy for you!” Sunny said enthusiastically. “You’ll finally be flying again!”

“This calls for a celebration!” Izzy proclaimed. “Of course, a party would take way too long to plan out before tomorrow, and I don’t have the skills to conjure one up that fast.” She started rambling before Zipp stopped her.

“I don’t think that’ll be necessary, Izzy.” The pegasus told her unicorn friend. “It’s just going to be me flying again.” 

“Something that you might’ve never been able to do again if you hadn’t been working so hard in healing yourself.” Hitch pointed out as the group started for the door. “So I’d say there’s still something to celebrate, even if it’s something small with just the six of us.”

“Hitch is right.” Pipp agreed as they exited the building. “Look at how far you’ve come, Sis. It feels like just yesterday when you were afraid of yourself. Now you’ll once again be back in the sky, soaring like never before.” The pink pegasus said as she did some small tricks of her own for emphasis.

“Yeah. That will be nice.” Zipp said with a small smile as she looked up at the sky. 

The sky. The big, blue, endless sky. Up there she’d have complete freedom to do whatever she wanted. She could do loops, nose dives, go as fast as she could. The possibilities were endless.

“The Queen of the Skies will finally reclaim her throne!” Izzy exclaimed, snapping Zipp out of her thoughts.

“Queen of the Skies?” She repeated what Izzy said in confusion.

“Yeah. Queen of the Skies. I figured since you’re the best flier in Equestria, that could be a nickname of yours.” Izzy explained.

“I like it.” Pipp said. “Gives off a sense of regality that mimics your flying style. Powerful, yet majestic.” 

“And if all your wins in the Pegasus Mare-A-Thon are anything to go by, I’d say calling you Equestria’s best flier wouldn’t be too much of a stretch.” Hitch said as Sparky cooed in agreement.

“Equestria’s best flier.” Zipp thought as she looked up at the sky again. Her friends were right. All her years of training in her secret hideaway and the mountains gave her a huge advantage when flight was restored to the pegasi. Such a large lead that it had to be her to start up a system that would teach the others how to fly properly. It was her that was teaching Sunny how to fly in her alicorn form above all other pegasi. 

Queen of the Skies. That was an appropriate name for her. But Zipp knew she could be more than that. She soon would be Queen of Zephyr Heights. And if she married Hitch, possibly also Queen of Maretime Bay. The question was how to ensure Bridlewood would follow suit.

Zipp came to a sudden stop as she realized what she was thinking. She was doing it again. Thinking about taking over Equestria. This made her freak out as her eyes darted around frantically, as if searching for someone that was planning on ambushing her. And when she looked in a window, she found them as she didn’t see her own reflection, She saw HER. The corrupted side of herself from before, looking at her with an evil smile, seemingly pleased at the direction the princess’ thoughts were taking her.

“No! No! No! No!” Zipp internally pleaded as she shook her head, hoping she was seeing things wrong. When she opened her eyes, her reflection matched her own face again. Breathing a quick sigh of relief, the pegasus quickly rejoined her friends before they noticed she was lagging behind. She needed them with her now more than ever to keep such thoughts away.

“So, Zipp?” Sunny began to ask, getting Zipp’s full, and welcome, attention. “What do you say you and I have another sky race tomorrow? You know, a little warm up that’ll help get you back into the swing of things more quickly.” She suggested.

That was not the kind of thing Zipp wanted to be thinking about right now. Still, it would be rude to not give her some sort of reply, so with a forced smile, though not obviously forced, she answered. “Sure. Sounds like fun.” 

“Eeeeee!” Pipp squealed in excitement. “Oh, I’m so going to be live streaming that! The Zippsters will be thrilled!”

“Pipp.” Zipp groaned. “I thought I told you not to make Zippsters a thing!” She scolded her little sister. 

“I didn’t!” Pipp retorted, sounding like a young filly getting scolded for something they did repeatedly. “It’s just that ponies have been asking about you ever since they noticed your wings were clipped.”

This got Zipp alarmed as she didn’t want a bunch of strangers knowing about her recent troubles. “And what did you tell them?” She asked, afraid of the answer.

“Relax. All I told them was that you were in a flying accident and that your feathers would grow back soon.” Pipp assured her sister. “If I didn’t tell Mom, I certainly wouldn’t tell the Pippsqueaks anything without your approval.”

Zipp smiled genuinely this time. “Thanks, Sis.” She said before looking up at the sky again. 

Believing he knew what she was thinking, Hitch moved over to Zipp and gently nuzzled her. “Don’t worry, honey. It’ll be tomorrow before you know it.”

“It will, won’t it?” Zipp replied, once again now forcing her smile to stay up.





As night fell and ponies began to fall asleep, Zipp found herself lying awake in her bed. Despite her best efforts, she just couldn’t sleep. She kept looking at her phone’s clock, seeing the time get closer and closer to the next morning. And the more she did that, the less tired she got. 

It may have only been for a few seconds, but the sudden return of her corrupted thoughts scared the pegasus mare. Actually, saying it was for a few seconds was a lie. This has been bothering her for the past week now. The whole reason she clipped her feathers in the first place was because her magic came from her wings, her talent in flying. Why else did she have a lightning bolt as part of her Cutie Mark if not for skills of flight like nopony else. Without the ability to fly, she had no magic. She didn’t have unicorn levitation or earth pony plant powers. She was powerless to start anything, and smart enough to know that.

But now with those powers returning, so did the unwelcome imagery that came any time she tried to sleep or was alone. She would see herself flying high over the other ponies, even the pegasi, only to swoop down and take them out one by one. Her mother’s royal guards would try and stop her, to outmaneuver her, but they were not even worth calling an attempt at a challenge. She sent them all falling and crashing like rocks onto the hard ground.

Then when her friends tried to stop her, that was when she wished she had woken up sooner. Because every time they tried to stop her, they failed. She was too fast for Izzy to focus her magic and hold her in place, or for Pipp to catch her, or for Hitch to restrain her, or even for Sunny to blast her with alicorn magic. And with her equipped with the weapons from the nightmare that made her almost run away again, she always got a front row seat as she watched herself put down her friends for good, no matter how many times she internally screamed and begged herself to wake up, only for the nightmare to silence her until the scene was finished.

Her friends didn’t notice her struggles. She had gotten better at hiding her problems from them. They already were doing so much for her.  And seeing how happy they were when she told them she would be flying again, she didn’t want to let them all down by telling them that she was against the idea. 

So far they didn’t know anything. And as long as she kept quiet……

Zipp shook her head as the possible scheme forming died out. “Maybe some water will help me sleep.” She told herself as she got out of bed and walked down to the kitchen to get a drink.

She poured herself a glass and was about to take a sip when she looked at her reflection. There SHE was again, looking directly at her, smiling. Zipp panicked and dropped her glass on the floor, shattering it and spilling water everywhere. But she was less worried about the mess and more about the fact that reflected in every droplet, every piece of glass, was her evil self looking directly at her. "No! No! No! No!" Zipp pleaded aloud and prayed that she had fallen asleep and that this was all another nightmare. 

She continuously kept on kicking herself, but her location didn't change. This was all real. To make matters worse, when she looked out the kitchen window, SHE was now there too. "NOO!" Zipp shouted as she now went into full panic mode. 

Everywhere she looked, her corrupted self was there, not just in reflections anymore. She was looking down at her from the stairwell, from outside, through the tv, every corner she stood there, now laughing at no doubt the pathetic show being put on in front of her. Zipp looked anywhere for a possible escape. But with her evil self outside, running away wasn't an option this time. The only place that she didn't seem to see her was near the bathroom door.

Seeing her sanctuary, Zipp quickly bolted for the bathroom and slammed the door shut. Believing she had finally found safety and peace, she allowed herself to rest against the door and slump to the floor in slight relief. In this moment of silence, Zipp took the moment to repeat the mantras Sunny taught her for situations like this. "I am stronger than you. I am not the same pony as you. I am above you. I am above you."

"Oh, you will soon be finding yourself above everypony else, all right." Another voice told the white pegasus. 

Zipp immediately shot up from her sitting position and searched the dark room frantically. "Who's there?!" She demanded out of them, trying and failing to sound brave. The pegasus went for the light switch and turned on the lights in the room. And was greeted with her evil self laughing at her in the mirror. "NO! NO! NOO!" Zipp pleaded as closed her eyes and covered her ears while she began reciting the mantras again. "I'm stronger than you! I'm not the same pony as you! I'm not going to be like you!"

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Her mirror self laughed mockingly. "Oh, stop deluding yourself!" Her evil laughs and words passed easily through Zipp's attempts to block them out. "With your wings having returned, it's time to accept your destiny as Queen! There's no other choice!"

Zipp opened her eyes and took in what what her evil self said. "My wings." She looked at them and remembered the whole reason she got rid of their ability in the first place. She was so vulnerable without her wings that if her friends hadn't found her she would've died in that cave. 

She knew what she had to do. Jumping to the nearest drawer, she opened it and searched frantically before pulling out a pair of scissors. With them in hoof, she looked up defiantly at her mirror self. "You say I have no choice. Well, I do have a choice. And it's this!" She yelled as she aimed the scissors at her feathers.

Despite the current situation, all the evil Zipp did was laugh. "Ha! Foolish pony! All that will do is delay the inevitable! Your feathers will grow back. And when they do..."

"Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UP!" Zipp screamed at herself. "I'll do this as many times as I have to! I'll even cut off the wings themselves! Whatever it takes to never become you!" She said as she prepared to snip the scissors down. "I'm stronger than you! I'm above you! I'LL NEVER BE YOU!!!"

"ZIPP!!!" The door swung open and Zipp froze in place. Slowly turning her head, she saw Pipp standing in the entryway with a horrified look on her face. 

“Stay back!” Zipp warned her sister, still holding the scissors next to her feathers.

Pipp took her sister’s warning seriously, but still attempted to reason with her. “Zipp.” 

“I mean it!” Zipp cautioned as she shakily held the scissors. “One step and they come off!”

“Zipp, put the scissors down and let’s talk.” Pipp gently requested as she looked like she was about to take a step forward.

“I’m serious, Pipp!” Zipp was starting to cry now. “I’ll do it!” 

“Zipp…..please…..tell me what’s wrong.” Pipp pleaded softly.

Zipp’s composure lost the fight and she dropped the scissors before crying into her hooves. Pipp took the opportunity and was immediately at her sister’s side, pulling her into a massive hug. “Ssssh.” The younger sister cooed. “It’s all right, Zipp. I’m here now.”

“I’m so messed up!” Zipp choked out. “I keep hearing her…..me…..telling myself to……embrace it…..I tried to shut her up……..” She sniffled before burying her face into Pipp’s mane and sobbed. “I’m so patheti-hi-hi-hi-hic!” 

“Ssssh.” Pipp comforted her sister, making sure Zipp knew that she wasn’t alone anymore. 

Sunny and Izzy stood at the doorway. They, along with Pipp, were woken up by all the commotion Zipp was causing and followed her downstairs to make sure the white pegasus was safe and unharmed. What they were seeing broke their hearts and they didn’t hesitate to join Pipp in comforting their friend.

Zipp felt them join in the embrace and said through her tears. “I’m sorry I let you all down….I know you all wanted me to be flying again…….but I can’t!!!!” She choked out. 

Her friends said nothing and just continued comforting her. They all stayed that until Zipp eventually cried herself to sleep. Once they were sure the older pegasus sister was deeply asleep, they gently put her on Pipp’s back and helped the younger sister carry her back to the bedroom. 

On the way back upstairs, Izzy spoke up. “This is all my fault.” She said sadly. “If I hadn’t given her that ‘Queen of the Skies’ nickname she wouldn’t have-“

“No, Izzy. I’m the one that was pushing her to fly again.” Pipp assured her friend. 

“We all played a part in pushing Zipp back into the sky without thinking she might’ve not been ready for it.” Sunny told them both. “What we need to do now is help her get that confidence she had when flying back.”

“How?” Pipp asked as they reached the bedroom and placed Zipp into her bed before her sister joined her, allowing herself to be nuzzled into like a body pillow. “I’m not sure therapy and inspiring words will be enough this time.” 

“I think I might have one idea that could work.” Izzy said before telling Sunny and Pipp her plan. “What’d you think?” She asked afterwards. 

“It’s risky. Zipp might not go along with it. It might even scare her.” Pipp warned.

“But it is her best chance.” Sunny said, to which Pipp nodded in agreement. 

“I’ll stay here with Zipp. You two start first thing in the morning.” Pipp told her friends before she remembered something else. “Oh! Make sure to tell Hitch before that. I’ll need him and Sparky with me to comfort Zipp when she wakes up.”

“You got it, Pipperoni.” Izzy said before all three mares touched hooves.

“For Zipp.” Pipp said.

“For Zipp.” Sunny and Izzy soon followed.





It was late morning when Zipp finally woke up. When she did, the first thing she noticed was that she was holding something, or somepony. After yawning, she opened her eyes and saw Pipp’s gentle smile greeting her. “Morning, Zipp.” She said to her big sister.

“Pipp?” Zipp asked before she felt a hoof on her shoulder. Looking up, she saw Hitch smiling down at her. “Hitch?”

“Morning, Zipp.” Hitch greeted his marefriend before Sparky jumped off his father’s back and went and hugged his mother.

“Hehe. Morning to you too, kiddo.” Zipp greeted the baby dragon with a small laugh before she lifted her head up to look at both her sister and coltfriend. “What’s going on?”

Pipp and Hitch shared an unsure look with each other. They seemed to be silently debating something before Pipp was the one to ask. “Zipp, do you remember last night?”

“Last night?” Zipp asked. “What happened last-“ She paused as the memories came back to her like a flash flood. When the flashback finished, she looked down in shame. “I’m sorry, you two.” She apologized.

“Oh, Zipp.” Pipp said sadly as she hugged her sister.

“Zipp.” Hitch said softly as he gently rubbed her wings to calm her down. “How long has this fear been bothering you?” He asked her. “I have a feeling it didn’t all just start yesterday.”

Zipp didn’t say anything for a while, she just nodded to confirm Hitch’s guess was right, before she found the courage to speak up. “I’d say it’s been bothering me for over a week now.” She confessed.

Pipp was surprised to hear this. So was Hitch, even if he somewhat expected it. “And why didn’t you tell us anything?” Pipp asked.

Zipp looked down at Sparky in her hooves, the dragon’s innocent eyes giving her some comfort before she continued. “You all just seemed so excited for me to be flying again. I didn’t want to let you all down by saying I’d rather remain grounded. Without my wings, I can’t do any magic. And it seemed that was keeping the dark thoughts away. But once the feathers started to grow back, so did they.” The white pegasus sniffled as she seemed like she was about to cry again. “I tried to fight back, to tell myself I was stronger than this. But it seems I was wrong and I just let you all down anyway.” 

“Zipp.” Pipp said softly as she tightened her hug and Hitch joined in. “You didn’t let us down at all. You don’t have to feel sorry for anything. If anyone should apologize, it’s us.” She said as she looked down guiltily.

“Huh?” Zipp said in confusion.

“We were so excited about you flying again, we didn’t think to ask you about what you wanted.” Hitch explained, also looking guilty. “We essentially put you in the spotlight without any preparation, and made you think you didn’t have a choice to say no.”

“Pipp. Hitch.” Zipp said softly in response to their apologies.

“But you should know that you never have to hide these things from us, Zipp.” Hitch assured her. “We’ve already gone through so much together. If you feel something is troubling you, don’t be afraid to tell us.”

“We won’t think any less of you for it.” Pipp chimed in. “You’re still the coolest big sister in the world to me. And I mean that.” 

“You guys.” Zipp smiled at their words.

They all stayed like that for a while until Pipp spoke up. “Listen, there’s something in the living room that Sunny and Izzy have been working on for you. You don’t have to accept it, but we still think you should at least see and possibly try it out.”

“What is it?” Zipp asked as they got out of her bed.

“It’s a surprise.” Pipp told her as she led the way downstairs, with Zipp, Hitch, and Sparky following close behind.

When they reached the living room, they were greeted by Sunny and Izzy running over to them. “Zipp!” Sunny greeted her friend happily.

“How’re you feeling?” Izzy asked.

“Better than I was last night.” Zipp told them with a small smile, attempting to make a joke.

Despite this, the two mares still looked rather guilty. “Zipp, I’m sorry for making you think you had to fly right now.” Sunny apologized.

“And I’m sorry for giving you that nickname. I should’ve remembered being a queen is what made you get upset in the first place.” Izzy also apologized.

“It’s fine.” Zipp assured her friends as she hugged them both. “I should’ve been more open about how I was feeling.” She said before breaking the hug and looking at all her friends. “So? You said you had a surprise for me.”

“Oh, yeah!” Izzy suddenly remembered before she and Sunny moved out of the way to reveal what they made. “Tada!” The unicorn beamed.

Zipp looked at the new object her friends created; a small hoop that was suspended slightly off the ground, similar to the ones lions jump through in circuses. “Even if we support you not going back up in the sky immediately, we still do want you to fly again.” Hitch told her.

“It makes you part of who you are, Sis. You shouldn’t lock that part of you away for good.” Pipp added.

“So, we figured we’d give you something to help you slowly gain your confidence in flying back.” Sunny joined in.

“Just practice flying through the hoop, and when you feel ready we can add more to it until you’re ready to try flying outside.” Izzy finished before asking. “Do you like it?” 

Zipp didn’t respond with her words. Instead she walked up to the hoop and spread her wings, surprising her friends at her boldness. “Wait, Zipp. You don’t have to-“ Pipp tried to stop her sister before Zipp interrupted her.

“I want to do this.” She told them before she gave her wings the first flap she gave them in a month. Her body started to lift off of the ground before gravity seemed to pull it back down.  But another flap kept the pegasus in the air. Slowly, Zipp flapped her wings until she was level with the hoop. Then, she adjusted her flapping so that instead of upwards she went forward and passed through the hoop with ease, coming to a land on the other side. She looked back at her friends and told them. “I love it.” 

Her friends cheered in happiness and ran up to congratulate Zipp. “Zipp, that was incredible!” Sunny said.

“It was just a small flight. Any pegasus could do it.” Zipp bashfully replied.

“No. This was more than just a small flight.” Pipp told her sister. “It was a massive leap for you and how far  you’ve come.” 

Zipp looked out the window, at the sky outside, and smiled. “Yeah. I guess it was.” 





Three weeks passed, and every morning when Zipp would wake up she would fly through the hoop. Eventually, she started to fly through it more than once in the morning. Then she started also doing it in the afternoons and the evenings. Soon she asked Izzy to raise the hoop higher, to which the unicorn quickly complied. She would then start asking for more hoops, and have them lined up in a row. She then started to spread those hoops out more and into a maze, making it challenge to fly through them all as fast as she could. Finally, one morning, Zipp decided she wanted a change in environment and she went outside. Once there, she opened her wings and took to the sky. 

The feeling returned that she had been missing and avoiding for so long. Freedom. Nothing was holding her back at this moment. Her problems were on the ground where they belonged. All that mattered to Zipp right now was the feeling of the wind against her body. 

She looked down and saw her friends cheering for her, Pipp no doubt live streaming the whole thing in her excitement. Zipp smiled at them before she started to loop around in massive circles and finish with a massive nose dive that flew her right past her friends, much to their excitement. 

As she flew up high, Zipp couldn’t help but laugh. Before she was afraid of freedom and what it might lead her into becoming.

Now, she wouldn’t give away this feeling for anything in the world. And she planned to keep it that way.
> Recovering Your Groove
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

56 days after Zipp’s breakdown

It was another sunny day in Maretime Bay, and Zipp was currently returning from a flight with Sparky, the little dragon still giggling in his carrier. Zipp smiled at her unofficial son’s excitement before she landed in front of the Sheriff’s Station. She was just about to open the door when she heard the sound of a conversation going on inside. “Come on, man!” Came the unmistakable whining voice of Sprout. “Just give me another chance!” He pleaded on his knees.

“Oh, brother. Here we go again.” Zipp groaned with an eye roll, knowing all too well that Sprout was once again trying to get his job back since whatever new job he had he most certainly just lost again. She decided to not to enter at the moment and let the scene play out as it usually did. 

Inside the station, Hitch had the same annoyed look on his face that his marefriend had as he sat at his desk and listened to whatever pathetic reasons the red stallion came up with to be rehired this time. “Sprout.” He groaned. “No matter how many times you ask, the answer is still going to be no.”

“Come on!” Sprout whined again. “I thought we were friends.”

“And it was because of that friendship that I gave you the position of deputy and made one of the worst decisions of my life.” Hitch said in response before signing again. “Look, Sprout, even if you were somehow qualified for the job, the position has already been filled.”

“Oh, so you can’t give it to your foalhood friend. But your marefriend, totally acceptable for the job!” The red stallion said angrily.

“Zipp proved herself as a trustworthy partner long before we became couple.” Hitch pointed out, frowning at his marefriend being dragged into this.

“Oh, come on, Hitch. Everypony in Maretime Bay knows she’s washed up at this point.” Sprout said, earning a glare from Hitch he paid no attention to. “I mean, when was the last time she did anything detective related? Anything useful? Way before she had her wings clipped, I’ll tell you that.” From outside, Zipp heard all of that and frowned.

It took everything Hitch had to not slap Sprout just like he did to Sugar when she talked badly about Zipp. Instead he just looked at the former deputy with a dark look that said everything.  “If you were half the pony she is, you’d understand why she’s more worthy of the job than you’ll ever be.” He said before getting up from his seat. 

Knowing what was about to happen, Zipp moved away from the door. A few seconds later, and Sprout was sent flying out of the station and crashed against the rail. “Eeesh.” Zipp winced at his pain before entering the station herself.

Initially greeted by Hitch’s annoyed face, it soon turned to one of happiness when he saw his marefriend come in with his son. “Hey, Zipp!” He greeted her as they hugged. 

“Hi, honey.” Zipp greeted back with not as much enthusiasm.

Something Hitch easily noticed and didn’t need to ask to know where it came from. “How much did you hear?” He asked her as they parted, now a concerned look on his face as he grabbed Sparky from the carrier and placed the baby dragon on his back. 

“About the last minute or two.” Zipp answered truthfully as she unclipped the carrier from around her waist. “He wasn’t completely wrong, you know?” She said as she went towards the window.

“Zipp.” Hitch started to say before the pegasus stopped him.

“Don’t deny it, Hitch. It’s true. I haven’t done anything involving my investigations since….” Zipp looked down in shame, unable to finish the sentence.

Hitch sensed her distress and walked over to wrap a hoof around the pegasus mare and pull her into another hug. “And what’s stopping you from starting that up again?” He asked.

“……..I don’t know where to start.” His lover responded as she nuzzled into his chest. “I mean, the last time I did an investigation I put us all in danger of being corrupted forever. That alone makes it difficult for me to trust in my own instincts again. I’ve been barking up wrong trees before, how do I know I won’t just keep doing it again?”

Hitch stroked her back. “You have good instincts, Zipp.” He assured her. “You’ve succeeded more times than you think.”

“I guess.” Zipp said, though not sounding as convinced as Hitch would like. “Still, I……I want to start up again, I really do. I just don’t know how or where to start.”

Hitch slowly pulled away and looked into Zipp’s eyes. “Zipp, remember what you told me? Baby steps. You don’t have to start with doing everything at once. Pick something smaller first, and then work up from there.”

“But-“ Zipp tried to say something before Hitch stopped her, already knowing what she was going to say.

“After everything you’ve been through, we’ve been through together, you think I’m just going to replace you because you needed some time off?” The stallion guessed what his marefriend was going to say. “Sprout’s just being spiteful as always. I would rather you take a whole year off than force you back into work again.” He said before chuckling. “Besides, I’d say you’re doing something with mothering Sparky while I’m busy.”

Sparky took this moment to jump onto Zipp’s head and nuzzle into her mane as she chuckled to herself. “Hehe. Yeah, I guess I am doing that.” She said before kissing Hitch on the lips. “Thanks, babe. You really know how to lift me back up when I’m down.”

“Pretty impressive for an earth pony to accomplish, I must say.” Hitch joked, earning a playful jab from Zipp was they both laughed and exited the station together. 

However, while Zipp wasn’t ignoring what Hitch told her, she still wanted to do something that would get her back in the field of detective work. Her friends depended on her figuring out what Twilight’s message was and what it meant for the future. But with a lack of confidence in herself, that wasn’t going to be easy.





Night came and went, as did another nightmare for Zipp, and soon it was the next day. Once again finding herself as the last to wake up, Zipp made her way downstairs. When she got there, she noticed that her friends were surprisingly absent.  “Strange.” Zipp said as she went into the kitchen and saw what looked like half eaten breakfasts, implying they left in a hurry. “Hmmm.” Just as she was about to pull out her phone to call them, she noticed a note taped to the refrigerator. “What’s this?” She asked aloud as she took the note and read it. 

“‘Zipp, Hitch called us about an emergency and we’re all meeting at the Sheriff’s Station. Please join us as soon as you can. Pipp.’”

“This can’t be good.” Zipp said as she immediately spread her wings and flew out the door towards the station. 

When she arrived, she saw a massive crowd of ponies gathered outside. “Excuse me. Pardon me.” She said as she pushed her way through the anxious crowd before entering the station. 

Inside, her worried friends heard the bell ring and saw the pegasus coming inside. “Zipp! Thank hoofness you’re here!” Hitch said in relief as he ran up to hug her. 

While being hugged by Hitch wasn’t anything new for Zipp, the way he did so concerned her. “What’s going on.” She asked once they parted.

“Maretime Bay Bank has been robbed.” Sunny answered. 

Zipp’s eyes widened when she heard this. “What?” She said in disbelief.

“It’s been completely emptied. There’s nothing left.” Sunny continued. 

“Without any money in the bank, all of Maretime Bay is starting to panic about what they’ll do when whatever they have on hoof runs out.” Pipp added.

“It’s the ultimate Jinxie!” Izzy shouted in fear. “I’ll never be able to buy crafting supplies again!”

“Do they have any idea who did it?” Zipp asked.

Everypony else shook their heads. “No, they took out all of the security cameras before they struck.” Hitch answered.

Zipp frowned at this news, but not for the reason her friends expected. “All right, whose idea was this?”

“Huh?” Her friends said in confusion to the question. 

“Look, I get you guys want to help me and all. But I thought we learned that starting a crisis just so I’d have a mystery to solve is never a good idea.” Zipp said with a frustrated look on her face. 

“Wait, you think we did this?” Sunny asked, surprised by the accusation.

“Just yesterday, I was saying how I was struggling to get back into the groove of detective work. And now there’s a bank robbery with no idea of who did it or where all the money is. Seems a little too coincidental.” The white mare pointed out.

“Zipp, come on.” Pipp tried to reason with her sister. “When have we ever-“

“Did you forget about the missing lantern incident?” Zipp cut her off, leading to the pink pegasus blushing and chuckling nervously as she rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment to that mistake.

Seeing she was still not convinced this was real, Hitch tried to reason with his lover. “Zipp, I know it looks like this is all just some set up, but I swear this is an actual emergency that we need your help with.”

Hitch’s distress did help convince Zipp slightly that this wasn’t a ploy, or at the very least that they wouldn’t let up on this mystery until she solved it, but she still had questions. “And why do you need me specifically to solve this? Can’t you just do it yourself?” She asked Hitch.

“Because ignoring the fact you are a much better detective than I am, me and the girls need to remain here to keep the populous from panicking and rioting in the streets.” Hitch answered.

“Yeah, there won’t be a Maretime Bay for much longer if we don’t keep the peace.” Pipp said, concerned about both that and her saloon since she knew that would be a hot bed for looting. 

Hearing what her coltfriend and sister were saying, Zipp knew that she didn’t have another choice. Her mother had taught her to always treat emergency situations as if they were real, even if she believed they were fake. And this situation was starting to sound more and more real with everything they were saying. 

She did keep telling herself she’d need to get back into the groove sooner or later. Better to start now then wait for something worse to happen. 

Besides, if this was all some ploy to get her back into the detective business, then she’d be sure to give them all an earful that’ll last for weeks. Months on Hitch’s end.

“All right.” She said with a sigh. “I’ll see what I can figure out.”

Her friends cheered at her agreeing to help as they all pulled the detective into a group hug. "Thank you, Zipp! You're a lifesaver!" Hitch basically cried in joy.

"Don't thank me yet." Zipp cautioned as she broke the hug. "I haven't solved anything."

Seeing that Zipp, while agreeing to help, still needed some encouragement, Izzy decided to step in. "Ooh! Ooh! Can I help, Zipp?!" She excitedly asked while raising her hoof in the air like a filly in school. 

"Huh?" Zipp said in surprise to the request. "You?"

"Yes, me. I can be your sidekick. Helping you find clues you might've accidentally looked over. Not saying you would, but you never know." Izzy started rambling as Zipp considered the unicorn's offer. 

Truth be told, she usually preferred to do her investigations by herself. However, she still felt safer lately when one of her friends were with her. And since Hitch was going to be busy keeping the peace, Sunny and Pipp no doubt helping him, Izzy was really the only option she had. "All right, Iz. Let me get my gear, and I'll meet you at the bank."

"Eeeeeeh!" Izzy shook with excitement.  "I'll go get my bubble pipe!" She exclaimed before bolting out of the door.

Despite her uncertainties, Zipp couldn't help but chuckle at the unicorn's shenanigans. "Never change, Izzy." She said as she flew to the Brighthouse.





Considering how much she was doubting herself and her detective skills lately, Zipp found it to be very fortunate she never got to the point she destroyed her equipment. Who knows how long it would've taken to replace the Rad-Visor. 

Thinking about that made the princess detective recall when she first got them. More specifically, how she completely failed in remembering where she put her own sunglasses and just accused her friends because they were there. 

Really that's how it always was, wasn't it? Attack first and ask questions never. And no matter how many times she was proven completely wrong, she just kept doing it. It made Zipp question why she even agreed to this idea in the first place. Desperation was literally the only reason.

"Zipp? Zipp!" Izzy shouted into Zipp's ear, startling the pegasus and making her jump into the air. "Sorry." The unicorn apologized with a sheepish smile.

"It's fine." Zipp assured her friend as she flew back down before giving her instructions. "Just, look around the area and look for anything out of the ordinary. I'm going to see what the cameras picked up."

"But Hitch said the cameras were taken out before the thief struck." Izzy pointed out before asking. "How do you plan to get any information from them?"

"It should hopefully give me a clue on who possibly took them out and how, and then narrow the suspects from thERE!" Zipp suddenly exclaimed as she slipped on the floor and landed on her chest. 

"Zipp, you okay?" Izzy asked as she ran over to her friend's side, and ended up slipping herself. "Whoa!" She exclaimed before crashing into Zipp. "Oops." She said in embarrassment.

"It's fine, Izzy." Zipp assured her friend as she looked at the floor bitterly. "Somepony just doesn't know how to mop the floor properly." 

"Much like how I don't know how to solve this case at all." She said as she went to see if she would have any luck with the security cameras while Izzy inspected the vault.





"Case update: Nothing but failure and disappointment." Zipp dully recorded onto her phone.

She was now back in the Brighthouse, looking over everything she and Izzy had found during the investigation, what little there was found. All Zipp got from checking the security cameras, other than messy hooves from the filthy control panel, was ponies coming in and out of the bank, most of whom were employees who had no reason to commit the crime.

Izzy, even though Zipp knew she tried as much as she could and the pegasus couldn't ask for more, wasn't much help. The unicorn took many, many pictures of the scene, but none of them were of any use. They all just showed an empty vault with no signs of forced entry, or they were pictures Izzy accidentally took when she tripped, which had happened a lot.

"Ugh." Zipp groaned as she banged her head against the desk. "You just had to accept this case, Zipp" She scolded herself.  "You just had to get your friends and everypony else to rely on you and then fail them." 

It was at that moment she heard hoofsteps coming up the stairs and turned around to see Hitch enter the bedroom. "Hey, Zipp." He greeted her as he walked over to the pegasus. “How’s the case coming? Izzy said that you were hitting some snags.”

“If by snags you mean that I've completely failed again, then you'd be correct." Zipp replied dryly before flying over to her bed and flopping down on it with a defeated sigh.

Hitch frowned and climbed onto his marefriend’s bed and sat down beside her, putting a hoof around her neck. “Hey, I’m sure you did better than you think.” He assured her.

“Look at the board, Hitch. There’s nothing there that could help anypony solve the case. At best, I’d just fly around like an idiot and start accusing those ponies at random. Everyone knows I’ve done it before. I just can’t ever seem to be helpful. If this is how I keep handling emergencies after all this time, how can I be expected to rule over Zephyr Heights?” Zipp said before grabbing a pillow and burring her face into it. 

Hitch’s frown increased. He was warned about this by Pipp before their first date. Zipp’s self doubts about herself were once again rearing their ugly heads. And there was no way he was going to let them plague his mare again, not if he had anything to say about it. 

Going off of his first instinct, he removed his hoof from around Zipp's neck and placed both of his forelegs on her back, where her wings were spread. There he proceeded to gently press and knead her wings and the muscles around them. Zipp gasped at the sudden contact. "Hitch!" 

"Sorry!" Hitch said as he suddenly pulled his hooves back. "You were just very stressed out. So I just thought, since I've heard that pegasus wings are a sensitive place, that maybe a wing massage would help you relax and think better." He explained. "But I should've asked for your permission first. I'm sor-"

"I didn't say anything about hating it." Zipp told her coltfriend as a blush appeared on her cheeks and she hid her face back into the pillow. 

"Oh." Hitch said as he also blushed at the realization before resuming his massage.

"Oh, sweet stars." Zipp sighed as she rested her head against the pillow and felt as Hitch's hooves against her wings. Feeling as all the tense muscles stored up in her wings were smoothed down like they were silk. The pegasus closed her eyes and felt as if she was flying in a sea of clouds. No, not flying; floating. Moving through the sky without any effort of her wings whatsoever. It was pure bliss. A feeling she didn't ever want to end.

So when she felt Hitch pull his hooves away again, she was less than pleased. "Hey, what the heck, Hitch?" She groaned as she lifted her head and glared at the sheriff. 

"Don't want you getting too out of it." Hitch said with a sheepish smile. "We do still have a case to solve after all."

"Oh, right." Zipp groaned as she got back up. Truth be told, Hitch's massage really did help in calming her down and easing her worries. She felt refreshed, like a new mare. She felt like she had a chance to solve his mystery and she was going to take it. Though, honestly, she wanted to wrap this case up less so everypony would get their money back and more so that she would feel Hitch's hooves on her wings again.

"Hooves?" Zipp thought as something came to her. "Wait a minute. Why would the bank mop the floor of a crime scene?" The pegasus then looked at her own hooves and another idea popped into her head. With speed that would make the Aerobats jealous, Zipp was suddenly at her desk with her visors on, scanning the photos Izzy was taking. 

"What's going on?" Hitch asked as he watched Zipp scan the photos and then her hooves. 

"Call me crazy, but I think I just figured it out." Zipp answered as she looked at the pictures of the ponies there at the bank that day. 

"You did?" Hitch asked, surprised his massage not only gave Zipp her confidence back, but also seemed to accelerate her thinking. 

"Yes, it actually makes so much sense when you think about it." The princess detective said as she lifted her visors and started explaining. "You see, when I checked the security cameras, the control panel was filthy and greasy, the same kind of greasy that was right outside the vault. That means that whoever committed the crime also was in the control room, taking out the cameras from the inside. That also would explain why the vault didn't look like it was forced into. It was opened like normal."

"But who could do that?" Hitch asked.

"Somepony who not only knows the ins and outs of the bank, but clearly knows machines very well. Somepony who likes greasy foods and had some right before they commit the crime. Somepony who would have worked at the bank, but doesn't anymore. Somepony who is both cunningly brilliant, but also a complete idiot."





"And that pony is you Sprout Cloverleaf!" Zipp finished her recap as she pointed a hoof accusingly at the culprit behind the bank robbery., the scene now having shifted to the Sheriff's Station where Sprout was sitting in front of the mugshot wall while a light was shined into his face. 

Despite having been caught, Sprout smiled. "I must say, you're pretty clever for having me figured out, Detective." The red stallion said, all but confessing to the crime. "But it doesn't matter. The money is still gone, and there's nothing you can do that would make me talk!" He bragged before laughing evilly, or at least attempting to as he more sounded like he needed to be sent to the looney bin.

Despite the fact Sprout was right, at least somewhat right, in his threat, Zipp remained unfazed. "And you clearly are still an idiot as you don't understand the concept of diversions."

"What?" Sprout said in confusion to the claim.

"See, before I hauled you off here, I asked Izzy to take a look around the perimeter of the bank for anything out of the ordinary. And with a pony with an eye for detail like her, we should be expecting a report in three, two, one." She counted down with her wing before her phone rang. Pulling it out, all with closed eyes and a confident smile, she put the unicorn on speaker and asked. "Did you find it, Izzy?" 

"Yep!" Izzy's chipper voice replied on the other side. "Found a bunch of new bushes, and there was the money." She said.

"As expected." Zipp said smugly before looking back to Sprout. "You didn't realize how heavy all that money was going to be, and didn't think to plan for it, so you just hid the money in the first place you could, using your Flora Magic to cover it up." She paused before saying. "And yet that wasn't even your biggest mistake. You doomed yourself when you decided to have pizza right before commiting the crime and didn't wash your hooves, leaving grease all over the security panel and the floor."

"Hey! A big crime requires a big dinner so I'd have the energy!" Sprout retorted.

Hitch turned off the light and walked up to Sprout. "Sprout, what in Equestria possessed you to do this?" He asked. "I mean, robbing the bank of everything! Do you realize what could've happened had Zipp not solved this when she did!"

"And she's exactly why I did it!" Sprout snapped at the sheriff. "I thought that if I showed you how bad of a deputy she was that you'd finally see reason and give the position back to me!" He said dramatically, or attempted dramatically, before he glared at Zipp. "Mark my words, Zipp Storm. I will have my revenge! Ahahahahahahahaha!"

Sprout laughed like a maniac even as he was dragged away into the mental hospital and the doors slammed shut, leaving Zipp, Hitch, and Izzy on the outside. "Yeah, he's going to be in there for a while." Hitch told the two mares.

"Probably longer than a while if he seriously thinks about becoming a reoccurring antagonist. He just doesn't have that villainous feeling to him." Izzy commented. 

Hitch nodded in agreement before turning to Zipp. "Zipp, I think I speak for everypony when I say thank you." 

Zipp blushed at the praise. "Oh, well, I couldn't have done it without you and Izzy." She said bashfully before she smirked at her coltfriend. "Though, if you really want to thank me, you could always give me another wing massage. And this time, you're not stopping until I tell you to."

"As the princess commands." Hitch chuckled as the two of them left. 

Leaving Izzy behind with one thought going through her head. "Are they going to wait until before or after the wedding?"





"Pull!" Opaline shouted at Misty.

The unicorn shakingly grabbed another newspaper, crumbled it up, and tossed it into the air for Opaline to blast with her magic and incinerate. It had been a week since the bank robbery, and Zipp's accomplishment had made the front pages all over Equestria. After having learned not only that Zipp was now back into her detective work, but also having been told by Misty that she was figuring out a message left by Twilight Sparkle, Opaline was absolutely livid. She thought she'd have more time to prepare herself. But now that time was running out, and running out fast.

Watching as the ash fell to the floor, Misty gulped before asking a question she felt would probably get her killed. "Uh, Opaline, don't you think that maybe you're getting worked up over nothing?"

The alicorn looked down at her minion with a blank expression. At first Misty thought that she might've dodged the blast with that question, but she would soon be proven wrong. Very wrong. "NOTHING!?" Opaline screamed with enough force to send Misty flying into the wall. "That detective girl is the biggest threat to my plans! How have you not noticed that yet!?"

"I-I-I-I thought Sunny was the biggest threat to your plans?" Misty timidly asked. "I mean, Zipp? She isn't even a pseudo alicorn."

"Where she lacks in magical powers, she makes up for in intelligence." Opaline explained much more calmly, though still very scarily, to Misty. "If she figures out where my castle is, then we can easily expect an entire army of ponies right on our doorsteps. And with how my powers are now, they could easily destroy us."

The thought of an army bursting through the castle doors and taking her prisoner, or worse, frightened Misty. "W-well, it was only a matter of time ponies would start figuring things out. I mean, what are we supposed to do? Kill Zipp?" She asked jokingly.

But Opaline looked at her with a pleased smile. "Precisely." She answered, confusing and horrifying Misty.
> Clear Betrayal
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

64 days after Zipp's breakdown

"K-kill her?" Misty staggered out after hearing what Opaline just said. 

The alicorn in question groaned and rolled her eyes in annoyance at her minion's ineptitude. "Yes, kill her. What, do you need me to explain it in a song?"

"No! No! I get what you're saying." Misty quickly assured her mistress before asking with a nervous smile. "It's just...why do we need to focus on killing Zipp? Shouldn't our priority be getting you dragon fire?" 

"We won't get any dragon fire with that princess flying around!" Opaline yelled, knocking Misty back into the wall. "Haven't you figured it out yet that she's suspicious of you!" She scolded the unicorn before she lowered her voice and said. "That is why you destroyed my necklace, correct? To make her trust you?"

If Misty wasn't scared before, she was now. Opaline didn't say anything about the necklace when she returned that fateful day, so she assumed she didn't notice or cared and didn't say anything about it. Anything was better than telling Opaline the truth of why she did it. "Oh, uh, yeah! Definitely! Just some good old deceit to keep her off my trail." She blurted out nervously so Opaline would still be convinced otherwise.

Thankfully, it seemed she took the bait and nodded in satisfaction. "Good. Then it shouldn't be too hard to complete the job then." 

"That's right." Misty nodded as she got back onto her hooves before she replayed what Opaline said in her head. "Wait, job? What job?" She asked. 

"Ugh." Opaline facehoofed at Misty still not picking up the obvious and needing to be explained things like a dumb filly. "The job you have of killing that princess."

Misty’s face went from horrifed to utterly horrified. “M-me?” She stammered out. “You want me to kill her?” 

“I can’t go out in public, otherwise I’d gladly do it myself, so it has to be you.” Opaline reminded her. 

“Oh….right.” Misty said depressingly before asking another question she knew she would regret asking. “How am I supposed to do it?” 

“I don’t care: poison her, drown her, decapitate her. Just as long as she’s dead.” Opaline answered, starting to get fed up with Misty’s constant questions. “Is that enough to follow?” She asked harshly.

“No! No! I got it!” Misty fearfully replied as she prepared to leave the room and end this horrible conversation.

“Oh, one more thing.” Opaline stopped her before she could get out the doors.

“Yes?” Misty hesitantly turned around.

“Because this mission is of the upmost importance, and you’ve made a habit of letting me down when it counts, I am making sure you take this task more seriously than any other mission I have sent you on before.” Opaline said as she levitated a dagger and a box from behind her throne. “Until the princess is dead, you are forbidden to return here. And to make sure you have completed the job, I demand you bring me proof of her demise: her head, her heart, her entire body even.” She explained as she floated the items over to Misty, who hastily caught them in her hooves. “Do we have an understanding?”

“I-I-I-“ Misty struggled to say anything at all.

And his annoyed Opaline to the point she got up and walked over until she was towered over the unicorn like she was an insect about to be crushed. “I said Do We Have An Understanding, Misty?” She coldly demanded of her minion. 

“Y-Y-“ Misty swallowed a huge gulp before answering. “Yes, Opaline.” She said as she bowed her head.

Opaline smiled at the unicorn’s cooperation. “Good.” She said as she gently patted Misty’s head. “Complete this, and I promise you’ll have your Cutie Mark. Now, isn’t that nice of me?” The alicorn asked as she lifted Misty’s chin so she was looking into her eyes.

“It is, Opaline.” Misty replied, feeling a great sense of discomfort with her mistress touching her.

Opaline smiled again as she backed off, much to Misty’s relief, and sat back down on her throne. “Now then. Go and pack everything you’d need. I’m expecting you’ll be gone for a while.” 

“At once, Opaline.” Misty said as she bolted out of the room as fast as her hooves could carry her.

Once Misty was gone, Opaline looked into her pool as an image of Zipp and her friends appeared. “Soon, my sweet little Zephyrina. Soon you will learn the price for your attempts to defy me." She declared before laughing evilly. “Mwahahahahahaha! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”





After packing all her belongings, which wasn’t much to begin with so it was possible, Misty got as far as she could from Opaline’s Castle, while also not getting within Maretime Bay’s borders, and stopped. She needed to talk with somepony about everything that had just transpired. Fortunately, she did have somepony to talk to, even if they weren't exactly living, and pulled out the toy unicorn she made for such occasions, placing them on the ground as she sat on her haunches and spoke. "Oh, I really mucked it up now, Madame Taffytail!" She cried. "Opaline wants me to kill Zipp, as in actually full on murder her, and won't let me back into the castle unless I succeed! What am I gonna do?"

Being a toy, Madame Taffytail didn’t say anything, so Misty had to conjure up a response to her own question. “No, I’m not going through with it!” She yelled at the doll as she stood back up. “I can’t, no, I won’t do it!” She corrected her wording before explaining. “Yeah, Zipp might be a little mean to me compared to the others, but that’s just because she’s worried for her friends and everyone else. You can’t hold it against somepony for accusing you of being evil when you are doing something evil. No Cutie Mark is worth having somepony killed to get it, especially a friend.”

A horrible thought then came into Misty’s head. “If this is how she wants Zipp dealt with, what would’ve happened if I brought her Sparky?” She tried not to imagine, but the image of the baby dragon being tortured appeared as clear as day. This was soon followed by the rest of her friends, each suffering a different, horrific fate from Opaline that she helped bring them to. “GAH! What’ve I done?!” She shouted as she fell to the ground and looked like she was about to start crying before she stopped herself. “NO!” She said with forced determination. “Now is not the time to feel sorry for myself. I have to do something!” She declared.

Misty looked at Madame Taffytail, imagining the toy saying something again. “I can’t just move in with my friends and pretend nothing happened. Sooner or later, Opaline will realize I’ve failed and probably will take matters into her own hooves. I don’t know what she’s doing when I’m not around. For all I know, she’s much stronger than she realizes, even without dragon fire.” She told the toy. “I have to tell my friends and warn them. It’s the only way to stop Opaline.” She said before picking up her doll and starting running straight for to the Brighthouse, or would have if another important point hadn’t been brought up and made her stop.

"But, if I tell them about Opaline, then they'll know that I've been working with her this whole time." Misty realized. "They'll be furious with me. They'll hate me for sure. I'll probably even be locked up forever!" She exclaimed as she grabbed Madame Taffytail and pulled her to her face. 

Misty stared at the toy, imaging what she was saying, and sighed. "You're right. I helped make this mess, I have to help clean it up and take responsibility for what I've done. They all may hate me forever, but at least they'll still be alive and have each other." She told herself as she put the doll away again and this time went to the Brighthouse without any interruptions.





Well, there was one interruption, and that being when she got there her friends were all dressed up and seemed to be ready for a big event. As it turns out, tonight was the night of the Manesquerade Ball at Zephyr Heights, and they all were just about to leave for the event. This through a curve ball in Misty's plans. She was going to tell her friends, namely Zipp, about everything she had done and what Opaline was planning. But now, it just didn't seem right to ruin their fun night with betrayal. So, against her better judgement, she decided she'd go to the ball with them and tell them everything tomorrow. It would be nice to have one last moment of fun with them before she loses their friendship forever. 

Everything seemed to be going well once at the ball, that is until Misty noticed that Zipp seemed to be sneaking off from the  party. “What are you doing?” She asked herself before coming up with a possible theory. “Looking up information on Opaline?” The unicorn wasn't aware on just how much Zipp had uncovered about Opaline, if she even knew the alicorn by name. If she didn't, which seemed likely given she was leaving the party to do research, then she could possibly help her uncover information. Like she stated earlier, she didn't know everything about Opaline and could be unaware of a very important detail. The last thing she wanted to do was send her friends to their deaths because of her ignorance. 

Following the pegasus in secret, force of habit on Misty's part, the unicorn noticed Zipp enter a large room that appeared to be restricted and quickly followed her inside before the doors closed. 

Oblivious to her follower, Zipp put on her visors and began to scan around the massive library for any possible books that could tell her about the evil pony of Twilight's warning. From what she could gather, which was so far only based off the single message she recorded, the evil pony had to be an alicorn since it was unlikely a unicorn, pegasus, or earth pony would push Twilight Sparkle, an alicorn herself, into such a corner that she'd have to do what she did. And since from what she could remember from Sunny's notes, alicorns were not common ponies and only were among a select few. That meant that there was a pretty good chance that there was some information about this particular alicorn written down and logged in one of these many, many books. 

“The question now is just which book is it.” Zipp muttered to herself as she zoomed in on the one self to begin to search among the titles. “Magic for Ponies. History of Zephyr Heights 10th edition. Unexpurgated Book of Unicorns and Their Diets. I don’t even want to know why that’s a thing.” She told herself before resuming her search. 

But her search was interrupted when she heard the sound of somepony sneezing, followed by a loud “Oww!”. Alarmed, Zipp quickly landed and got into a defensive stance. “Who’s there?! Show yourself!” She demanded.

To her surprise, emerging from behind one of the selves was Misty. "It's just me." She said nervously, hoping she didn't scare Zipp too much. 

"Misty?" Zipp said in confusion to the unicorn's presence. "What are you doing here? How did you even get in?"

"I, uh, saw you coming in here and decided see what you were up to." Misty answered nervously, not wanting to get Zipp worried by accident. But she quickly realized what she said was the wrong thing and covered her mouth in a vain attempt to minimize the damage.

"So you were following me." Zipp glared at the unicorn.

"No!" Misty blurted, before realizing she messed up again. "I mean, I was, but just because I wanted to see what you were up to in here." She said before cursing herself again for her mess up. "Damn it!"

If Zipp wasn't suspicious already, she defiantly was now as she flared out her wings in anger, frightening Misty even more. "All right, that is it!" She shouted as she stomped towards the unicorn. "Ever since we first met, you have been acting suspicious and hiding stuff from me and the rest of our friends, and I have had enough of it!"

Misty backed away in fear as Zipp got closer and closer, looking like she was literally going to harm her, until she was backed into a corner and fell onto her haunches. "Enough of these dumb games, Misty! Tell me what you're hiding or I'm going to force it out of you!" Zipp threatened, pawing her hoof to let Misty know this wasn't an empty threat.

But Misty didn't get the chance to confess as just after she said that, Zipp looked at the unicorn's horrified expression and posture and realized what she was doing. "Oh, my gosh." She whispered to herself as she backed up to give Misty some space. "I am so sorry, Misty." She apologized to the unicorn before she started berating herself. "Ugh! Why did I think this was a good idea?! I shouldn't have done this alone!" The detective scolded herself for assuming she was ready to go off on her own already. Clearly she still wasn't able to do that without regressing.

Misty didn't understand exactly what Zipp was so upset about, assuming it to be stress in solving the case more than anything else, and decided she could give her a small truth tonight before the big one tomorrow. "Actually, you are right, Zipp. I have been hiding something from you." She admitted as she stood up and rubbed her flank, revealing it to be blank. 

Zipp gasped at the revelation. "You don't have a Cutie Mark?" She said in shock.

Misty sadly nodded in silence. "But why didn't you tell us?" Zipp asked.

"At first it was to blend in with the rest of the crowd." Misty explained. "What would ponies think when they saw a grown up unicorn without a Cutie Mark? But then as we started to become friends, I felt that if I revealed it that I'd lose that friendship." Even if she was leaving out details regarding Opaline, everything Misty said was the truth.

And Zipp seemed to know that if the guilty look on her face was anything to go by. "Oh, Misty. I'm so sorry. I should've been more welcoming of you, instead of trying to push you away." She scolded herself again.

"No, it has nothing to do with you specifically. Even if you were as welcoming as everypony else, I still would've been afraid of losing my first friends." Misty said as it looked like she was about to start crying.

Zipp noticed this and immediately forgot about her own self pity and went to comfort Misty, wrapping a wing around the distraught unicorn and pulling her into a hug. "There. There." She assured Misty with gentle pats on the back. "I promise, you're not going to be losing any friends over this."

Misty looked up at Zipp, surprised by the pegasus' words. "I'm not?" She repeated.

"Nope." Zipp shook her head with a comforting smile. 

"But, I lied to you all. Why aren’t you angry with me?” Misty asked. She didn’t understand. If this was Opaline she would’ve felt whatever wrath the alicorn felt like unleashing upon her. But Zipp…she didn’t seem to hold any grudges whatsoever. 

“Because holding grudges isn’t something we’re known for doing.” Zipp said. “Especially over things as small as hiding a lack of Cutie Mark.” 

As they remained in the hug, Misty felt a sense of comfort she never experienced before. But also a sense of dread. True Zipp, and by extension the rest of her friends, might forgive her for this. But what about when she reveals everything about Opaline?

It was a question she was afraid to find the answer to, but it was going to come wether she was ready or not. 

Thinking about Opaline made Misty remember why she followed Zipp in the first place. “Um.” She spoke up nervously. “So, if we’re cool now. May I ask what exactly it is you’re looking for?”

Thankfully, this time Zipp seemed to be much more cooperative and said. “I’m looking for a book about alicorns. I’ll explain why in more detail later, but it’s extremely important for a major case I’m working on.”

“You think this book might help then?” Misty suggested as she ran to retrieve one of the books that fell from the shelf when she sneezed into it. 

Zipp took the book and gasped at what the title read. “Alicorns of the Ancient World?! This is perfect!” She exclaimed as she spun around in the air with excitement. “With this book, we might just have the key to saving Equestria!”

Despite Zipp’s enthusiasm, Misty only partially shared it. “Yay!” She forced out, though Zipp didn’t seem notice this. 





The rest of the ball went off without any problems and once they returned to the Brighthouse, Misty said her goodbyes and departed. Though she didn’t travel far, Opaline wasn’t going to let her back in anyway, so for that night she slept in a tree. It was very difficult to get comfortable, so she didn’t fall asleep until very close to sunrise and woke up late morning. 

She didn’t know if she slept in too much and Zipp was already gone for the day, but she knew that today was going to be the day she told them everything. Making sure to go over everything so no details were skipped and overlooked, Misty stood before the massive doors of the Crystal Brighthouse. “All right, Misty.” She told herself. “This is it. No turning back. No running away. This is what must be done.” She encouraged herself as she opened the doors.

On the other side was not only Zipp, but also Hitch and Sparky. The young dragon was currently playing with a large ball while his parents watched on, his mother wrapping her wing around his father as they nuzzled. Seeing such a loving scene warmed Misty’s heart, but also cracked it as she knew this family was in immediate danger. 

The doors opened all the way and Misty stepped into the Brighthouse living room, letting those present know she was there. “Hey, Misty!” Zipp greeted her with a smile and friendly wave.

“Hey.” Misty replied back without the enthusiasm. 

Something that Zipp noticed this time. “Is there something wrong?” She asked as she and Hitch got off the couch and walked over to the unicorn.

Misty saw there concerned looks and swallowed a massive gulp. This was it. “There is.” She said. “Zipp, there’s something I need to tell you.”

“What is it?” Zipp asked, her concern growing from the way Misty looked. The unicorn was looking utterly ashamed with herself. Like she had just done something unforgivable.

“The alicorn that you were looking up information for last night…..she wants you dead.” Misty confessed.

Her confession surprised the duo. “What are you talking about? Who wants me dead?” Zipp asked.

“Opaline. The evil alicorn after the Unity Crystals and Sparky’s dragon fire.” Misty revealed.

“How do you know this?” Hitch asked before the answer quickly came to him. “You’ve been working with her this whole time.” He glared at the unicorn. “You’ve been using us.”

“It was my job.” Misty tried to explain. “I was supposed to get Sparky, but then-“

“You decided to get the rest of us for bonus points!” Hitch shouted accusingly at her.

“No!” Misty tried to deny, but failed in convincing them otherwise.

“I should’ve known there was more to you than simply not having a Cutie Mark.” Zipp said as she flew over to Sparky and pulled him close to her, the young dragon confused, and slightly frightened, by the sudden change in his parents attitudes. “And to think I started to trust you enough to the point I was going to let you in on my investigation.” She glared at the unicorn she comforted just the night before.

“Please, I’m sorry-“ Misty tried to say before Hitch tackled her to the floor and restrained her, one hoof grabbed a foreleg while the other went around her neck.

“No, you’re not!” Hitch said before tightening the hold and adding. “Not yet.” He normally tried to avoid violence when possible, but finding out that both his son and lover were in danger, he decided to make an acception.

“Please!” Misty begged. “I just want to help you!” 

“And you think after everything you’ve done we’d trust you?!” Hitch shouted at her. 

“You’ve got to at least listen to me!” Misty pleaded before Hitch tightened the hold, almost choking the unicorn.

“Enough of your lies!”

Hearing his father sounding so angry, as well as seeing Misty in distress, was too much for Sparky and he started to cry into Zipp’s coat. Truth be told, as mad as she was, Zipp also was getting uncomfortable by seeing Hitch holding Misty down as the unicorn pleaded for them to listen to her. She seemed to really be serious in what she was saying. What if she was telling the truth? “Hitch. Let her go.” Zipp calmly told the sheriff.

“What?!” Hitch said in surprise as he looked over at his marefriend. “Zipp, did you not just hear what she just said?”

“I did. But look at Sparky.” She gestured to the whimpering dragon in her hooves. “Don’t let him see his father like this.”

Seeing his son crying because of something he did broke Hitch’s heart and made him forget about his anger. Releasing Misty from the hold, the stallion ran over to his son and scooped him up in his arms, nuzzling and assuring him it was over and he was very sorry.

Taking a moment to let her heart rate slow down, Misty tried again to speak with them. “Please. I know I’ve betrayed you before, but I promise that now I only want to help you defeat Opaline.”

“And why should we believe you?” Zipp asked as she walked up to the unicorn, making her shrink down as she approached. “Everything you’ve ever told us was a lie.” 

“………..Because you’re my friend.” Misty answered.

Zipp’s expression didn’t change much from this answer, and Misty feared that she failed in convincing her too. The pegasus mare backed up slightly before she gestured Misty to follow her. “Come with me.” She said.

“Huh?” Both Misty and Hitch said in confusion to Zipp’s request.

“If you truly are wanting to help us now, you can start by giving me information on Opaline I couldn’t find in the book that could be helpful.” Zipp explained.

“But, Zipp-“ Hitch tried to convince her otherwise, but she stopped him.

“Now’s not the time to be stubborn and hold grudges, Hitch.” Zipp told her coltfriend. “If what Misty says is true, we should use this knowledge to defeat Opaline.”

“I guess so.” Hitch replied with uncertainty before asking. “But are you sure we can trust her? For all we know, this could be part of some kind of plan.”

Zipp paused and thought about last night. Everything Misty said that night felt genuine. The crying she felt when holding the unicorn, that was real. Her instincts warned her about Misty before, and they were right, even if she didn’t follow them completely. Know they were telling her to give Misty a chance. “We won’t get anywhere if we don’t try.” She said as Misty joined her on the stairway, keeping her head down in shame. “Go and tell the others that there’s going to be an important meeting here in about an hour or two. But don’t say what it is, or especially how we found out. It’s better to hear all that together.” 

“Okay.” Hitch said as the two mares went upstairs while he pulled out his phone to send the message before joining them upstairs to help with the planning.

In the bedroom, Zipp pulled out the book she got the previous night and opened up the page on Opaline. “All right, Misty.” Zipp said as she turned to face the still nervous unicorn. “Tell me what you know about Opaline’s power.”

And that’s exactly what Misty did. She explained about Opaline’s need for dragon fire, her current inability to steal the Unity Crystals, her plan to get around that issue, and many other things, including Opaline’s recent mission for her to kill Zipp. She also answered many questions asked by Zipp, most of which regarding around previous missions of hers and how she ended up with Opaline in the first place.

Zipp, and Hitch when he joined them, were shocked to hear all of this. Not just from what Opaline was planning, and for how long she’s been planning her revenge on ponies they assumed were long dead, but from the way Misty spoke. The unicorn seemed afraid, not of them and what they would do to her, Zipp assured Misty she wouldn’t be harmed many times since they started. No, instead it seemed like Misty was still frightened of Opaline. Despite stating her powers couldn’t get into the Brighthouse, the unicorn constantly seemed to look around in fear that the alicorn might be listening in and will kill her in revenge for her betrayal.

Hitch noticed this and frowned. Being the Sheriff, he’s had to deal with many different cases, and abuse was not as uncommon in the bay as one would’ve initially thought. Seeing Misty now, it was as clear as day that Opaline was not a caring guardian to her. It almost made the stallion forget that this is the same mare who admitted she kidnapped his son. Almost.

Once Misty finished giving all the information she could, she looked down in shame again. “I’m sorry.” She apologized again. “I should’ve never done any of what I did. You can take me away now. I won’t resist.” She said as she defeatedly held out her hooves for the hoofcuffs to be clasped on. 

Zipp looked over at Hitch, silently letting him know that it was his call. Hitch didn’t know what to do. Sure, Misty confessed to many crimes to earn her jail time for months, maybe even years, but was that really the right thing to do? Was that Justice or vengeance? 

Hitch’s thoughts were interrupted when he saw Sparky walk over to Misty and hug the unicorn’s leg in comfort, making her smile briefly at the gesture. His son, the one she dragonnapped, seemed to forgive her. That helped him in making his decision. “I’m not going to arrest you, Misty.” Hitch told her.

“Huh? You’re not?” Misty said in confusion. “But, I’ve been working with Opaline this whole time. I tried to steal Sunny’s lantern. I trapped Pipp and Zipp in a cave. I dragonnapped Sparky!” She shouted as she looked like she was about to cry.  “I did so many horrible things. Why wouldn’t you want to lock me up for good?”

“Because it sounds like you already escaped from one prison.” Hitch told her, placing a gentle hoof on her shoulder and smiled reassuringly at her. “It would be wrong of me to put you into another one. Especially when you helped us get all this information on Opaline we never would’ve gotten without your help.”

Misty felt another hoof on her opposite shoulder and saw Zipp looking at her with the same reassurance. “Told you we aren’t ponies known for holding grudges.”

The smiles and embraces made Misty’s heart warm and she smiled back at her friends. “Thank you.” She said quietly.

They stayed like that until they heard the Brighthouse doors open below and Sunny’s voice call out. “Hitch? Zipp? We’re here!” 

Knowing they had work to do, Zipp flew over to her investigation board and began to roll it down. “Come on.” She told the other two. “It’s time we start putting an end to this.” 

Both Hitch and Misty nodded and followed after her downstairs where they saw the rest of their friends waiting in the living room. “What’s going on, Zipp?” Sunny asked once she noticed the white pegasus bring in the board.

“Yeah, Hitch said you had something important you wanted to discuss with all of us.” Izzy said. 

“And trust me when I say it’s even more important than I initially thought.” Zipp told them as she set the board up before landing. 

“Um, Zipp?” Misty asked as she stepped forward. “Perhaps I should start with the explanation. It would make most sense coming from me.” 

Zipp knew from Misty’s words that she really meant she wanted to come clean now rather than later. Knowing the unicorn would have to at some point, she gestured for Misty to start. Misty took a deep breath, now feeling more assured with friends supporting her and willing to give her a chance of redemption, and confessed.

When she was done, all three mares had surprised looks on their faces. Misty didn’t know what they meant, but soon got an answer when Izzy ran up to her unicorn friend and hugged her tightly. “Oh, Misty!” She cried. “I’m so sorry you had to go through all that! I promise I’ll still be your friend!”

Surprised Izzy forgave her so quickly, Zipp and Hitch needed some time to process everything first, Misty accepted the embrace. “Thank you, Izzy.” She said as she felt tears of her own forming again. Especially, once Sunny joined in on the hug, with Pipp hesitantly following shortly after, letting her know they forgave her too.

Zipp and Hitch smiled at the scene playing out in front of them before the pegasus cleared her throat, letting the four mares know that she still had something to say as they split from the hug and returned to their seats. “Now that we know the identity of the evil pony from Twilight’s warning, we need to act if we’re going to defeat her.” She said as she flipped her board around to show a layout of Opaline’s castle she was working on during Misty’s interrogation. “Thanks to Misty’s information, we know that Opaline was heavily weakened by something Twilight Sparkle did to her long ago.”

“Or maybe her age is catching up to her if she was already well over 1,000 when Twilight became Princess.” Izzy interjected.

“Or…. that.” Zipp said before resuming her explanation. “Regardless, without dragon fire, Opaline will be a lot weaker than if we fought her at full power. We can use this to our advantage.”

“How so?” Pipp asked.

“While Misty goes in directly and distracts Opaline, the rest of us will enter the castle through different ways that Misty pointed out, use maps and walkie-talkies to all meet up in the throne room where she is sure to be and surround her. With all of us fighting her at once, we should be able to eventually overpower her once she uses up her energy.” Zipp explained her battle plan.

“It’s risky. Opaline will still pack a mighty punch. But it’s our best chance for victory.” Hitch said in agreement to the plan.

The others were all hesitant, but still nodded in agreement. “Let’s do it.” Sunny said.

“But, wait. Opaline won’t let me return unless I bring her proof that Zipp’s dead.” Misty pointed out.

“I’m sorry, what?” Pipp said in shock to this revelation. The prospect of Opaline wanting Zipp dead specifically not being mentioned in Misty’s confession, somehow having accidentally overlooked.

Thankfully, Izzy had a solution for that. “Don’t worry! My unicycling skills should be able to craft something within a day or two. We don’t need to invade immediately, do we?” She asked.

“Considering we’ll need to train ourselves for the fight, figure out the layout of the castle, find a safe place for Sparky, and make sure that nothing is overlooked in the battle plan, I’d say it should take a few days before we can.” Hitch answered.

“Regardless of when it happens, when it does we’ll be ready for it.” Sunny declared as the rest of her friends smiled and nodded in agreement.





3 days later, the Marestream took off from the Crystal Brighthouse. It's first stop was at Zephyr Heights to both drop off Sparky so he'd be somewhere safe and to let Queen Haven know of their plans so she'd be prepared to send the Royal Guards if they failed. The queen was obviously worried beyond belief for her daughters' safety, but with some comforting words from Alphabittle, she consented and wished them luck, promising to guard Sparky with her life.

After that, Misty led them in the direction of Opaline's Castle, to which Izzy described as the spookiest place she's ever seen and Pipp couldn't help but marvel in the haunting atmosphere, and split up for the entrances the unicorn pointed out, The pegasus sisters and Sunny, in her alicorn form, going on high while Hitch and Izzy took the lower paths, each with a map that Misty created to help them navigate to the throne room

Misty stood at the front door, a box in her hooves, waiting nervously for the signal to go in, anxiously hoping her friends didn't already encounter Opaline and were captured. "Is everypony inside?" She asked through her phone. 

"Me and Izzy have made it inside and are ascending the stairs of the basement now." Hitch confirmed.

"We're coming down from the top room now." Sunny replied. "No sign of Opaline so far. I believe this means she should be in the throne room."

"It's go time, Misty." Zipp signaled the unicorn.

Misty nodded, hung up, and took a deep sigh before she grabbed the box and opened the door. She walked slowly to the throne room, carefully making sure Opaline wasn't already aware of her presence or their plan. So far, it seemed to all be working without any difficulties as Misty opened the door to the throne room, where Opaline was waiting for her. "I see you've returned sooner than I expected." The alicorn said once the door was opened.

Her quick response slightly startled Misty, but she kept up the brave face. "Yes, I have."

"And I hope that you haven't forgotten the condition we agreed upon for you to step foot in this castle again." Opaline warned as her horn started to glow with fire.

"NO!" Misty suddenly blurted in fear, falling onto her haunches, before she reached behind herself and showed the box to Opaline. "I did exactly what you asked and got rid of Zipp for you."

Opaline said nothing and levitated the box from Misty's grasp over to herself and opened it. When she looked inside, she saw what looked like Zipp's decapitated head. "Well done, Misty." She said with a smile. "It seems I underestimated-" She started to say before she looked closer at the head and noticed some details, or rather lack of certain details.

"You were saying? You underestimated-" Misty started to say before Opaline cut her off.

"Is this a joke to you?" She glared as she pulled the head out of the box and tossed it onto the floor in front of her.

"Wh-what do you mean?" Misty stammered out. "I brought you Zipp's head as proof that she was dead."

"Oh, this is actually her head?" Opaline rhetorically asked before asking. "Then where's the blood? The bones? Everything else!?" She yelled the last question.

Misty's eyes grew wide. Alone, the head looked convincing as a real pony head, but there was no way for Izzy to replicate the blood or bones. They didn't think Opaline would notice. But it seems they should've given her more credit than that. "Uh, well, I, uh.." The unicorn stuttered as she looked around frantically for any signs of her friends, but didn't find any.

Things only got worse when Opaline stood up and walked down to Misty while looking her unicorn minion dead in the eyes. "I gave you one job, Misty. One simple job that I warned you of the consequences if you failed, and you go ahead and attempt to deceive me."

"No! It's not like that!" Misty lied in an effort to stall her punishment, but Opaline either saw right through it or didn't care. "Please! Give me another chance! I'll do it right this time!" She begged for her life.

"You should've thought about that before you failed in getting me the princess!" Opaline yelled as her horn started sparking with electricity.

"But she did bring you the princess." A third voice suddenly said, startling Opaline and allowing Misty to scamper away.

"Who said that?!" The alicorn demanded to know. "Show yourself!"

"Up here." The voice said and Opaline looked up near the stairs to see Zipp standing at the top, glaring down at her.

"You." Opaline hissed at the sight of her assassination target in her castle.

If that wasn't enough to anger Opaline, it would be when Sunny appeared from behind her. "And she's not alone." The pseudo alicorn said as she stood beside her friend. Hearing the sounds of more ponies entering the room, Opaline looked around and saw Pipp emerge from behind her throne, while Hitch and Izzy came from different sides.

Seeing all of her enemies in her throne room surrounding her, it didn't take the alicorn long to figure out what had happened. "You." She hissed at Misty with even more hatred than she did at Zipp and Sunny. "You traitor!" She screamed before firing a blast to obliterate the unicorn on the spot for her treason. 

Misty covered her face, but wasn't as afraid as Opaline would've expected. And that was because, as she predicted, Sunny and Zipp flew down to save her as Sunny produced a shield that deflected the blast. Seeing that her attack was doing nothing, Opaline stopped the blast, allowing Sunny to drop her shield but still kept her guard up. “Sunny Starscout.” She said with interest of the pseudo alicorn in front of her. “We meet at last.”

“So, you’re the evil alicorn Twilight warned us about.” Sunny responded. “The one that tried to steal all of the magic.”

“Oh, is that all I’m being referred to nowadays?” Opaline replied, feigning being hurt. “Honestly, I would prefer if you refer to me as I am; the evil FIRE alicorn!” She declared as she stood proudly while flames erupted from behind her.

Her display of power unsettled the ponies, but they held their ground. "Not exactly much of a fire alicorn if you can't even make your own fire." Zipp said mockingly. 

Opaline turned her glare from Sunny to the pegasus. "Zipp Storm. You have been making it a habit of getting in the way of my plans. I was hoping with your little episode would've prevented that from happening again."

It took everything Zipp had to not make any reaction to that comment about her struggles, especially since she knew that the alicorn was the one responsible for the necklace and almost everything else that followed. She wasn't going to give Opaline that satisfaction. 

Seeing her friend was struggling to keep her emotions inside, Sunny took over the talking. "You can't defeat all of us at once, Opaline." She warned the alicorn

"The choice is yours, Opaline. Either surrender yourself or fight." Zipp said, already expecting what the alicorn's answer would be.

Opaline smiled as she lowered her head in submission. "Yes, of course." She said. "As you wish." Nopony else seemed to notice her horn glowing until she hissed out. "Your majesty!" She shouted before firing a blast at the ponies.

"Look out!" Sunny called out before the they all just narrowly avoided the attack and were sent back flying, most of them crashing into the wall.

Being behind Opaline at the time, Pipp spread her wings and flew directly for the alicorn and tackled her to the floor. Seeing the opening the pink pegasus gave, Izzy ran over to give her a helping hoof. But Opaline recovered and got back onto her hooves. "Get off me!" She yelled as she tossed Pipp off of her like a bull before smacking Izzy away with her hoof, sending the unicorn rolling into the wall. 

The alicorn was about to go and stomp her to death with her hooves, but Pipp appeared again and this time grabbed her by the mane and pulled. "Leave her alone!" She yelled as Opaline screamed in pain.

Once again, Izzy got back onto her feet and went to go help Pipp. "Hang on, Pipp! I'm coming!" She assured her friend as she ran towards Opaline with her horn lowered.

Opaline saw this and used Pipp pulling her mane back to her advantage as she reared onto her hind legs with ease. "I think not!" She said as she hit Izzy directly with a blast of magic, this time knocking her out as she hit the wall for a third time. "And I think it's time you let go!" She yelled at Pipp, who was shocked by what happened to Izzy and lost focus on her grip, and hit the pegasus away with her hoof, knocking her out as well. 

"PIPP!" "IZZY!" Their friends shouted in horror before Hitch took action and used his Floral Magic to grow vines that grabbed Opaline's hooves and held her in place.

"What is this?" She asked as she struggled to move. 

"Opaline Arcana, you are under arrest!" Hitch told her.

Opaline did not looked impressed at the sheriff's attempt to subdue her. "Did you forget the part where I said I was a fire alicorn?" She said before burning away the vines with her magic. 

Hitch expected this and used this moment of distraction to charge forward with all possible speed. But Opaline was faster in her reaction and grabbed the stallion with her magic and threw him behind herself. "I still think not." She mocked as Hitch hit the floor hard before adding one more jab. "Makes you wonder how you expect to protect that dragon of yours if this is all you can do?" 

Hearing her threaten Sparky gave Hitch a rage boost that he was going to make the most of. "You leave him alone!" He yelled before he surprised Opaline and tackled her to the ground and held her in a restraint hold. 

Unfortunately, Opaline still proved to be stronger as she stood up with ease and tossed the sheriff off of her with her magic.  But before she could go in and make sure he was either knocked out or dead, an orange blast of magic hit near her hooves. Looking where the blast was coming from, she saw Sunny standing with smoke coming from her horn, indicating it was just used for magic. 

Now seeing a more fun toy to play with, Opaline chuckled darkly. "Hmmhmmhmm! If you want to be an alicorn so badly, Starscout, then let me teach you how to properly be one!" She said before lunging forward with a mighty flap from her massive wings.

Sunny didn't have time to react before Opaline knocked her to the ground and smacked her face with a hoof. The orange mare just barely had time to get out of the way before Opaline nearly hit her with a blast of magic. 'Whoa!" Sunny exclaimed  before she formed a shield around herself when she saw Opaline about to crush her with her forehooves. 

The Alicorn's hooves pressed against the shield, trying in vain to get through while her horn crackled with power. "That magic was never yours to have!" She shouted at Sunny.

Needing to get Opaline away from her, Sunny focused all of her energy into the shield and exploded it, knocking Opaline to the ground. 

After using all of that magic, Sunny took the moment to breath and hopefully quickly recharge some of her energy. "Sunny, look out!" Zipp suddenly warned her. Before she knew it, the earth pony mare was back on the floor with Opaline standing over her, about to go in for the kill.

"Don't you dare touch her!" Zipp shouted as she flew towards Opaline as fast as she could as knocked the alicorn away from her friend, allowing Sunny the opportunity to scamper away. 

Opaline staggered to keep her footing, dazed by the sudden attack. "I was always expecting it to be Sunny to be the one who would be the biggest threat to my plans." She said as she regained her barring and searching for Zipp. "Who would've expected it should've been you I needed to worry about?"

Zipp then suddenly flew right into Opaline's face and kicked her in it with her hindlegs. "What can I say? You don't have to be an alicorn to be a threat to villains." She mocked as she flew around the room, waiting for another opening to attack.

"Indeed." Opaline said before she fired another blast of magic that scrapped Zipp's wing. 

"Aah!" Zipp hissed as she crashed to the floor. While she kept consciousness, and seemed to have avoided a broken wing, she couldn't move as Opaline had gotten right on top of her, pinning her down with her hooves directly on the pegasus' neck.

"But I wouldn't say that means you can beat me in a fight. Even in my weakened state." Opaline gloated as she pressed down harder and harder. Zipp struggled to breathe and slowly began to lose consciousness. With none of her friends able to help her, it seemed this was the end. Only there was one friend left as Opaline soon screamed in pain when Misty actually managed to impale her flank with her horn. 

In so much pain from the sneak attack, Opaline staggered away again, blood seeping from the wound, and allowed Zipp to take a much needed breath of air. When the shock of the attack subsided, Opaline glared at her former servant with utter hatred. "YOU!" She said as she grabbed Misty in her magic and pulled her in close. "I'LL KILL YOU FOR THIS!"

"MISTY!" Sunny and Hitch shouted in fear for their friend. They tried to go in to help, but a wall of fire prevented their approach.

"I SAVE YOU FROM CERTAIN DEATH, AND THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY ME!?" Opaline screamed as she tightened her magically grip around the unicorn. 

"If.....you....were really....my friend.....you wouldn't.....make......me owe you.....anything." Misty choked out from being crushed by the alicorn's magic.

This only further increased Opaline's rage. "If it is a blank flank you wish to be, then a blank flank shall you die!" She declared before she tossed Misty out of the windows behind her.

"NOOO!" Her friends screamed just as Zipp recuperated from her strangulation.

"That's one pest gone." Opaline said like she had just swatted away a fly before turning her attention back to her main target. "And now, Princess, it's time for you to die." She said before noticing a lack of the white pegasus in the room. "What!?" She said in disbelief. "Where'd she go!?" She demanded to know before she flew around the room and began blasting her magic everywhere. "SHOW YOURSELF, COWARD!" She demanded.

Outside the castle, Misty closed her eyes, already accepting her fate, and awaited for the end. But it never came as the feeling of the wind rushing past her stopped and seemed to be going in the reverse direction. Opening her eyes, the unicorn saw that it was Zipp who had caught her. "Zipp?" She said in surprise to her savior. 

"I know you don't believe in getting even, but I'd say this makes us even on the life saving." Zipp said as she flew back to the shattered window.

Back inside the castle, Opaline was still flying around and attacking everywhere she thought Zipp might be hiding. And it was beginning to take its toll on the place. "Sunny, this isn't good." Hitch said as parts of the ceiling started to fall around them, Sunny having to produce a shield around them and their unconscious friends to prevent themselves from being crushed.

"You're right. We need to get out of here." Sunny agreed as she grabbed Izzy and placed her onto her back while Hitch did the same with Pipp. "But what about Zipp and Misty?" She asked

Opaline seemed to be thinking the same thing, at least for one of the two ponies. "What's the matter, Princess!?" She shouted at nothing. "Too afraid to fight and deciding to fly away!?”

"I'm not flying away." Zipp's said as she appeared in the window and placed Misty back on the floor, the unicorn quickly running off to help her friends escape while the pegasus princess slowly approached the evil alicorn.

"Well, if you did you'd still be alive." Opaline gloated before she fired another blast at Zipp. Or at least she tried to, but all that came out was a puff a smoke. "WHAT!?" She shouted in rage as Zipp smirked.

"You're all out." She mocked, making Opaline seethe with hatred before she lunged at the alicorn and the two met in a duel. Both royals, one by destiny, the other by their own force, and reared up as they began to fight like real world horses would. 

Size proved to be a major factor in this battle as Opaline was able to get more hits on Zipp's face with her hooves than Zipp was on hers. Opaline smiled with wicked eagerness at both her advantage and the damage her rival was taking as she went in for the kill. But Zipp used this moment to get the jump on Opaline, raised her hoof, and hit the alicorn in the face with all of her might, knocking her down to the floor.

"Zipp!" The princess looked and saw Hitch standing by the door leading out of the castle, having handed Pipp to Misty while he made sure Zipp escaped. "Come on! We need to get out of here before the place comes down!" Seeing that not only was the ceiling cracking, but also the floor beneath her, Zipp nodded and started to follow Hitch to safety.

But before she could reach the door, she felt something grab her tail and pull. "Agh!" Zipp shouted as she suddenly fell to the floor. 

"ZIPP!" Hitch shouted as he ran to help his lover, grabbing her hoof and pulling with all of his might.

Turns out Opaline still had some magic left and she used that to her advantage as she pulled the pegasus closer to her with every intent of finishing her of slowly and painfully with her own hooves, not caring about the castle collapsing around her.

Near the entrance, Sunny and Misty saw that Hitch and Zipp weren't with them and turned to see their predicament. "No!" Sunny shouted at the danger her friends were in.

She was about to fly over and help them, but Misty stopped her. "Get Pipp and Izzy to safety! I'll help Hitch and Zipp!" She assured her before running off to help them.

"Misty!" Sunny called out, but the unicorn kept running to save her friends, so she hesitantly focused on getting the wounded to safety. 

As Misty ran to help, she tried with all of her might to activate her magic. "Come on, magic! Work with me!" She pleaded. As if some higher being heard her prayers, her whole body began to glow and sparkle, briefly lifting her off of the ground. When it faded, Misty felt a surge of magic run through her. Looking down at her flank, she saw what caused that. "My Cutie Mark!" She said with glee before getting a look of determination.

Back with Hitch and Zipp, Opaline's magic was proving to be stronger as it was dragging the couple towards her. "So much for true love!" She laughed evilly. Suddenly, there then was another magically force surrounding Zipp, this one pulling her away from the alicorn. "WHAT!?" Opaline shouted as saw Misty appear besides Hitch, continuing to pull them away with her magic.

"Opaline, stop this! It's over!" Misty tried to reason with the alicorn.

But Opaline wasn't listening. "NEVER! I WILL HAVE THEIR MAGIC AND THEIR LIVES!" She declared. At that moment, the top of the castle finally gave and the debris fell directly on top of Opaline, crushing her instantly. 

With Misty's magic being the only one now pulling Zipp, the trio of ponies suddenly found themselves getting flung towards the door. "WHOA!"

Outside, Sunny could only watch as the castle began to collapse in on itself before it fell completely, the pieces rolling down the slope and off the cliff. "NOOO!" She cried as it looked like her friends hadn't made it out alive.

But when the dust cleared, she saw them. Injured, but very much alive. "OH MY GOSH!" She shouted as she ran up to hug them. "I was so worried!" She cried into their coats.

"Don't worry, Sunny. We're safe." Zipp assured her before looking over the edge of the cliff the castle and Opaline went. "We're all safe now." She said as her friends joined her as they looked over the edge with blank expressions.

The battle was over, and Opaline was dead. Never to harm magic or anypony else again. At this, Misty began to softly cry.





"I know she was a horrible pony, but a part of me still feels sorry for her." Misty finished her story. 

It had been days since the largest trial in Equestrian history that ended with Misty becoming Zipp's lady-in-waiting. She had just finished recounting her entire story to Dr. Uaminifu, who listened with interest. 

Zipp was at her side, a wing wrapped around her unicorn friend as she rubbed a hoof along her back. “It’s okay, Misty. Even if she was horrible, she was still like family to you. It’s perfectly normal you’d feel like this about her death.” She assured

“Zipp is correct.” Uaminifu agreed. “I’d say it shows great strength on your end to not hold a complete grudge over her and still morn her passing. You saw what not letting go of your hatred could do with Opaline. And after the trial, I’d say you both learned that lesson more than ever.”

“I guess we did.” Misty said as she smiled and stood up. “Thanks for listening, Doc. This really helped get this off of my chest.”

“Anytime, Misty.” Uaminifu smiled. “Remember, my door is always open.” 

“I will.” Misty nodded before she left the room, leaving Zipp and the doctor alone.

The therapist noticed Zipp not leave, and figured there was something else going on. “Anything else bothering you, Zipp?”

Zipp sighed and said. “It’s less me and more my sister.”
> Sins of the Sister
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

70 days after Zipp’s breakdown

The battle had been long and intense. Not just the scuffle against Opaline, but also the struggles of Zipp Storm after she nearly was consumed by darkness. Many times had the pegasus suffered from nightmares and the unwelcome thoughts of the villain she could be. But now, it seemed that the light at the end of the tunnel was able to be seen. Zipp seemed to be almost exactly like her old self again, only ever having to worry about nightmares that she talked with her friends or therapist about. And with the evil alicorn locked away forever in the underground prison, peace was seen in the future for everypony. 

Unfortunately, the path to peace still has a long way to go. And nopony is about to learn this more than Zipp's own sister; Pipp Petals.





Throughout the long recovery period, Pipp had always been at her sister's side, refusing to leave Zipp alone over the fear of losing her permanently. The thought worried everypony in Zipp’s life, but it affected Pipp most of all. The pink pegasus princess would often have her own nightmares alongside her sister, but kept them to herself as to not shift the attention away from who she considered to need it more. 

"It's not like they're hurting me anyway." She often told herself after each one and went about her day as normal. 

Her nightmares were usually ones related to finding Zipp too late after she ran away, her big sister already having passed and being unable to do anything except sob into her lifeless corpse. But there were also nightmares that involved Zipp going mad, becoming the pony she feared, or standing on trial where Pipp was only able to watch as her sister received the harshest punishment her mind thought of. 

However, it wasn’t until after the battle with Opaline that the worst nightmares began. It started with Pipp in a room of sobbing ponies, all wearing black, facing an altar in the center. The scene was very reminiscent of a memory from her foalhood that she would try her hardest to forget; her father’s funeral. 

Seeing how everypony was then compared to now gave Pipp a very good idea on what was going on. Still, she found herself asking. “What happened?” Ponies heard her, but none responded beyond just staring at her and turning away. Realizing she wasn’t going to get a verbal answer, Pipp walked towards the center of the room, and slowly went up the stairs of the altar and saw an open coffin in the center with a pony inside. Against what her mind warned her, she walked up to the coffin and looked to see who it was. As she feared, it was Zipp.

Seeing Zipp dead in her nightmares wasn't something new for Pipp, but that didn't make it any less horrifying to see her sister's corpse before her. But what made this one worse than any of the previous nightmares was Zipp's face. It wasn’t disfigured or showed any signs of being attacked. Instead, it had a smile on it, like Zipp was at peace, indicating that she wanted this.

The fact Zipp took her own life was what made this the  worst nightmare of them all.

Tears already dropping from her eyes, Pipp stumbled back from the corpse. “Wh-wha-how did this happen?” She asked aloud, hoping somepony would answer.

The answer she got was not the one she was expecting. “You should already know.” Hitch said with clear hatred in his voice as he appeared behind Pipp with Izzy and Sunny before shouting. "This is all your fault in the first place!"

"Wh-what?" Pipp stammered out from the accusation. 

"You did this to her, Pipp!" Sunny yelled at the pink pegasus. "It's because of you that Zipp felt the wasn't worthy of anything! She kept thinking she wasn't good enough at anything she tried, and it's all from what you did!" She pointed a hoof accusingly at her.

"Had you just left well enough alone, she'd still be alive!" A teary eyed Izzy screamed at her before Sunny pulled the unicorn into a hug all while still glaring at Pipp. 

It was then that Queen Haven appeared from behind Pipp. The younger pegasus backed away from her furious mother, feeling like an insect under her shadow. "Mom, tell me it isn't true." Pipp pleaded with her mother as she ran up to hug her. "Tell me I didn't kill Zipp!" The response she got was Haven smacking her away with her hoof. Pipp fell to the floor and looked up at her mother, crying as she held a hoof on the cheek that was hit. "Mom." She whimpered out.

“Do you know how it feels as a mother to see your daughter dead by her own hooves? Do you?!” She screamed at her daughter so loudly the room shook, but Pipp was the only one who reacted. “No! You wouldn’t! Because you never cared for anypony else but yourself before!”

“No, it’s not true!” Pipp denied as she shakily got back onto her hooves. "I love Zipp! I never wanted this to happen to her!" She cried. "It's not my fault!"

"Yes it is!" The entire room angrily shouted back at her as it and the ponies in it turned hellish red

“I didn’t want this to happen!” 

“You still did it!” They shouted back as massive comments started flying towards Pipp that she had to duck to avoid. Almost all telling her to die just like her sister did.

“It’s not my fault!” Pipp cried again into her hooves.

“It’s always been!” The crowd replied.

“NO! IT WASN’T ME!” Pipp raised her tear soaked head and screamed.

“There’s nopony else to blame!” They told her.

Pipp looked around frantically for someway, anyway, to escape from the constant attacks and hateful words, both vocally and through giant floating comments, being thrown at her. That was when she noticed somepony in the crowd. “Wait! It’s not me you want! It’s her!” She pointed her hoof accusingly at Misty.

The shouting stopped and everypony in the room was quiet, letting the pink pegasus know that she had to explain herself more. Swallowing a massive gulp, the pink pegasus continued. "S-she was the one who drove Zipp to madness. It was her necklace that corrupted all of us. She was helping Opaline the whole time. She stole the lantern and Sparky for her! She even was the one who gave Opaline the reason to try to kill Zipp in the first place!" The more Pipp spoke, the more she started to fully believe everything she was saying. She already had a hard time trusting Misty in the first place after the unicorn came clean before, but she didn't know why until now. 

And it seemed that everypony else present agreed with her as their outrage was shifted from Pipp to Misty. The unicorn was helpless as the angry mob surrounded her like wild dogs about to pounce on a kill. Whatever Misty was trying to say to get them to back off Pipp didn't hear. She didn't care. That traitor deserved it after all the hell she put her sister through. "It was always her fault." Pipp told herself.

That wouldn't be the last time Pipp had that dream. It would come back night after night. And every night it would end the same, with Pipp directing the hatred that she was feeling for herself towards Misty, the real criminal that hurt her sister.

And those thoughts from the dream started to effect Pipp in real life. She would make sure that Zipp was kept as far away from Misty as possible. There was no way she was going to let her sister be hurt by whatever that horrible mare did ever again. She swore it.

Still, she couldn't outright tell Misty to get lost and never return. Her friends would never allow it. Besides, she was a princess, she knew better. So she kept that hatred bottled up and stomached it.

Until the day that Misty had to ask a certain question and she snapped.





Misty going to her mother and turning herself in was not something Pipp ever expected the unicorn to do, but it was something she certainly had no problems with. Especially after just the sight of her was enough to drive Zipp into a full on panic attack. Now her big sister can rest easy knowing that the mare responsible for putting her in so much danger was going to be locked away for good. The thought made Pipp smile as she looked down at her sleeping sister. 

She was about to join her in slumber when Sunny suddenly stepped into the bedroom with Sparky on her back. "Uh, Pipp?" The earthpony mare asked quietly, not wanting to wake Pipp up if she was asleep. 

An annoyed groan told Sunny that at the very least she succeeded in waking the pegasus up. "What is it?" Pipp asked as she sat up and looked at her friend.

"Sorry to bother you, but it's just that you left your phone downstairs and your mother is calling." Sunny explained.

"She is?" Pipp said in surprise, not expecting to hear from her mom so soon after the news was released. She knew that if she was calling right now that it was important, but she didn't want to leave Zipp alone while she slept. 

Sunny noticed her friend's predicament and stepped in to help. "Don't worry. Sparky and I will watch over her." She assured Pipp before turning to the dragon on her back. "Right, Sparky?" Sparky's response was a nod and some babbles. 

Pipp couldn't help but smile at the baby dragon's reply and felt some assurance from the two of them. "Okay." She said as she hesitantly got out of the bed and flew downstairs.

Once there, she saw Hitch and Izzy with the stallion holding Zipp’s phone in his hooves. He silently handed it to her, and Pipp answered. "Hello?" She asked as her mom's face appeared on the screen.

“Pipp? Is that you?” Queen Haven asked. “Where’s Zipp? I need to speak with her about something important.”

"She's...upstairs resting." Pipp answered, deciding not to mention why as to both not worry their mother and respect Zipp's privacy.

"Oh, I see." Haven responded understandingly. "Well, when she wakes up, can you tell her that I wish for her to attend Misty's trial."

If Pipp had been drinking something, this would be the part where she spit it out. "You wish for her to attend?" She repeated in surprise.

"Yes." Haven answered before taking note of Pipp's look of uncertainty. "Is there a problem with that? Did something happen to Zipp?" She asked with increasing worry.

Knowing that Haven wasn't going to take any answer other than the truth, Pipp decided to come clean. "When we saw the news report of Misty being carried away, Zipp had a panic attack.”

Haven gasped at this news. “She did?! Is she all right?!” She asked frantically.

“Like I said, she’s upstairs resting.” Pipp assured her mom. “But I think you can understand why I don’t think it’s a good idea for Zipp to see Misty’s trial in person if just seeing her on TV is enough to freak her out.”

Haven nodded. “Yes, I’ll be needing to make sure that she’s put away somewhere she can never harm my baby girl ever again.” 

Despite the implication, Pipp couldn’t help but smile at her mother’s words. “Good.” She said with a nod. 

"Well, tell Zipp when she wakes up that mommy sends her love and I'll speak with you both as soon as I can." Haven said as she had to go prepare for the trial.

"Okay. Talk to you later, Mom." Pipp said before she hung up. 

With the conversation over, Pipp tucked her phone away and looked over at her two friends. When she saw Izzy and Hitch, she saw confused by the hurt and concerned looks on their faces. "What?" She asked them. 

"Pipp." Hitch spoke up. "Did something happen with you and Misty that you're not telling us?" He asked her. 

The question took Pipp by surprise. Was Hitch accusing her of getting Misty arrested? "What does it matter? Misty made her choice and now she's' going to live with it locked up for the rest of her life." She brushed his question off, making Hitch frown at her response. It wasn't something she would normally say.

“They can’t really be that bad, right?” Izzy asked fearfully. “I mean, I thought the dungeons were all stylish and luxury.” 

“That’s just where we keep ponies we’re not entirely sure what to do with yet.” Pipp explained. “They’re only like that to keep them from wanting to escape. But if a pony commits a crime akin to what Misty did then they’ll be locked up in the dungeons beneath the city for life.”

“For life?!” Izzy repeated with a horrified look on her face.

Hitch also was shocked at what fate awaited Misty. Even at his most furious he would never lock somepony away for life if he could help it. Especially one that felt remorse for their actions.  “Pipp, I know you’re upset, but surely you can see that such a punishment is too much for Misty.” He tried to reason with her. “Hasn’t she suffered enough under Opaline?”

Pipp frowned and gave Hitch a serious look. Why was he so insistent on defending Misty? If anything, he has more reason than any of them to hate that mare since she not only endangered Zipp, but his son as well. “Considering how upset Mother sounded on the phone when I told her about Zipp’s panic attack, there’s no way her punishment would be anything less.”

It was then that Sunny arrived and the other ponies finally noticed her presence, Pipp’s expression changing into a worried one. “How is she?” She immediately asked as she ran over to Sunny.

“She had a nightmare.” Sunny answered truthfully. “But other than that, she seems to be doing fine.”

Hearing this made Pipp frown again as she looked back at Hitch. “You see what I mean, Hitch?”

“I can’t say that I do.” Hitch answered with a frown of his own.

“Well, let me put it in simpler words. Mom’s going to be the judge of the trial. There is no defense attorney that is going to go against the Queen, even if they did believe Misty was somehow innocent. With nopony to defend her, Misty is going to get the harshest sentence possible.”

Hearing that made Izzy’s lip quiver. “No.” She whimpered. She looked like she was about to cry herself when an idea suddenly came into her head. “Wait! What about you and Zipp!? You’re princesses! That has to mean you can defend somepony if possible!” 

“I haven’t read up on law enough to be a reliable defense.” Pipp answered Izzy’s question sternly. “And if you think I am going to let Zipp go up there in her condition then you-“

“What’s going on?” Pipp’s words caught in her throat as she heard her sister coming down the stairs with Sparky on her back. 

“Zipp!” Pipp said in surprise. “What’re you doing up? You should still be in bed.”

“I wanted to know what all the commotion was about.” Zipp answered. 

Pipp didn't know what to say, and thankfully her friends seemed to agree with her. They didn’t want to start arguing in front of Zipp under the risk of sending the pegasus into another panic attack. Eventually, Hitch decided to break the ice. “We got off the phone with your mother and she says that she wants you at Zephyr Heights so you can witness the trial in person." What he was about to say next he wasn't proud of. But he wasn't going to hurt Zipp even more. He would just have to hope Misty could forgive him until he found an alternative solution. "We were just talking about how it would probably be best if you don’t make the trip considering your recent troubles and that it would be a very short trial anyway with no defense for-“

“When are we leaving?” Zipp suddenly asked. 

This question surprised Pipp “W-what? Zipp, did you not just hear Hitch?” The pink pegasus asked her sister back. “After everything that’s happened in just this past hour alone, it’s best you remain here in Maretime Bay. Let Mom handle the trial.” She tried to convince her sister to change her mind. There was no reason to attend. The guilty pony was caught and was going away for good. What more could she want?

But Zipp shook her head. “I have things I want to talk to Misty about, and if the trial is as one sided as you say it is, I might not get another chance.”

“But, Zipp. It’s a long flight from here to Zephyr Heights. You’re probably still too weak to make it.” Pipp tried again to change Zipp’s mind. 

“We can take the Marestream. Sunny, you’ve flown it before, right?” Zipp asked her orange coated friend, already knowing her friends wouldn’t let her pilot it herself due to the recent events.

“I have.” Sunny admitted before quickly adding. “But that was months ago and only once. I’m nowhere near as experienced as you. And with all the stress you’ve been feeling, we don’t want to overwhelm you more.”

It seemed like Zipp was about to say something in response, but stopped herself. Pipp smiled, thinking she's succeeded in keeping Zipp home and away from the stresses the trial would bring. That is until Izzy spoke up. “I can fly it.” If the looks Pipp gave could kill Izzy would be a dead mare, but the unicorn ignored them as she walked over to Zipp. “If going to this is important to you, Zipp, then I’ll help you get there.” She told her pegasus friend as she took her forelegs. “I didn’t do anything when you were first hurting. I’m not going to make that mistake again if it means bringing you closure.” 

“Do you really think you’re up for it?” Zipp asked Izzy. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to? I know you’d have a hard time watching Misty on trial.”

“Zipp, I want to do this because it’s important to you. It’s because of our friendship we were able to build the Marestream. If anypony would know how to pilot it besides you, it’s me.” 

“Iz, thank you.” Was all Zipp could say before the two of them hugged. When they separated, Zipp already started heading to the front doors. “Come on, ponies! We’re burning daylight!” She called out to them before leaving to board the Marestream.

The rest of her friends followed suit, but not before Pipp stopped Izzy. “Pipp?” Izzy asked at the sudden move from the pink pegasus.

“Izzy.” Pipp said without looking her in the face. “I trust you as a friend. If you think Zipp needs to see this to get better, I will believe you. However.” She lowered her wing blocking the unicorn and looked Izzy dead in the eye. “If all of this ends up making things worse for my sister, I will never forgive you.” She warned.

Izzy looked at Pipp and nodded seriously. “Trust me, Pipp. Going to see Misty will help Zipp become her old self again.” She assured the princess before going to board the Marestream, leaving a concerned Pipp behind in the Brighthouse.

Worried about everything that could go wrong.





And it seemed what ever could've gone wrong did when Pipp saw her sister be led away by Hitch to her bedroom after she went down to the dungeons to have a talk with Misty. With how shaken she was when she came up, Pipp could only begin to wonder what Misty told Zipp.

Sunny noticed the concerned look on Pipp’s face and walked over to her. “Hey.” She said as she gently put a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. "I'm sure Zipp is fine with Hitch for tonight." She assured the pegasus. 

"I guess." Pipp said with uncertainty.

"Pipp?" Sunny said in confusion. Having come down mid conversation, she wasn't as aware as Izzy and Hitch about her anger towards Misty. 

"I shouldn't have let her go down there alone." Pipp scolded herself. "Who knows what Misty could've said to her that made her that upset." She then turned to look at Izzy angrily. "You still think this was good for Zipp?!" She shouted at her.

Before Izzy could respond, Sunny leapt in between them. "Whoa, Pipp! Don't take this out on Izzy! She cares about Zipp just as much as you do!” She tried to reason with her.

“Seems more like she’s worried for Misty.” Pipp answered bitterly.

“Of course she’s worried for Misty. She’s our friend, too.” Sunny pointed out.

Pipp recoiled from what Sunny said. Hitch already made it clear he was against her, hopefully not anymore after seeing what Zipp went through in the dungeons, and Izzy wouldn't stop defending that traitor. But now Sunny was also turning against her. It was just like her nightmares. Everypony was turning on her and making her the victim. "It wasn't me." Pipp muttered as she backed away.

"Pipp?" Sunny asked, not clearly hearing what she said. Even Izzy was now showing signs of concern for her friend.

"IT WASN'T ME!!" Pipp cried before she unveiled her wings and, with a powerful flap, flew back to her room before Sunny or Izzy could stop her.

Once inside, she slammed the doors shut and locked them. When her friends arrived, they knocked on the doors and tried to get her to let them in. "Pipp, please talk to us!" Sunny pleaded, sounding like she was about to go into tears. And she had good reason to. Her friends were breaking up and there was nothing she was able to do to stop it. 

"I'm sorry I upset you." Izzy apologized. "I just don't want anypony hurting anymore." From how she sounded, it seemed like she also was about to start crying. 

But Pipp wouldn't let them in. Instead, she was lying on her bed with a pillow covering her ears from the sounds of what seemed to be the angry jury knocking on her door, fearfully muttering to herself. "It wasn't me. I didn't do it. It's not my fault. It's all Misty. It's always been Misty." 

Eventually, Sunny and Izzy stopped their knocking, presumably because Queen Haven or the guards showed up and lead them away, leaving Pipp alone with nothing but her thoughts. No longer hearing the judgement right outside her bedroom door, Pipp slowly crawled out of bed and looked into her mirror. "You're not the guilty pony here." She told her reflection. “Everything that happened to Zipp was because of Misty and Misty alone." She said with a frown. "And come tomorrow, they'll all see that I'm right."





The next day did bring truth, but not the kind that Pipp was expecting. The trial started with how Pipp expected. Ponies furiously shouting at Misty, demanding she suffer a horrible punishment. Only her friends seemed to be offering support, but they were drowned out in the sea of hate Misty found herself in. 

It seemed that all was going to go as it should, and Misty would be put away forever. Never to harm Zipp again, Pipp thought as she glared at the unicorn for whatever she did yesterday. But that was when Zipp appeared. 

Surprising everypony in the room, and also those watching on phones or TV, she stood in the center of the court and declared she'd be Misty's defense for the trial. Pipp could barely believe what she was hearing. Here was Zipp, a pony who likes to live her life secluded, telling the whole world about her recent struggles for the past few months. And when Zipp walked up to Misty and said that she forgave her, no, never even blamed her, Pipp couldn't take it anymore.

“Zipp, no!” Pipp said as she flew out of her seat and landed by her sister. “Don’t do this to yourself!” She desperately pleaded with her. “It’s not your fault you’ve been hurting! It’s-“

“I am not blaming myself either, Pipp.” Zipp stopped her, leaving the pink pegasus speechless at her statement. “I have been spending all of this time hating myself, and it has brought me nothing but misery. While it might seem easy to just shift the grudge to Misty; the truth is all that will do is bring me misery in a new way.” She paused to look up at Hitch, and the stallion smiled at seeing his advice from the night before being put into full effect. “It is time that I accept the past for what has happened, without holding anypony accountable.”

“But there is somepony that should be held accountable.” Pipp tried to convince Zipp what she convinced herself. “Don’t you understand that if Misty had never-“ Pipp was cut off again. But this time it was by Zipp pulling her into a hug. “Z-Zipp?” She said quietly.

“It’s okay, Pipp.” Her big sister calmly said. “I understand.”

“Understand what?” Pipp softly asked back.

“I understand why you’ve been feeling like this. You’re angry, Pipp. Not at Misty, but at yourself. You feel that you’ve failed me as a sister. That you are the cause of everything that has happened. You didn’t believe my initial suspicions of Misty. And because of that, not only did that lead to me doubting myself, it also was what allowed me to get corrupted in the first place. The others also may not have shared my suspicions, but you’re my sister. You’re supposed to always have my back, and you didn’t.” Zipp wasn’t accusing Pipp when she spoke, but instead gently said what she believed to be going through her younger sister’s head.

“Zipp.” Pipp whimpered as tears started to form in her eyes as the wall she had built around herself started to crack.

“You didn’t want to hate yourself like I did, and you ended up directing your frustrations at the first pony you could. But I know you don’t blame Misty for everything. You don’t really hate her. You just didn’t know what else to do with your anger.” 

“Zipp.” Pipp whispered again before the wall fell and she lost control of herself. She buried her head into her sister’s coat and began to cry. “You’re right, Zipp! I’ve been such a horrible pony! I should have defended you, but I didn’t! I feel like all of this was my fault, and I don’t know what to do!”

“But I do.” Zipp said as she gently pulled back and looked Pipp in the eyes. “It’s time to move on, Pipp. We’ve both seen what holding grudges can do. If we really want to be happy, we need to forgive. I forgive you. Actually, I don’t even blame you. Now the question is, can you do the same?”

Pipp sniffed and wiped her eyes before nodding. “Yes, I can.” Said before she broke off the hug and walked straight over to Misty. “Misty, words can not even begin to express how sorry I am for everything I said that day. You are an amazing pony, and you didn’t deserve to be berated by me like that. You’ve already felt guilty enough for all you did for Opaline, and all I did was make things worse.” The Pegasus shakily offered her hoof to the unicorn. “I know it’s probably a lot to ask for, but………do you forgive me?” 

Misty didn’t even hesitate and took the hoof. “Like Zipp said, I never blamed you.” She said before the two shared a hug.

That seemed like it was the end of it all. Misty got off on a merciful sentence and they all left the courtroom with smiles on their faces. 

Unfortunately, it is never that easy. For behind that smile, Pipp was devastated. In her attempt to not feel guilty for what she did, she took it all out on an innocent pony, not to mention how harshly she treated the rest of her friends.

All because she couldn't face the truth and accept it.

What had she done?





"Hmmmm.” Dr. Uaminifu said as she tapped a pen under her chin once Zipp finished explaining everything. "This is indeed a serious problem."

"I can't say for sure if it truly was what happened at the trial that made her like this, or if she has always been hurting like I have." Zipp confessed. "But I do know that she is feeling ashamed with herself after all that's happened."

"I wish I can say that it is a surprise." Uaminifu said as she walked over to her desk and pulled out a file on Zipp's condition. "However, you should already know self loathing is something that can't go away so easily."

Zipp nodded silently. "But what can I do? She was always there for me. I can't do nothing while she's going through what I was."

"Well..." Uaminifu thought about it for a few seconds before coming to an answer. "If she has been hiding it like you said, then she won't come here. However, she will need to be confronted and face the reality of her problems if she is to improve." The therapist paused and looked at Zipp. "And you're the only pony I'd say that can do that for her."

Zipp nodded again with a determined look on her face. "Anything for Pipp."
> Full Circle
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

3 days after the trial

It was a clam night, and that seemed to be reflected inside the Crystal Brighthouse. The inhabitants were all sleeping soundly after a long day and were reenergizing themselves for the day that’ll follow. However, not everypony was asleep at this moment. 

Despite how she looked, Zipp was still very much awake. She couldn’t sleep. Not from a fear of returning nightmares, those had finally come to a stop, but instead because she was currently a pony on a mission. She had spent the whole day planning it out, and currently the white pegasus was waiting for the signal to make her move.

That signal came when she heard the sound of blankets shifting and a pony getting out of bed and walking down the stairs. She waited for a few minutes before checking to make sure the pony downstairs was who she expected. Sure enough, Pipp's bed was empty.

With everything falling into place, Zipp got out of her own bed and quietly made her way downstairs. At the halfway point, she looked over the railing and saw Pipp was sitting at the kitchen table with a full glass by her hooves.  Zipp didn't need to take a closer look to know that it was clearly alcohol of some kind. Now, her sister was able to tolerate alcohol a lot better than she could, and she was no lightweight herself, but Pipp never drank outside of a cup or two at parties. To do so on her own accord was concerning. 

"Oh, Pipp." Zipp sighed for her sister, silently also thankful that she hated alcohol so much she didn’t drink it during her own downward spiral or that would’ve probably taken way longer to bounce back from. She resumed her way downstairs, louder this time so Pipp knew she was coming. If the pink pegasus did, she didn’t show it as she just stared at the glass in her hooves.

Once she felt she was close enough to her sister, Zipp spoke up. "Mind if I sit with you?" She asked.

"Good ahead." Pipp mumbled out. 

Zipp took her seat and looked over at Pipp. She still looked sobber, so now was the time to pounce. With a sigh, the older sister started the conversation. "Pipp, we need to talk."

"What's there to talk about?" Pipp rhetorically responded, already knowing where her sister was going with this conversation. 

"You can't keep doing this to yourself." Zipp told her.

"I can and I will." Pipp responded with a hate filled glare. Zipp recognized it as not hatred directed at her, but rather Pipp's hatred for herself. With a sniff, she tried unsuccessfully to keep the tears forming in her eyes at bay. "You didn't see how I was behaving, Zipp. It wasn't just Misty, I was horrible to everypony!" She cried as the dam broke.

Zipp didn't waste any time and pulled her sister into the biggest hug she could give. Despite feeling that she didn't deserve the comfort, Pipp leaned into the embrace and sobbed into her big sister's coat. "Sssssh." Zipp gently soothed the sobbing pegasus as she gently swayed her own body like a hammock.

"I treated our friends like they were criminals. They were just trying to help me, and I pushed them away." Pipp started to explain everything that had happened that Zipp missed through her sobs. "I sent Misty to be locked away forever. Everypony treated her like a criminal because of the lies I told her! She only turned herself in because I screamed at her! All because I couldn't accept the truth that I was responsible for everything that happened to you."

"Pipp." Zipp said softly, reminding her sister of what she said at the trial with that one word. 

"I know, I know. I've tried to move on and accept what has happened without blaming myself....BUT I JUST CAN'T!" Pipp sobbed loudly. "I'M SUPPOSED TO BE BETTER THAN THAT! What kind of influencer can I call myself!? What kind of princess can I call myself!?" She broke off from the embrace and pulled out her phone and opened it to show all of her various accounts across media. "I should just delete everything." She whimpered as he hoof hoovered just above the delete button. "After all I did, I don't deserve any of my fans. I've become just like Opaline."

That was it for Zipp. Before Pipp could even blink, she swiped the phone from her sister’s hooves. “Hey!” Pipp said in protest as she tried to get the device back, but Zipp kept it out of reach.

“I don’t want you ever saying something like that again, Pipp Petals!” Zipp scolded her sister. Pipp winced at both the strict tone from her big sister and her full name being used, but Zipp sighed and pressed on. “I’m sorry for scaring you, but you should never compare yourself to Opaline.”

“Why shouldn’t I?" Pipp rhetorically asked in response. "From how Misty described her, how are we both not glory seeking bitches that care only for power and being better than everypony else?"

"Because you did something Opaline never would do. Regret." Zipp answered.

Not expecting that kind of response, Pipp looked up at her sister in confusion. "What?" She choaked out.

"Opaline never showed any signs of regret for what she did to Misty or anypony else. She could've stolen all of our magic, leveled our homes, and all she would've regret was that she would've still lost in the end. But you realized what you did was wrong on your own and feel guilt for it. You apologized for what you did, something Opaline would've froze over a thousand times before doing." The white pegasus explained.

"Yeah, a lot of good that does though." Pipp retorted with a sniffle. "If you hadn't defended her then Misty would've been found guilty of crimes she didn't even commit, and then she-"

"But she didn't." Zipp gently reminded Pipp.

"She still could’ve!” Pipp shouted back.

Wincing slightly at her tone, Zipp still expected this to be a problem. After all, she had spend months worrying about the pony she could’ve become, so she understood how terrifying what ifs could be. 

Doing the only thing she could currently think of, Zipp just kept on hugging and gently soothing Pipp while the small pegasus continued to cry into her sister's coat. They stayed like that until Pipp's sobs seemed to quiet down. Making sure the pink pegasus hadn't fallen asleep, Zipp slowly pulled away and looked into her still awake sister's tear stricken eyes. "Feeling better?" She asked with a comforting smile.

"A little." Pipp admitted with a sniffle before smiling back up at her sister. "Thank you, Zipp." 

"Hey, you took care of me when I needed it. It's time for me to take care of you." Zipp said as she helped her sister off her seat and onto her hooves. 

Hearing that did make Pipp feel better, but there was still a massive hole of sadness in her heart. "But..."

"Ssssh." Zipp interrupted with a wing on the lips. "One day at a time, Pipp." She said as they reached the bedroom. "One day at a time."

They arrived at Pipp's bed and the pink pegasus hopped on and slid under the covers. Zipp was about to head back to her own, when she saw the pleading look on her sister's face. Chuckling softly to herself, Zipp joined her sister and pulled her into a massive hug that Pipp returned.

As her baby sister nuzzled into her like she was a massive plush toy, Zipp gently stroked her mane until she felt Pipp's breathing go to that of a sleeping pony. Despite the fact she was exhausted herself, the pegasus didn't fall asleep. Not that she minded if it meant keeping an eye on her little sister to protect her from nightmares. 





Normally it was her alarm or the chirping birds outside that woke Pipp up, but not today. Instead, it was a ticklish feeling in her ear that awoke her from her slumber. "Pipp." She heard somepony call to her in a teasing manner. Slowly opening her eyes with accompanying giggles, Pipp saw Zipp looking at her with a tired smile on her face. "Morning, sleeping beauty."

"Morning." Pipp responded sleepily with her own smile. She was about ask what her sister was doing in her bed, but then the night before came rushing back to her and she frowned. 

Noticing her mood was already dropping, Zipp lifted Pipp's head with a wing. "Still feeling down about last night?" She asked.

"Yeah." Pipp nodded in response as tears started to form in her eyes again. "I know I'm supposed to move on and accept the past without blaming anypony, but I just can't seem to do it!" She cried before falling into Zipp's chest again. "I'm sorry I let you down!"

"Nopony said letting go was easy." Zipp said. "It took me months to get to where I am now. It'll take more than one night before you feel like yourself again."

"And you haven't let any of us down." Somepony else said.

Pipp gasped and broke the hug to see the rest of her friends standing by the stairs with smiles on their faces. "Wh-what do you mean?" She asked. 

"What we mean is that we don't hold anything against you for what you did." Hitch told her as the rest of them approached the bed. 

"We were mainly worried that you'd end up doing something that you would later end up regretting and couldn't take back." Sunny added.

"We could never hate you, Pippi." Izzy finished.

Despite the smiles her friends and sister were giving her, Pipp still found herself crying in sadness. "But you should." She retorted. "I nearly got Misty locked away forever and treated you all so horribly. How can you forgive me so easily."

"Because we know you weren't yourself when that happened." Misty said as she joined Zipp and Pipp on the bed.

"But I was!" Pipp countered with a sob. "There weren't any evil necklaces to shift the blame to! Everything I said to you I said on my own accord!" Seeing how distressed Pipp was, Misty took the opportunity to pull her into a hug of her own. "How can you forgive me so easily!? Because of me you're a slave to our family forever! How can you be okay with that?!"

".....Because you did the same for me." Misty answered, making Pipp look at her with confusion.

"Huh?"

"I wasn't sentenced because of what you said I did. It was for something I actually did do in trapping you and Zipp in that cave. Sure, you yelling at me is what made me go to your mother and say everything. But, come on, what are the chances she wouldn't have found out regardless." Misty joked, earning small laughs from the group, including Pipp.

"Yeah, Mom does have a tendency to be like a hawk when it comes to us." Zipp said.

"Besides, it's not like I'm really being punished either." Misty assured Pipp. "All I have to do is accompany Zipp to a few places and do favors for her. It's nothing I wouldn't do if I didn't want to."

"Trust me, I tell her she doesn't have to be all formal with me, but she can't take no for an answer." Zipp joked, earning another laugh from the group while Misty blushed in embarrassment. 

Even Pipp was laughing with them now. And when she stopped, she wiped the tears off her eyes with her hoof. "Thank you, everypony. I still feel that I screwed up greatly. But hearing that you all still care for me helps me feel better."

"Hey, that's what friends are for." Sunny said as she and Izzy helped Pipp out of bed. "Now, come on! I got some breakfast with your name on it!" She beamed as the three of them went downstairs with Misty in tow.

Leaving Zipp alone with Hitch and Sparky in the bedroom. As she slowly got out of the bed with help from her coltfriend, she let out a massive yawn of her own. "Whoa. Somepony sure didn't get any sleep last night."

"Yeah, and while I would do it again if it means keeping Pipp safe from nightmares, I think I'm going to be catching up on some much needed sleep once breakfast is done." 

Hitch smirked and moved closer to Zipp, her wing instinctively wrapping around him. "Need me to keep you company?"

"Hmmm." Zipp pretended to think about the offer. "It would allow me to sleep better." She said as she pulled him in closer. "But you're not leaving until I say you can." She teasingly whispered into his ear.

Hitch gave a feigned worried look and the two shared a laugh as they went downstairs to join the others.

It had been a long and tedious journey for Zipp. Many challenges, both physical and mental, stood in her way. But with the help of her friends and family, including a possible future husband if she had her way, the young princess could finally say that she had reached the end of the Path to Peace.