Petal Storm
The last smoldering embers of the campfire flickered and went out. Pipp Petals watched as the unusual group she’d fallen in with on the way to Bridlewood lay down to rest for the night. She couldn’t fault their logic, not on that score at least.
To her irritation, she saw that Zipp had no trouble getting to sleep. She just lay down and almost instantly began to gently snore as calmly as if she was back at home in her own bed. Everything always came so easily for Zipp Storm… Pipp wasn’t so lucky. Sleeping in the dirt or on cold hard rocks was torture; her wings ached, her back was sore, and no matter how much she twisted it felt like there was always a rock jabbing her in the flank.
Despite how tired—no, utterly exhausted she felt, sleep eluded her. Even the perpetually energetic Izzy was dozing, though her legs kept twitching. Pipp tried counting the number of times Hitch whinnied in his sleep, but had enough when she hit triple digits and was still wide awake.
Getting up, she made her way over to the large, lonely tree covered in cherry blossoms that sat on a hill on the other side of the tree bridge. Once she reached it, she sat down and hesitantly pulled out her phone. She began scrolling, looking at the news from Zephyr Heights, trying to find out what happened to Queen Haven. Finding nothing, she looked for mentions of herself and visited her own streaming accounts.
Pipp closed her eyes. There had to be a way for her to fix this, some way to find the right words that would make everypony love her again. She’d always been good at figuring out what made ponies happy and finding a way to give it to them.
Maybe she could say that the wires were for helping with a few pinpoint turns that couldn’t be safely done in a confined space? After all, even acrobats worked with nets under them. Showing the pegasi of Zephyr Heights they were thinking of them and trying to keep them safe would help, right? She set that idea aside and thought of another: an apology tour. Nothing resonated more deeply with audiences than the idea that you were unburdening yourself to them, taking them into your confidence, and reminding them that they were just a pony too. Making mistakes was universal, right?
She sighed.
“You really can’t go one night without checking that can you?”
Pipp leaped back up and whirled around, almost dropping it in her panic at the creamy, white coated apparition she needed a second to realize was her sister. “Aah! Zipp! What are you doing sneaking up on me like that?”
Zipp quirked her brow. “I walked up to you with all the subtlety of Mom’s guards on parade. You were just too engrossed in looking at your phone to notice anything going on around you. You know—like usual.” She tousled Pipp’s violet mane with her wing. Right after she’d gotten it back to normal too!
“Oh whatever,” Pipp huffed, batting her sister’s hooves before turning away. She cleared her throat, adopting a less familiar tone. Being royalty and a celebrity were a lot alike: act like you’re a star and the world will follow. “Maybe you should act like a princess. Or did you forget that you were one at all?”
Zipp made a show of looking around. “Not seeing any thrones or guards or cameras out here and it’s probably for the best.”
“That, dear sister, is solely your view,” Pipp snipped at her. “We are still princesses wherever we are. And you are still the Crown Princess.”
“Yeah, wow. Somehow that must’ve slipped my mind,” Zipp drawled. “Thanks for the reminder.”
“Clearly somepony had to.”
Zipp lowered her voice. “You should get some sleep. Tomorrow’s going to be a long day.”
“Tomorrow?!” Pipp glowered her, wishing she was taller so she could actually stare Zipp in the face. “Today was a long day in case you somehow hadn’t noticed.”
Zipp frowned but didn’t argue. “I guess it was. But it’s over now at least.”
“Over?” Pipp’s eye began twitching. “It’s not over. Not until we get mom back and figure out how to make everypony loves us again!”
Zipp leaned back, her brow furrowing. “Pipp, this isn’t important right now.”
“Not—not important?!” Pipp stamped her hoof. “You think mom isn’t important? My career, my life isn’t important?!”
“That’s not what I meant—”
“Isn’t it?” Pipp scoffed. “I was exposed in front of all of Zephyr Heights. Everypony turned on our family. Mom was arrested and thrown in jail! We’re fugitives on the run! Does any of that matter to you? Nope! You’re all ‘Forget about all that!’ All you care about is your little field trip with your new friends, the earth pony and unicorn you just met earlier today!” She glared at her sister. “Have you even thought about Mom?”
Zipp frowned, her wings tensing. “Of course I’ve thought about Mom! I hate the idea of her being locked in a dungeon somewhere, I feel terrible thinking of her being there.”
“Good. You should feel bad, because it’s all your fault she’s in that dungeon.” Pipp poked her in the chest.
Zipp reared up. “All my fault?! She was arrested because our family’s been lying!”
“She was arrested because everypony found out!” Pipp snorted. “And the only reason they found out was because you and your new friends sabotaged my show!”
“That wasn’t the plan!” an exasperated Zipp groaned. “We never meant for that to happen.”
“But it did happen!” Pipp stomped her hoof, shoving her head forward and forcing Zipp to step back. “That’s what matters here: you caused that, Zipp! You outed me, wrecked my show, ruined my career, got Mom thrown in jail, and you still haven’t even said you were sorry for any of it!”
That was when the thoroughly nettled Zipp snapped. “That’s because I’m NOT!”
Pipp was struck silent, her mouth moving wordlessly. When she finally regained her voice, there was a tremble in it. “Y-you … you’re what?!”
Zipp winced, looking regretful. “I—I didn’t mean that.”
“…yes,” Pipp said softly. “You did.”
“No! Well, I did but not the way it came out.” Zipp rubbed her face. “I’m not sorry I chose to help Sunny and Izzy out of the dungeon. I’m not sorry I helped take the Pegasus Crystal or came out here with them. It was the right thing to do, all of it.” She lowered her voice and softened her tone, forcing Pipp to lean in. “I’m not sorry for what I did, but I am sorry about how it happened. I never meant for you or Mom to get into trouble. But this was something I had to do.”
Pipp didn’t say anything for a while. “This all mattered that much to you?”
Zipp nodded, relieved she seemed to get it. “Yes of course it mattered—and not just to me, but for everypony.” She gestured towards their still sleeping companions. “We could bring back magic! We could change all of Equestria! This is—this is the most important thing I’ve ever done!”
“More important than me and Mom?”
“I—I, what?” Zipp shook her head, trying to process the question. “That’s not a—”
“If you could do it all over again,” Pipp pressed her, “knowing what would happen—would you still do it?”
Zipp bit her lip, falling silent.
Pipp’s nostrils flared. “I’m not hearing a ‘no.’ That says it all, doesn’t it?”
“It’s not like that!” Zipp groaned. “It’s not that simple!”
“Yes it is! You chose your new friends over your family! You chose to break them out of jail but never even thought about going back for Mom! You chose to go with them while you. Left. Me. Hanging!”
Zipp stomped her hoof. “I am getting really sick of you blaming me for everything that happened. Or are you forgetting the fact that what made everypony so angry was the fact that we LIED to them! Our family has been lying to them for generations! We betrayed their trust and you and Mom went along with it, were just fine with it!”
“It’s how things have always worked!” Pipp protested. “Nopony would’ve found out if not for you and everything would still be fine!”
“Horseapples.” Zipp snorted, taking Pipp aback by her earthy choice of words. “That’s your idea of a plan? Lie forever and hope nopony ever finds out? Forget about ever actually flying and just settle for faking it? Or did you completely fool yourself into thinking that lying to the citizens forever was somehow the 'noble' thing to do?”
Pipp quickly rallied. “It’s what all our ancestors did and it kept the citizens happy. They loved watching us fly. We were an inspiration!”
Zipp sighed and shook her head. “No, we weren’t. You want to know who actually was an inspiration for ponies—not just their fellow pegasi, but all ponies?”
“Is this that team you told me about?” Pipp huffed. “The Blunderdolts, or whatever they were called?”
“It’s ‘Wonderbolts’, and yes!” Zipp turned away and sat down, looking up at the night sky.
Pipp sat down next to her, almost reluctantly, trying to see what her sister was looking at. Her eyes still on the sky, Zipp started speaking with more excitement and intensity than Pipp was used to hearing from her. “The Wonderbolts were the most spectacular team in all of Equestria. They awed ponies, inspired them, fired up their imaginations, made them want to reach the same heights as them.” She turned to her sister, pinning Pipp in place with her intense stare. “But even if the ponies watching them would never be capable of pulling off a Sonic Rainboom, there was still a connection there that we’ve never had with the citizens. You know why?”
Wordlessly, Pipp shook her head.
“Because when they saw the Wonderbolts perform, they got to see ponies at their very best—the pinnacle of talent, skill, and determination. Even if you could never be that good a flyer, never do a Sonic Rainboom, you still wanted to be as amazing as them in whatever made you special. You wanted to try to be more, to be better. They made you want to aim for the heavens, even if you risked coming up short, instead of settling for the ceiling and not going any higher.”
Zipp sighed. “That’s not what we did when we pretended to fly. Any joy the citizens felt was because they knew this was as close to flying as they’d ever get to experience for themselves. That’s not us being an inspiration, it’s being a consolation prize.” She shook her head. “And what makes that even worse is that our family wasn’t even trying to find out a way to get them to fly. We were too concerned with keeping up the lie for the sake of appearance.”
“You say that like our royal ancestors didn’t try everything to get pegasi to fly again,” Pipp argued. “Do you really think that you were the first and only pegasus in the entire royal family to ever try to figure out how to fix this? Are you arrogant enough to think that everyone in the history of Zephyr Heights was just stupid, selfish, and lazy except for you?” She rolled her eyes, nudging her irritably with one wing. “Come on, Zipp! They probably tried for ages, but you know what? Nothing. Worked.” She bit off each word with as much emphasis as she could pack into them. “At least telling the citizens that some of us could still fly gave them some hope, some idea that all the magic wasn’t gone, that maybe it could come back someday. They were mad because you took that away from them.”
Zipp shook her head. “If it was about giving ponies hope, we would’ve been busting our tails day in and day out until we found an answer. But every time I even tried broaching the subject or any of my findings with you or Mom, you just rolled your eyes and brushed me off!” She scoffed, starting to stalk back and forth.
“This wasn’t about trying to keep their spirits up while we worked on a solution. It was about keeping our family’s comfortable, fashionable lifestyle intact. Yeah, maybe in the past our family might have tried to figure out how to get pegasi to fly again, but you know what?”
Zipp looked down, using every extra inch she had over Pipp to drive the point home. “They. Gave. Up. You don’t get to say this was about giving ponies hope for a better future when our family was doing nothing to actually make that better future possible.”
“So, that’s it?” Pipp asked. “Everything our family did for however many generations, all their reasons, all the thinking that went into their decision, everything Mom had to say—none of it matters because Zipp doesn’t approve. You’re just right and everypony else is wrong?”
Zipp squared her shoulders. “The truth is the truth, that doesn’t change no matter how many ponies accept or reject it. Living a lie isn’t any kind of life, especially when it’s such a self-serving one. It doesn’t matter if everypony says that up is down, or white is black, or wrong is right. They’re wrong. Don’t you get that?”
“Not everypony is like you, Zipp! Not everypony can be so arrogant to think that nopony else’s opinion ever matters!” Pipp threw down her phone on the grass, stunning Zipp. She instinctively reached down to pick it up—but hesitated when she saw what was on the screen.
“Fraud Pipp!”
“Prosecute the Phony Princess Performer!”
“PippSneak!”
“You broke my heart Pipp. Now I hope you rot in jail.”
“I’m throwing away all my records. Go away and don’t come back Pipp!”
“Rotten Royals!”
“Ruiner!”
“Liar!”
“Pipp Pipp BOO!”
Zipp wordlessly scrolled down, the comments growing increasingly angry … and vicious. Her jaw clenched when she saw what ponies were saying about her sister. She had wanted to stop living the lie, but she was half-tempted to head back to Zephyr Heights right now to set them straight, one way or the other.
When she looked over at her sister, she found Pipp glaring at her with tears welling up in her eyes. “You might be satisfied with your equations and your experiments and secreting yourself away, but I actually like other ponies! I enjoy being around ponies who appreciate me! But all you ever do is make me feel like I’m stupid and shallow for caring about their opinions!” She rubbed a hoof roughly across her face. “I’m a performer, Zipp, I actually need to know if there’s something I have to improve on! I need to know if my music is connecting with ponies or not. I can’t just sit at a blackboard and go, ‘Nope, the numbers say I’m right so forget what every other pony says!’”
Zipp bit her lip, her ears flattening against her head. “I—I never wanted to make you feel bad for doing what you loved. You’re a great artist.”
“Not anymore,” she hiccupped. “Now everypony hates me, thanks to you.”
“Pipp...” Zipp stretched out her wing, gently laying it on her sister’s back. “The only thing I ever had a problem with was the lying. You know I always hated it, right?” She waited for a faint murmur that she took for agreement. “So as a pony who hates lying—believe me when I say you are amazing. That’s the thing: you never needed to pretend to fly in order to wow ponies. You’re friendly, outgoing, great with ponies, and an outstanding, talented, singer. I’ve always known that and none of that has changed.” She stroked her back. “Even when every pegasi starts flying for real, you’ll still stand out among them all as an amazing performer. My amazing little sister.”
Pipp’s breath hitched and she let out a small sob. “You left me hanging.”
Zipp closed her eyes and sighed. “I know.”
“Those Wonderbolts you went on about? Would they have hung a teammate out to dry?”
Zipp closed her eyes. She swallowed a lump in her throat that threatened to choke her. When she spoke, her voice was hollow. “My friends needed that crystal.”
“A-and I-I needed my big sister…” Pipp sniffled, tears trickling down her muzzle.
“I’m sorry.” Zipp hugged her tightly. “I never wanted to leave you there. Everything just—it all happened so fast and if we didn’t get away with the crystal, then everything would’ve been for nothing and—” She shook her head, biting off the rush of explanations. “I’m so sorry. That’s what I should’ve started with when you came and found us.”
Pipp rubbed her eyes and said nothing for a long while. It felt to Zipp like the silence dragged on forever. She was almost startled when Pipp finally spoke up. “I get why though.”
“What’s that?”
Pipp traced her hoof in the grass. “I get why you were so excited to go off with Sunny and Izzy. You finally found ponies who cared about what you were interested in. I’ve been too busy with my career and rehearsals to be there for you lately. You’ve come to every one of my shows but I was never that interested in what you did. So … I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Zipp leaned against her. “To tell the truth ... as much as I would’ve liked it if we were on the same page more, I still liked having my own space, you know?”
“Not really.” Pipp found herself nestled under Zipp, her head resting on her own. “I just know you don’t like being around other ponies as much as me and Mom.”
Zipp sighed, shrugging slightly. “I like not being constantly surrounded by guards or having everything I do get livestreamed for everypony to see. We’re in the public eye so much as it is that I don’t get you and Mom actually wanting even more—but that’s just me.”
Pipp chuckled. “You’ll be the first queen whose coronation takes place behind a locked door in a secret lab you have set up someplace.”
“You know about my lab?!” Zipp gasped, pressing a hoof against her muzzle. “But I was so careful when I set it up under your room!”
“Don’t even joke!” Pipp nudged her. “I know you’re sneaky enough to actually pull that off, so don’t go around trying to make me all paranoid about you doing something like that.”
Zipp chuckled. “No promises.”
The two sisters shared a laugh. Pipp looked up, seeing the cherry blossoms falling from the leaves. She stretched out a wing and let the petals collect on them. “This feels nice. You and me, being together as sisters. I don’t know why but something about this spot feels really … calming.”
“I know what you mean.” Zipp placed her own wing beside Pipp’s, also catching the falling petals. “This is a nice place. I promise, when we fix everypony’s magic and the pegasi get to the skies again, we’ll go for a flight together. Just you and me. We’ll come back here, maybe have a picnic in the branches.”
Pipp smiled softly. “I’d like that. A lot.” She looked out to the horizon, back towards Zephyr Heights. Home. “Do you really think they’ll accept us if we bring magic back?”
“When we bring back magic,” Zipp corrected her. “Giving pegasi the sky back is going to overshadow anything that happened today.” She hesitated, but honesty compelled her. “Maybe there’ll still be some ponies who are upset, but that’s what happens when you lie to them. If you want to win them back, you have to recognize what you did wrong and then set out to be better going forward.”
Pipp bit her lip, but nodded. “Like your Wonderbolts?”
“Exactly.”
“Maybe they’ll come back too, if—when—pegasi start flying again.”
Zipp smiled at the thought, tilting her head back. “That’d be something to see.”
“I’d—I’d like to help bring them back for you.” Pipp ruffled her wings. “I want to help bring the magic back. To be a pony my fans, my citizens, actually deserve.” She ducked her head. “And be the sister you deserve.”
“Aww, Pipp.” Zipp hugged her with her wing. “You don’t have to prove anything to me. But if you really want to help bring back flying and the Wonderbolts, I’ll save you a seat at their first performance … if you can promise not to livestream and talk over the whole show.”
“Maybe,” Pipp said coyly. “Can you try not to block the view with your big, toothpaste-flavored, ice-cream-cone mane?”
Zipp smirked. “Not my fault you’re so tiny, Pippsqueak.”
“My name for my fans is meant to be ironic, Zipp.”
“And yet, here we are.”
“Nerd.”
“Diva.”
“…love you, sis.”
“Love you too.”
THE END
Author's Note
I know I haven't been updating much but I'm still working on stories, they're just being a bit tough to get through at the moment.
Big thanks to my pre-readers and editors: Chengar Qordath, Ponibius, Comma-Kazie, and The Illustrious Q.
