The beeps of many different devices filled the room as Pipp lay flopped out on her bed. Somehow, she couldn’t really muster the energy to check her notifications, which felt really strange. Her phone rested face down on its wireless charger, other devices were scattered on a desk which hadn’t really been used since her school years.
Maybe it was time to take a hiatus? Short breaks had always helped restore her energy previously. Opening My Story at last offered little inspiration. As she was just about to close the app, Pipp noticed something:
‘LIVE Sunset: Digital detox holidays. Inspiring connection with yourself and nature. Learn more!’
Curious, Pipp tapped the ad and waited while the brand-new PonyNet browser opened the link. While her phone loaded, she mused about how as soon as magic was restored, PegaNet rebranded to PonyNet. They had kept most of their old applications and removed propaganda relating to unicorns and earth ponies. Like many of the large pegasus brands, they were facing ongoing trouble relating to the culture which had seeped into their products and were scrambling to show that they could embrace inclusivity.
Looking back down at her phone, Pipp saw that the website was ready. Advice around screen time and the dangers of the PonyNet greeted her, as well as digital detox holiday packages. With a little reading, she could see that the advice was very rational with the usual overblown titles. An article titled ‘FREE YOURSELF FROM THE PRISON THAT IS YOUR PHONE’ offered very sensible advice about turning off notifications and not instantly answering messages, most of which Pipp already practiced on and off because of the sheer volume of her various messages and notifications.
The article that caught her attention the most was ‘TAKING A DRASTIC DIGITAL BREAK WITHOUT BREAKING THE CONNECTION’. It suggested having a second phone which was not attached to any social media so you could still make calls and perform all the essential tasks which a phone was needed for, but without the ability to post or even check social media. At the end of the article, the writer added that this required a lot of discipline.
Discipline. Pipp could totally do discipline! If a day without her phone was okay, then she’d buy a second phone to use as her break phone and if that went okay maybe she’d survive a digital detox holiday!
Opening RightNow, Pipp sent out a quick public message. ‘Taking a break today, you’ll see more updated tomorrow! Have a great day Pipsqueaks!’
Pipp jumped as somepony knocked on her door. “Yes?”
“Are you ever coming for breakfast? Family time remember?” Zipp called through the door.
Putting her phone on silent, Pipp got up. After a moment of hesitation, she carefully put her phone on the bedside table. It almost felt like putting part of herself down. Slipping on her Invisible Band, she made for the door. “I’m coming!”
During breakfast, Pipp could hear eating sounds. This was somewhat uncomfortable.
Usually, she had her wireless earbuds in and had some quiet music in the background, which helped her feel at ease through the day. The only piece of tech on her was her Invisible Band, which made her feel white naked.
She had received several curious looks from both her mother and sister. Usually, Pipp was bright and early, showered, mane brushed, hoof polish touched up and headband on. Instead, Pipp was clearly just out of bed, with her natural dull purple hoof color showing and mane frizzing everywhere.
Zipp snickered. “Where is Princess Popstar?”
Even Queen Haven, Pipp’s own mother, seemed to be smiling into her breakfast bowl.
“If you must know, I got a bit caught up reading something.” Pipp said, turning her nose up slightly at the friendly sibling ribbing.
“What’s new? Let me guess, checking your Glance feed?” Zipp seemed to be near coughing her food up at her jokes.
Spotting an opportunity, Pipp waited until her sister was chewing up a large mouthful of food before responding.
“I’m considering a digital detox.”
Several frantic, suspiciously laughter-like choking sounds came from Zipp’s direction. Pipp swallowed her food before looking at her sister. Upon seeing her, Pipp couldn’t help laughing as well.
“You had to time it for then. Also, WHAT!?!” Ever the independent spirit, Zipp wiped up half-chewed food from around her mouth and nose before wiping off the table before a servant could get to it. “You wouldn’t survive half an hour without your phone, let alone a week or however long you’re planning!”
Pipp smirked, dropping her cutlery to expose her empty hooves. “I survived watching you have a spit take without streaming it for all to see. My phone is in my room, on silent.”
Zipp and Haven were now giving their full attention to Pipp. Haven spoke up first. “I’m so proud of you, darling. My parents were always so worried when I was obsessed with my phone, and I must confess a little of it rubbed off on me. I’m sure you’ll have a great phone-free day.”
Zipp crossed her hooves, evidently a little more skeptical. “I bet you won’t last the day. What are you going to be doing, anyway?”
“I’m just going to leave my phone in my room. As for what I plan on today, I don’t know. What are you up to Zipp?” Pipp looked thoughtful, now considering what she was actually going to do without her phone.
Zipp immediately lit up. “I’m going to be trying to shape clouds and make weather like the pegasai of old! If I can figure it out, we might be able to schedule the weather!”
“Can I come with you? Who knows, we might be able to figure it out faster together!” Pipp seized the chance to get out of more menial things like etiquette lessons which her mother might offer if she looked too bored.
“Of course! We can have some sisterly bonding time.” Zipp got up and ran to Pipp, giving her a tight, sticky hug.
Pipp squirmed, trying to escape the remains of Zipp’s breakfast. “Did you do that on purpose?” She tried to wipe the stickiness off her face but only succeeded in spreading it to her hooves.
“What?” Zipp said innocently, all the while giving a mischievous smirk. Suddenly she bolted out of the room, both to take a shower and get the last word. “That was payback for the spit take!”
One thorough shower later, Pipp was rubbing hoof polish remover on her hooves. She had decided to have a more natural look today. This way she wouldn’t need to worry about messed-up makeup. Carefully putting away her false eyelashes and mane extensions, she pondered what exactly would go into making weather. Maybe they could ask Sunny? Sunny was, after all, the expert on the Twilight Age.
Pipp wove her mane into a running braid. This would hide the fact that her mane wasn’t as thick and lush as it usually looked. It wasn’t a secret that she used mane extensions but knowing and seeing were two very different things.
Her bedroom door opened and Zipp walked in. Pipp noticed that while Zipp had brushed her mane, she hadn’t bothered to try styling it, revealing the rather boring military-style manecut that she sported.
“You look very smart like that, Pipp.” Zipp complimented, smiling at her sister’s more toned down look.
“Why thank you sister, I didn’t want to go too far when we are probably going to be messing up our manes anyway.” Pipp nodded back.
“We’re ready to go when you are.” Zipp wandered out the door, where the quiet click of metal on tile indicated that Queen Haven or Zipp had probably seen fit to ask some guards to come along on this little adventure.
“We?” Pipp asked as she tied off the braid and gave the little tail a gentle brush.
“It’s Zoom and Thunder. I asked them because they know Sunny a bit better than most of the others.” Zipp’s voice floated through the air, getting louder and louder as Pipp walked to the door.
“We’re going to ask Sunny?” Pipp asked for confirmation. She nodded a quiet acknowledgment to the guards.
“Yup. Who else would have a better idea than her? You’d probably get electrocuted if you even looked at a cloud up close.” Zipp teased.
Pipp smirked even as the guards exchanged smiles behind them. Zipp had already been on a similar expedition before, and the results had fed the palace rumor mills for weeks. “What, like you did?”
Zipp flushed red. “It was nothing like that! Besides, we didn’t have magic back then. We’ll get better results now.”
“Fair enough. I’ll defer to your extensive experience.” Pipp poked back.
“Oh, just come on!” Zipp trotted through the palace as fast as she was allowed and took flight as she stepped through the door. Zoom, the faster guard, flew after her while Pipp and Thunder made their way to Sunny’s recently reconstructed lighthouse as a more sedate pace.
“Thunder, where are we? I kind of purposely left my phone at the palace.” Pipp looked embarrassed and a bit panicked. Her sister would be teasing her for weeks about this! How she missed her phone.
Thunder smiled that little smile of his which was just out of regulations. He pulled out his own phone and tapped the screen a few times. Showing the map to Pipp, he spoke up. “We should probably be going that way.”
“Thank you. I don’t know how I’d get by without one of you guards to get me out of trouble.” Pipp turned to the direction Thunder indicated. In the back of her mind, she though about how this would be such a great moment to post on RightNow about. Thanking the guards was such a high priority for her, with how many had remained loyal or at least civil after the initial shock that the royals were faking their flight. She stopped herself from reaching for a phone that wasn’t there and concentrated on flying to Maretime Bay.
“I’m sorry, I don’t have a lot of information on how the pegasai controlled the weather. I’m sure I’ll find a training manual or something once I catalogue all the old books stored in Zephyr Heights.” Sunny frowned slightly. “You told me about how you managed to get yourself electrocuted by a lightning cloud; will you be safe doing this?”
Zipp’s face soured and Pipp snickered at that. Squashing down her feelings, Zipp spoke up. “We’ll be fine. We have the guards, and they have a first aid kit for if anyone gets hurt. Worst case scenario, we’ll be able to get one of the new pegasus ambulances quick smart.”
“Oh, yeah, that. Pipp will be able to call one.” Sunny smiled again. “Where is your phone Pipp? Usually, you’re quite enamored with it.”
“I’m trying a digital detox.” Pipp stated.
“Oh, now you admit it. You’re trying it.” Zipp took the opening before Pipp could realize what she’s said. “Are you missing your phone already?”
“Not at all.” Pipp partially lied. She had wanted her phone several times, but mostly she was enjoying that strange free feeling that comes with not constantly checking notifications. “Let’s go! I bet I can make some nice safe, non-dangerous rain before you can!”
Now in a clear dirt field, Zipp, Pipp and the guards used their wings to make some wind to swish some clouds down. The guards landed and stood at a safe distance away so if there was and lightning or danger, they would be able to call for help and swoop in as soon as possible.
Pipp nudged a heavy, wet feeling cloud onto the ground, and laughed as it became a cool, moist fog. Wandering around inside it and getting condensation all over herself, she called out to Zipp. “Look, fog!”
She heard the sound of Zipp landing and laughing as she walked in. “You’re so wet! Oh, it’s nice in here… and wet.”
“Huh, what an amazing discovery. Water is wet!” Pipp teased, flicking some droplets in a spray at Zipp.
Zipp took off, showering Pipp with water as she went. “Yup! Let’s see how much more wet it is!”
Pouncing on a cloud full of rain, Zipp jumped a few times, seeing if the old legends of ‘stomping up a storm’ were true. The cloud released it’s water in a big rush, drenching Pipp underneath and all but washing the fog away.
Pipp let out a surprised shriek and shouted. “How dare you!”
Zipp, overcome with laughter, lowered herself down onto the cloud. The cloud that wasn’t there, because, having dissipated its water, it had drifted into nonexistence.
With a loud splash, Zipp landed in the muddy puddle with her sister. After both of them had recovered from their fits of laughter, Zipp looked up at Pipp. “I guess water is wet. Good thing you didn’t have your phone on you, it would have died in that!”
Panicking, Pipp checked her Invisible Band to see if it was okay. It lit up when she turned her hoof towards her, and she breathed a sigh of relief as it flooded into her memory that the devices were waterproof.
“I think if you were hoping for rain, you might want to be a bit more gentle, like so.” Pipp landed lightly on a cloud and stomped her hooves as though she was in first year again, learning about the old legends of stomping up a storm by imitating rain noises on a hollow stage. The cloud dispensed its rain in an even, steady way.
“Oh, it’s like at school! So, if I want storms then I pick a dark cloud and stomp really hard!” Zipp flew up to the darkest cloud she could find and lifted her hoof, giving one hard stomp. Some rain dripped out of the cloud, as well as a slight lance of lightning. Shortly after, thunder sounded from the cloud, almost drowned out by Zipp yelling in excitement.
“YES! Finally, I can do it! All that dreaming and now it’s here!”
Without thinking, Pipp opened her mouth. “I so wish I had livestreamed that!”
Zipp’s focus snapped onto Pipp, and she laughed hard all over again. “I told you so, you can’t survive without a phone!”
“I’m surviving, I’m just being nostalgic!” Pipp laughed right back. Her sister was laughing hard on the storm cloud, and the cloud was letting out little showers and spikes of lightning. If one hit just the right spot…
“GAH!” Exclaimed Zipp, darting up from where the tiny shock had hit her. It was the equivalent of a shock from a particularly friendly piece of clothing, but it was unexpected.
“Okay, you’re right! I needed to stream that!” Pipp said, streams of laughter-induced tears rolling down her wet face.
Several fun-filled hours later, Pipp was laying half in the bath, paying more attention to her phone than the rapidly cooling water. Maybe she couldn’t last a day without her phone, but she would be enjoying a break every now and then from here on.
There was a quiet knock on the door.
“Come in!” Pipp called.
Zoom, now out of uniform, slipped in. “I have some video you may be interested in…”
She knelt and showed Pipp the content, streaming straight from Zoom’s private cloud files. It was several lengthy clips of the sisters playing with the rain and storm clouds, including that hilarious moment when Zipp managed to shock herself.
“Can you share this with me? I need to make a compilation to put on my VideoTime channel and Glance page.” Pipp asked.
“Definitely, that’s why I filmed it!” Zoom shared a smile with Pipp. Zipp was going to be furious. All in good sisterly spirit but annoyed all the same.
Later that evening, Pipp uploaded the compilation to her social media, urging her followers to treasure their close moments with their siblings. As the likes and emojis began floating across her phone screen, a shout came through the palace.
“PIPP! Really?” Zipp came running in.
“Yes, Zipp, really. Because I love you.” Pipp embraced her sister, and Zipp patted her back before fully returning the embrace. They spent the evening watching the sunset, without phones. Mostly. Zipp had to send a rare RightNow message.
‘Love your sisters – Zipp’
Author's Note
This story was written before I had the chance to watch the movie. Looking back, I don't think I made any major mistakes or inconsistencies in writing (phew). As someone who has thoroughly enjoyed g4, I think g5 is... Okay? I love all the little easter eggs and there's some great lore, but it does kind of throw out a lot of what g4 had going for it. Oh well, it's what we've got.
