My little pony, a new generation: Friendship rebirth.

"Come on Pipp, you're doing good, you're almost there."

I was flying. I still couldn't believe it; I was unable to process all of this. I had dedicated my entire life to my flight research, evading my actual duties as much as possible, only to lock myself in my lab night after night. The most I could manage was gliding, autonomous impulse was impossible, no matter how hard I tried it just wouldn't get off the ground naturally, almost as if it were a curse.

When I first met Sunny and Izzy, I was testing boosters I had installed across the mountain, and perhaps I would have escaped, again. My first impression was one of disbelief, to see a lone earth pony or unicorn was almost impossible, as they never left their territories, but to see two together was impossible. I wanted to stay and talk, my curiosity as a researcher was guiding me, but I remembered that I was being searched by the royal guard.

That thought played against me, it seemed that they were getting better and better at tracking me, which had its merit, I considered myself quite elusive. I wanted to tell them to run, but I thought they might end up in Zephyr Heights, which would give me all the time to interrogate them. I knew they would possibly end up locked up, which was convenient and safe for them.

It wasn't illegal for earth ponies or unicorns to enter the city per se, but I had a hunch how our subjects would react.

As I jumped to flee, I thought I heard a voice, but I didn't quite catch it properly, the wind was blowing hard in my face, which was something I enjoyed. I wasn't proud of sending innocent ponies to jail, but it was for their own good, and knowing mom, she would make sure no one else knew.

Nothing went as I expected. My mother reacted strangely at the mention of the word "magic", my little sister, had shown the whole kingdom to the intruders, only for mom to intervene again. They ended up in prison, prosecuted as criminals if they had done anything deserving. I felt horribly guilty.

I slipped through their belongings, which were meager for a trip. Only one of them caught my eye. A notebook with a familiar purple star. I had already seen it in the stained-glass window in my lab, the one with the unicorn and the pegasus with our crown looking at the star. Instinctively my curiosity got the better of me, so I decided to take them to investigate it. Maybe they could help me recover the magic.

I didn't want to admit it, but I was starting to give up on getting our flight back, why? The answer was easy. It didn't make sense. No matter how hard I tried, it wouldn't get off the ground unless I used an external element, I was somewhat desperate, so I agreed easily enough when I heard Sunny's hypothesis. Joining the two crystals together would restore the magic.

Thinking about it scientifically, it didn't make much sense, but neither did it make sense to be unable to lift yourself up when it was physically possible. I agreed to steal mom's crystal because what could go wrong? I had to stop thinking about that phrase, it all went wrong.

The hardest part of the night was leaving Pipp behind when it all went wrong. I felt horrible, she had revealed our secret to the whole kingdom, leaving us as fugitives. I also didn't understand how Mom had been arrested, I mean, she's the queen. While we had lied for generations, there were many noble houses who knew the truth, even some subjects who helped us.

Pipp had managed to escape, and to my surprise helped us get out of the city. I was a little jealous that he knew the streets of our kingdom better, but we managed to get out thanks to that. The rest of the trip was uncomfortable, at least at first. Pipp and I argued every chance we got, but everything changed the second night.

It was a surprise to learn that unicorns had no magic, but that didn't stop Izzy from saying that my sister had a seawater-colored aura. I refrained from asking, as I wasn't interested. I liked to tease Hitch as much as possible, watching him try to make fire was funny in its own way. But I do recognize the fact that once the fire was out, he walked away from us a bit, quite gentlemanly.

Sunny and Izzy's story touched me, and I thought it from the bottom of my heart. We pegasus believed that earth ponies practically lived in caves and were somewhat wild. Unicorns were just dangerous for the simple fact that they had magic. After getting to know Sunny and Izzy more I decided I would help them, no longer just because I wanted to restore our flight, or rescue mom, I wanted to believe in Sunny's vision of a united Equestria.

At Bridlewood, things could have gone better. We almost ended up in a saloon fight if it weren't for Hitch. I knew I could have helped somewhat, but Alphabitlle was too big, and I had to protect my little sister. I often joined the royal guard training for exercise, I needed muscle for my experiments. I knew Zipp had a good physique, his dance classes were no joke, I remember how she once invited me to join and I couldn't stand it, it didn't make sense.

To my surprise, Mom had found us, apparently with the help of Cloudpuff, who had tracked Hitch thanks to her badge. At that moment a fight almost broke out, had it not been for Sunny, who wasted no time and joined the two crystals together, just so nothing would happen.

I don't think I had ever seen someone break down like that, I felt helpless, useless, unable to help a friend. The last thing I saw her do was to apologize to mom for all the trouble she had caused. Hitch had verbally said goodbye to us, and it hurt me to see them leave like that. Was I going to keep quiet just like that? No, of course not. Sunny and Hitch were my friends, true friends, who were not with us because we were princesses. Thinking about it, I can say that they were my first friends.

Mom was talking to the guards, who seemed a little worried about something. I could hear a name I didn't like, the first minister of the kingdom, Dark Strike. I was more curious now about the conversation, but I had more important matters now. Pipp, Izzy, and I fled to Maretime bay.

Who cares about magic? I wanted my friends to be okay, and fortunately, my sister and Izzy felt the same way. When we got to Maretime bay it was easy to find Sunny and Hitch, they were literally coming right at us. Mom, the royal guards, and some unicorns caught up with us, and on Sunny and Hitch's side a giant robot, piloted by a red pony with a golden mane, caught up with them.

I will never forget that afternoon. Sunny and Hitch's childhood friend had a screw loose, nearly crushed Alphabitlle, and destroyed Sunny's house. In the end, Mom, Alphabitlle, and a mare I didn't recognize chose reconciliation.

Our group had left Maretime bay behind, after saying goodbye to Sunny and the others. Sunny had transformed into something with wings and a horn, I didn't know what name to refer to, and from what I could gather it seemed temporary. None of us could touch her wings or horn.

We were on the road heading for Zephyr Heights, about to enter a forest. I was flying, three feet off the ground, but flying, nonetheless. It was strange, all my life I felt like I had been doing it just like this, flapping my wings, but nothing ever happened, until today. Thanks to my experiments with ventilators, I was used to hovering, which was a great help.

"Zipp, this is more complicated than you make it look." My sister was complaining, but I could see her looking pretty good.

"I've practiced for years, but this is as new to me as it is to you." It wasn't a lie.

Mom was below us, along with Cloudpuff. She had two guards in front of her and two behind. I recognized two of them, one was Lieutenant Zoom Zephyrwing, mainly in charge of guarding me, I had known her since I was ten, when she was assigned as my personal guard, a great honor in her words, but she never went over the line of duty. She was quite serious.

The other one I recognized was Thunder. Unlike Zoom, he didn't come from a noble house, he was a commoner. But he was recommended for the royal guard by the commander Hummingbird of the guard, so Mom assigned him as Zoom's subordinate when he was 12 years old. Other than that, I didn't know much about them, Thunder was quite talkative, but Zoom always reprimanded him for that.

We headed into the forest, fortunately, the trees were far enough away from the road that the branches didn't get in the way of our attempted flight.

"I can't wait to get to the castle and take a nice bath." I agreed. But something caught my attention, Pipp looked a little worried, and I could sense why.

"Are you scared to go back to the kingdom?" I asked.

"...Yes, I'm afraid they won't spare us."

"Everything will be fine. We brought the flight back to our kingdom, it may be difficult at first, but I'm sure they will forgive us eventually."

"I think you have become too disconnected from your citizens. It's not so easy to be accepted and forgiven, not from my point of view."

I wanted to retort, but I didn't know-how. I hadn't paid much attention to the media in recent years beyond what was necessary. I trusted Pipp for that. I wanted to keep talking, but Mom called out to us.

"Zipp, Pipp, we're going to spend the night in this clearing, we'll continue in the morning."

We landed next to the group, three of the four guards split up, leaving Thunder watching Mom. They went to get firewood and food. Fortunately, apple trees were everywhere, I had only eaten apples the last two days, but I understood our situation.

We approached mom, who looked at us with one of her smiles.

"I see you were having fun up there."

"Yes, flying really does feel amazing."

"Certainly, the wires were a bit annoying."

"Glad to hear it." I could see her smile fade, now staring off into nothingness.

"Mom, are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, nothing to worry about." I was lying, I knew her well enough to realize that. I wanted to dig into the matter, but I had to do it slowly.

"So, mom, how did you escape from prison?" I knew it was a touchy subject, especially with me being the culprit, but it seemed like a good place to start.

"Mom's cute little baby came to my rescue." She said as she petted Cloudpuff. "After escaping, Cloudpuff found a badge and we followed the track to Bridlewood." During our journey, I could see that Hitch was an animal magnet, I wouldn't be surprised if Cloudpuff fell for his charms.

"Mom." Pipp interrupted. "Why did they lock you up? You're the queen." He asked a good question; I was curious too.

Mom was silent for a second, then started talking.

"Prime Minister Dark Strike told me it was the best way to defuse the situation, and I thought he was right. During Pipp's presentation I was the one who took her down from the wires, but when I came out to rescue you, you were gone, and I was surrounded by outraged pegasus. I thought they had taken you to hurt you, or worse." I could see a tear fall from his right eye. "At that moment Lieutenant Zoom and Thunder rescued me from the crowd, it was at that moment that Strike told me he was putting me under house arrest to defuse the situation."

I felt horrible. I never thought our citizens could do something like that to Pipp, lie or not, his voice was real.

"I was so scared of you two that I decided to run away, but if it wasn't for Cloudpuff, it wouldn't have been so easy." Cloudpuff barked in response. He was quite adorable when he didn't get in the way of my plans.

"Mom, I'm so sorry about what happened at the concert, I didn't think things would escalate like that." I lowered my head. "The fact that I didn't agree to lie wasn't reason enough to ruin your lives. I'm really sorry." I felt my chest inflate and deflate rather quickly. I could feel that I was about to cry when a warm hug came unexpectedly from Mom.

"Zephyrina, I'm the one who needs to apologize." I raised my head; I couldn't believe what I had heard. "Our family has lied to our kingdom for generations, the weight of the crown means carrying on that lie and protecting our subjects, and I almost handed it to you even though you didn't share that lie. Sometimes being in charge, means doing things you don't want to, for the greater good."

Still holding me in her embrace, I felt a drop fall on my face. I wanted to look Mom in the eye, but the more I moved, the tighter she hugged me.

"The common good became our lie, we tried to fool ourselves into believing that truth, and I'm sure everypony who has passed through the crown thinks if a better world isn't possible. But the status quo is very tempting, happiness intoxicates us, and we stop thinking about improving."

That made me wonder what would happen if I hadn't met my friends? I probably would have become my mother, just as she became hers. I couldn't blame her; we were both victims of a chain that bound our kingdom for hundreds of years.

The other guards were starting to arrive, two were bringing apples and Zoom was bringing firewood. I could see how Thunder had a small tear on his stoic face, probably listening to our conversation. I forgot you were there, buddy.

The guards quickly lit the fire, today's dinner was freshly picked apples. Dinner happened in silence, no one said anything, I was beginning to question what my reign would have been like without knowing my friends. Could I have required my children to lie? I didn't know, and fortunately, I hoped I would never know. My expression must have looked grim, as Mom broke the silence rather abruptly.

"You know, shortly after I was crowned, I met Sunny's father, Argyle Starshine." I dropped the apple, Pipp choked a little, which caused our guards to look at us in surprise.

"Do you remember the great hunger thirty years ago?" Mom asked. I knew I had learned about it in school.

The great hunger had come thirty years ago, just in the year of Mom's coronation. Some took it as a bad omen, but Mom had dealt with it masterfully, just as it came it went, making the bad omens a test of her leadership skills. Or so they taught in school.

"The cause was simply, a massive increase in population, we were producing too little food and consuming too much. The geography of Zephyr Heights made it difficult to produce, there are few fertile areas, and we couldn't farm in the mountain valley for fear of an attack by earth ponies or unicorns. I received a letter from a representative of the earth pony commonwealth, his name was Exel Carina, expressing his wishes to have an audience with me. Both Strike and Hummingbird refused, as it seemed very suspicious, but I ended up agreeing." She was moving the fire with a twig, watching the flames with a smile on his face. Both Pipp and I, and the guards had their eyes open.

"We gathered outside, and I was only accompanied by Strike and Hummingbird, as the meeting was confidential. We found only Exel Carina and another earth pony, he introduced himself as Argyle Starshine. He was a light blue-colored earth pony, purple eyes, and a cuti mark with a golden shooting star. Summing up the conversation, Exel proposed to me that the commonwealth would sell food to Zephyr Heights, of course being a secret deal for both countries. Strike was opposed, while Hummingbird agreed. In the end, I agreed and since then, approximately forty percent of the food consumed in Zephyr Heights comes from the earth ponies."

Our guards were in shock, and I couldn't blame them. In my entire life, the fact that I was eating food imported from earth ponies never crossed my mind. It's not like I cared where the food came from, but this was certainly unexpected.

"Every half year, Argyle would come to a secret meeting to file paperwork, it was at those meetings that we got to know each other better and ended up becoming friends, in fact... he was the first pony I ever felt anything special for."

"We're Sunny's sisters?" Pipp asked abruptly.

"Of course not!" replied Mom. I caught a hint of a blush on her face, which surprised me. Mom had a crush on Sunny's father before she met Dad?

"Argyle used to tell me about ancient Equestria every chance he got, he really believed in unity, which I must admit was quite fanciful, until he told me about an ancient alicorn princess named Twilight Sparkle. She had the title of princess of friendship, which made her sound even more unrealistic. But I changed my mind when he showed me her cuti mark, it was the same one that was in the old balloon station, better known as your lab, Zipp."

I could sympathize with the sentiment, it was Sunny's book that inspired me to talk to him, nowhere else, I had seen that star. Now that he thought about it, if the stained-glass window had the pegasus and unicorns with their crystals, perhaps the center originally had an earth pony with its crystal. It was not unthinkable.

"Years passed, and at one point he was replaced by another pony, it was very sudden and I felt very lonely when I didn't see him again. I wanted to ask his whereabouts, but I was never told, our agreement was just that, a deal."

"Was that when you met dad?" I asked. Mom's affable face turned into a frown. I knew she hated our father and was trying everything she could to avoid telling us where he went. We only knew he was alive.

"...Yes, Mr. Orange Wing reminded me a bit of Argyle, I wanted to get the flight back for the pegasus, but I just stopped there, if only I had known him better myself..."

You wouldn't have married him. My mother had told me I took after my father, I knew she didn't mean it as a good thing, and she always tried to keep me away from my research, but I couldn't let that dream die, one that was now a reality. I lowered my head, understanding what she meant, but then I saw how she looked at me.

"Zephyrina, Pipp, you are my pride and joy, never doubt that. I just can't forgive him for abandoning them at their young age." Mom hugged us and we hugged her back. I wanted to know more, but I didn't want her to feel sad. We didn't grow up are one parent, Mom is worth two, and that's what matters.

"Enough talk for today. We'll get to the kingdom first thing tomorrow morning; I just hope no pegasus got hurt or worse from trying to fly." We all nodded; guards included.

With that, we went to bed. The guards would take turns protecting us while the three of us plus Cloudpuff were curled up on top of each other. All my worries slowly went away as I lost consciousness. For the first time in a long time, I was happy to be with my family.

It dawned without a problem, we had a quick breakfast of apples and set off to the kingdom. I can't deny being a bit scared, I don't think the pegasus would forgive us so easily, but I was hoping the flight would be a strong bargaining chip to appease them.

We were currently on a somewhat steep road heading to the top of the mountain, where Zephyr Heights is located. I will never get bored of the views, they are truly beautiful, being as high as possible in luxury our kingdom has every day. And more so now that they can fly through skies, it just takes some practice.

"This is strange, we haven't run into any patrols, any ideas lieutenant Zoom?" mom started talking to the guards, but she had a point, we hadn't seen any patrols. I usually tried to avoid them, but that wasn't the case today.

"None your highness. Several teams were deployed to arrest you, but patrols should be running their normal course." I was glad to know that Mom was still referred to as "her highness." I remembered that Zoom was the only one who stood up for Mom in front of the unicorns. Maybe there was still a chance that everything would end well.

We kept walking, and soon we passed a cluster of clouds that always settled near the city, however, this time it was different, it was... difficult. Usually, we passed through with no problems, but today they seemed almost solid, like a somewhat soft wall. There were also several rabbits hopping here and there.

Soon we reached the entrance to the town. It looked like a ghost town. The big billboards were out. There wasn't a single pony on the streets, even the big newsreel screens were off. Mom looked really worried now, a feeling I shared.

"Let's go to the palace, something's wrong." Zoom and Thunder nodded, the other two guards were still wearing blank expressions, which I found somewhat disturbing.

We walked through the sprawling streets of the city; it was strange. They were empty but very orderly, there was no trash, and everything was very tidy, contrasting with the day we fled the city. Not even looking inside the buildings, we could not see a single soul.

We arrived at the elevator that communicated with the castle, the highest point of the mountain. To our surprise, two guards stood guard at the entrance to the elevator. They seemed surprised to see us, more the royal family together than the guards.

"Guards, what's going on, what happened to the kingdom?" mom asked. She was in queen mode, having her eyes narrowed and a dignified pose.

They said nothing, just looked at each other, fortunately, Zoom intervened.

"¡Soldiers! The queen asked you a question, answer it." The guards were startled but eventually relented.

"Prime Minister Dark Strike awaits you." They were downright rude, omitted the royal titles, and simply tucked us inside the elevator. Something smelled fishy.

"Zipp, I'm scared." Pipp whispered in my ear as we rode up, getting an overview of the city. It was totally blacked out, only now we could see some guard patrols. I guess they limited them inside the city.

"Don't worry, everything will be fine, mom will take care of everything." I replied, but I was the one who was probably more scared. At best we would be exiled, and at worst we would be locked up for life...or worse. I shook my head, pushing those negative thoughts out of my mind, nothing we did warranted the second option.

The elevator stopped at the highest part and opened the doors, the two guards that accompanied us the whole trip got out first as if it was the most normal thing in the world and perched on both sides of the door. In front of us stood Prime Minister Dark Strike, along with Hummingbird and six royal guards.

Dark Strike was a rather tall stallion. He had a strong yellow coat, dark blue mane, light blue eyes, and a cuti mark of a black hoof raising a white feather. Hummingbird was the captain of the royal guard, she had a whitish-green coat, black mane, yellow eyes, and a cuti mark with two crossed spears and a sword in the middle.

Strike had a vain smile on his face, while Hummingbird showed more concern, not for us, his eyes were riveted on Thunder, to my right.

"Haven, I'm glad to see you well and it fills me with joy that your daughters are doing well." He didn't call Mom by her title, which was a bad sign, Zoom moved to the front, but Mom extended her hoof to stop her, without looking at her. A frown was beginning to form.

"Prime Minister Strike, what happened to my city? There seems to be a state of emergency."

"Very sharp as always. And that's the answer, while we found the traitorous family, no one is allowed to leave their homes. Except for the royal guard."

"A somewhat extreme measure if I may say so. But we're here now, aren't we? I'm going to put an end to this... state of emergency."

"Very funny Haven, coming in as if nothing has happened and giving orders as if you were the queen." He said with a chuckle. Oh no, I already knew what was going on, I assume mom knows, while Pipp was in shock at the way she was talking to her mother, the queen.

"I am the queen, and while my family may have gained some animosity lately, it's not reason enough to depose us, we've been taking care of this kingdom for half a millennium." Mom was starting to get angry. "Furthermore, I will take full responsibility for my family, relinquish the throne and crown Zephyrina as the new queen."

WHAT! I couldn't believe it. She hadn't said any of this before. I was shaking, not from excitement, but because I didn't want the crown, I didn't feel ready.

"Hahaha, very funny Haven. They're all guilty of lying, while it's not a crime per se, I don't see any pegasus in the city supporting them." I wanted to refute, but I knew I couldn't, the only ones on our side were Zoom and Thunder, who kept looking Hummingbird in the eye.

"Let's skip the game, Strike, should I take your actions as an act of betrayal?"

"The traitor talking about treason, ironic."

What to do. We lacked popular support, Pipp was scared, and we only had two guards with us. We needed reinforcements, I considered flying out and asking my friends for help, but I didn't want to involve them in this. It was our problem. And on the other hand, I didn't want to abandon Pipp, not again. Maybe...

"Also, it occurred to me that maybe your family had something to do with the fact that we couldn't fly, as soon as they left town, several pegasus was able to fly away, almost as if it was magic."

Now that was it. We were being framed for something we didn't do and with a lie so obvious that it made me sick to my stomach just to think that any pony would believe such a lie.

"You know perfectly well that's a lie, no one could fly, not even us."

"The people will believe what I tell them." He made an unpleasant smile. "Perhaps if you hadn't chosen Orange instead of me, maybe your little secret would still be in the shadows."

"Watch your words, I may hate him for abandoning us, but given the situation, I'm glad I chose him over you. Do you want the crown that badly?" Mom said pointing her hoof at the crown. Mom finally asked him point-blank. This was a full-fledged coup.

"Indeed, but that crown is a symbol of the old monarchy, I'll make one of my own, but thank you for offering it." He slowly approached Mom with his smug, nasty grin. Cloudpuff, Zoom, and Thunder stepped in front of Mom and took up fighting positions. Quickly the other six guards accompanying Strike did the same, but what was striking was that the two guards accompanying us did nothing.

"I see. Zipp, here." Mom took off her crown and handed it to me. I blinked in confusion not understanding what was going on. "Seek help or political asylum with your sister in the commonwealth, Mom will be fine," She whispered as she kissed me on the forehead, then Pipp.

"Mom, I don't want to leave you..." Pipp told her practically crying.

"No time for goodbye, fly away and forgive me for being such a bad mother." She said as she joined Zoom and Thunder. I wasn't sure what to expect from mom, but I knew it would hurt to see her get hurt.

"Come on Pipp, let's go get help." I put the heavy crown away as I looked at Pipp.

"I don't want to part with..." She couldn't finish the sentence, we watched as two guards subdued Mom. Zoom and Thunder were fighting with three others, while another had run through them in our direction.

I wasted no time and pulled my sister, I didn't want to say it, but I felt her a little heavier than before. We ran with tears in our eyes ready to fly away. And we did, unfortunately not for long, the guard had managed to bite Pipp's tail, holding her tightly and making her let out a squeal.

I quickly pulled her along, I noticed how some of the guards were surprised to see us flying without wires, which backfired on them, as Zoom and Thunder hit them pretty hard.

"I won't let you again, Pipp!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, I couldn't bear to do that to my sister, again, even if it meant being captured along with her. The two guards that had suppressed Mom were now coming to help their partner, Zoom and Thunder tried to intercept them, but Hummingbird joined the fray and was strong enough to suppress them both.

I was pulling with all my might on Pipp as I looked into her eyes, I could see my reflection in her kiwi green eyes, she had an anguished look on her face. I was pathetic. The two guards came to her aid, and I could quickly see more guards leaving the castle. Even if she was desperate, I wouldn't let her go.

Surprisingly it was Pipp who let go of me, she had tears on his face, but now she accompanied it with a smile.

"Pipp!" I shouted at her.

"Get help, majesty." She answered me. Releasing her, she shot off along with the guard who was dragging her, taking the other two with her. I wanted to jump in and rescue her, but it would be useless. I felt my chest burning, perhaps out of impotence, anger or simply Pipp's determination had gotten to me. I didn't want to do it; I didn't want them to see my flank running. But jumping in there wouldn't help anyone.

I accepted his determination, knowing that I wasn't abandoning them, I was coming back, one way or another. While flying was still new to me, I knew how to plan. I was gliding all over the city, I could see some pegasus from the higher windows, surprised to see their criminal princess flying, some even took out their cell phones.

Unlike the night before I felt lighter than before, and scared, as soon as I left the city behind, I could see a landscape I had never seen before, a beautiful blue sky with no clouds, a big forest in the distance, the crystal-clear ocean and the forest we had come through.

I was frightened by the height, making me hesitate and starting to descend abruptly, I tried to level myself, but the wind roared in my face, making it difficult for me to think. Reaching the forest, I flapped my wings to land, unfortunately, the trees were not very friendly, I felt my consciousness fading. My sister's face came to my mind with her last word, "majesty", damn, I was beginning to hate that word. With that last thought, the world went black, and my consciousness shut down.