The Magic of Friendship Grows
Sunny felt so charged by the whole day's events. It had been such a huge culmination in her life, and now darkness was coming again.
"What's up?" Izzy asked.
Living alone so long, it was still a rush to have somepony walking beside her, recognizing her moods, and most amazing of all, ask if she needs help. "It was all so much. I've barely had any sleep in the past two days, and—"
The path back to her home was so comfortable and well-walked by Sunny that she didn't realize she was on it until she lifted her head and looked at her home. Phyllis had promised to remove her son's folly, but evidently that hadn't happened yet.
"Hey," Zipp said, circling around in a tight arc to land before Sunny. "You know what we need to do?" She looked to Izzy and then her sister.
Pipp picked up on Zipp's thinking quickly. "Makeover."
"Makeover?" Izzy asked.
Hitch took a step back. "Not again."
"Not us." Zipp inserted herself between Hitch and Sunny, and curled her wings around their necks, feathers brushing up against the undersides of their jaws to aim their vision right at the partially-demolished lighthouse. "That."
"Yeah…" Hitch's heart trembled at the damage that'd been done, but though he'd been scared plenty of times, he reinforced his dedication with bravery and his new friendship. "Yeah! We'll rebuild your lighthouse, Sunny. But—but it's late."
When Hitch saw uncertainty on everypony's face—and more than her fair share on Sunny's—he jumped in front of them all, faced them, and bowed. "If you ladies would like, you could have the run of casa de Hitch until we have the lighthouse safe to live in again?"
Sunny's focus was over Hitch's shoulder, but she dragged her eyes away from the destruction to her friend. "So long as the place isn't a mess."
"And if it is, I'll zap the mess away!" Izzy lowered her head and shot two jolts of magic out at a nearby rock that left cute, pink smiling faces on it.
"Please don't do that in my house. It's not a mess, I promise…"
"… I just already have some friends around." Hitch, inside his house, tried his best to hide the half of his living room that was piled with animal beds. There were birds, and mice, and foxes, and all manner of little creatures all bedded down and cozy.
"I always kinda figured you liked animals, what with The Squad and all"—Sunny could see both birds and the crab in question bundled together in a little cuddle-pile—"but this might be a little—"
"Just a tiny bit," Pipp said.
"Quite a lot," Izzy said.
"It's kinda cute," Zipp said, blushing for a moment before clearing her throat.
"Well, somepony needs to take care of them. I guess I just became that pony." Giving up his attempt to hide one group of his friends from the other, Hitch backed off to the side. "They're all cool, guys. I mean, Izzy and Pipp might try to give you a makeover, but you'll survive."
It took nearly twenty minutes for Hitch to find blankets and cushions enough to fashion four extra pony-size beds in the living room. During this time Pipp and Izzy had applied bows to almost a third of the animals done up with bows, to say nothing about Pipp live-streaming the whole event.
"So, how're the wings and horn working out for you?" Hitch asked.
Sunny blinked in surprise, then looked up, then looked back. "I keep forgetting I have them. They don't—it's a lot to take in. I guess I'm not alone in suddenly having a magic horn and wings that let me fly, but I'm just so used to doing everything with my hooves I forget I could just magic it."
"Kinda the same way, you know?" Zipp fluffed up what pillows they had with her wings. "I have to keep reminding myself I can fly."
Letting out a sigh, Hitch tried to back away a little, only to get both Zipp and Sunny looking at him intently. "What?"
"You," Sunny said.
"Me?"
Zipp nodded. "Yeah, you. When I first met you, you seemed kinda skin-deep. I grew up around the guard ponies working for my mom. You seemed kinda like them—always ready to kowtow to someone else.
"But then you stood your ground on your own morals, you listened to us, and you let my sister give you a makeover. The guards back home were really careful never to get trapped by that. But you didn't just put up with it, you smiled, you had fun. What I'm trying to say, Hitch, is you bring a lot more to this group of friends than just wings or a horn."
"Have you been rehearsing that?" Hitch asked.
Barking a laugh, Zipp asked, "Did it help?"
"Yeah. I've always been a bit of a hero in Maretime Bay. Always trying my best to help others. Now I feel kinda powerless when there're ponies that can fly and do magic with their horns."
"Being born with wings or a horn"—Zipp nodded to Izzy and Pipp, then toward Sunny—"or even getting them later in life, isn't what makes you a hero."
"Yup," Sunny said. "Chasing after somepony to protect them, examining your morals along the way and adjusting them as needed, and helping to put a stop to lifetimes of distrust make you a hero."
Hitch tried to protest. "I was trying to bring you back to justice." But, seeing the disbelief in both Sunny and Zipp's eyes, he let out a sigh. "Alright. I was worried about you. Lying to myself and inventing a reason for me to shirk my responsibility to Maretime Bay was the best I could do to convince myself it was right. And look what happened here when I did."
"Oh no." Sunny reached out with her hoof and grabbed Hitch's ear, then dragged him over to a mirror and made him look at himself. "See that pony? That one right there? It wasn't his fault that his deputy went mad with power and brainwashed the town with his idiocy."
Opening his mouth to defend Sprout, Hitch had to close it again. "Yeah… I don't think he should be deputy anymore. I'll need to get on that first thing in the morning."
"Yeah, I think we all have things to get to in the morning." Sunny looked around at her friends and felt what she knew Izzy called sparkle flare just a little brighter. They reminded her of what a victory they'd won—not over somepony who'd gotten carried away in his own ignorance—but in coming together despite that ignorance.
When Hitch walked upstairs to his bedroom, Sunny and Zipp turned to their other two friends.
"I'd complain about him sleeping in a nice warm bed while royalty gets the floor, but that's more Pipp's thing," Zipp said.
"It's true!" Pipp was securing a bow on a skunk who looked particularly happy to have a pink bow tied around the tip of its tail. "Everything's so different to the palace, but then, that's the point—it doesn't matter because I'm with my friends."
"Real friends, sis. Not followers." Zipp, having taken to her unicorn lessons a little too well, pranced around to the beds they'd made and picked one for herself. "I'm gonna get some sleep."
"Sunny?"
The voice sounded familiar, but Sunny was not the kind of pony to be roused easily from a good sleep. "Mmm. Goway. Five more minutes."
"Sunny…" Izzy wiggled her butt in excitement and reared up onto her back legs—summoning the most powerful of magics to shout, "Wake up, Sunny!"
"Ahhh!" Jerking awake as if somepony had just blasted a pile of magic into her ear, Sunny looked around. To her left was Izzy, looking happy with herself. To her right was a scorch mark on the wooden floor that would have been right beside her ear. "I'm awake!"
Izzy stepped closer to Sunny and narrowed her eyes. "Where did your wings go? Did you put them away while you slept? When I was a filly, I had to wear a cork on my horn because I kept—"
"Where are my wings?!" Running in circles to look at her back, Sunny felt panic filling her. She took a moment to look up and saw her horn still there. "What's happening? Where are Zipp and Pipp? Where's Hitch?!"
"Whoa, I can't believe I'm the pony to do this." Using her horn, Izzy held each of Sunny's cheeks and leaned forward so their noses were touching. "Sunny Starscout, calm your horn!"
Panting hard, Sunny was staring deep into Izzy's eyes.
"Slooooow breathing. In. Out. That's it."
"Where'd my wings go?" Sunny asked.
"Weeeeeell…"
As Izzy drew out the word, Sunny looked at her with more and more hope.
"… I have got literally no idea." When Sunny slumped, Izzy shivered. "Your sparkle just went way dimmer. Look, I don't know, but that doesn't mean nopony knows. Maybe Zipp and Pipp know?"
"Know what?" Pipp asked as she opened the front door, barely hearing the end of Izzy's question.
"Why Sunny's wings disappeared," Izzy said.
Zipp walked through the door after her sister, a confused look on her face. "Uh, what do you mean? They're still there." She gestured at Sunny with a wing.
"Huh?" Turning just her head, Sunny stretched out her golden wings to each side and bounced in place a few times. "They're back! But why did they go?"
"Don't forget where did they go." Izzy reached up with a hoof and gently poked one of the golden wings.
"So," Zipp said, "what you're saying is that you woke up and they were gone, and when we came back they came back?" One of her eyebrows raised slowly over the course of her question, waiting for the other horseshoe to drop.
When none of them got the hint, Zipp looked around the room and spotted a chalkboard. "Okay, let me explain this quick." Walking over to the board, she drew a little picture of a pony with wings and a horn. "This is Sunny. She has magic friendship wings and a magic friendship horn.
"This is Pipp—you can tell because she has her phone out and her wings are limp—"
"Hey!" Pipp frowned at her sister and walked over to the board. "This is Zipp—you can tell because she says mean things and—"
Sunny, a little irrationally, shot a bolt of golden magic from her horn that hit the board and made it spin a few times. "Girls! Please? I'm already freaking out about enough things. You're both amazing in your own ways—you don't need to fight about that."
Biting her lip, Pipp let out a slow sigh. "That hurt."
"Sorry, Pipp. Sometimes you just—I envy how easily you make friends."
"And I envy how easily you can fly. That's really amazing, Zipp. How did you manage to get so—so good so fast?"
Sitting back and watching the sisters make up, Sunny felt an irrational feeling of joy.
"Your sparkle is off the charts now. Bit of a see-saw day for you."
Tilting her head to the side, Sunny looked at Izzy and giggled, smiling so much her eyes squeezed closed. "I just feel so good when ponies are getting along. Zipp and Pipp are—"
"… listening," Pipp said from the other side of Sunny from Izzy.
Giggling, Sunny lifted a hoof up and clopped it against Pipp's raised one. "Well, I was going to say"—she paused to pull a big grin as Pipp used her phone to take a selfie of the three of them—"that you're both very important to me, and I'm pretty sure you're both important to each other, too."
"Pipp always covered for me with Mom. When we were foals, Mom wanted me to be the one who put herself out in the spotlight." Zipp tried to put into words how much her sister meant to her. "And she did so much. I know you like the spotlight, Pipp, but I still think you're my hero. Without you, I wouldn't be able to be me."
Staring at her sister, Pipp read Zipp's expression as pure shell-shock. "I won't say I didn't envy the freedom you had, but I only shone more knowing you were living your best life. That only made it more fun. I couldn't understand at first why you didn't want all the attention. You're my hero, Zipp."
"Wha—?" Zipp shook her head. "How can you say that?"
"Because I know how quickly everything collapsed on me when my 'friends' thought I was a fake."
"And I left you hanging there." New meaning hit Zipp and she hung her head. "I'm sorry."
"You had a good reason—probably the best." Reaching out one of her pillowy wings, Pipp booped Zipp on the nose. "So I forgive you for that. A little embarrassment is a small price to pay to stop faking it and being able to really fly."
Slipping out from between the sisters, Sunny felt bouncy and excited again. "Okay, Izzy, if Zipp's correct with her idea—"
"I am!" Zipp said.
Sunny shot Zipp a smile. "… then we need to test to see if my horn is the same. Do you want to go for a walk and then come back? We can see if my horn goes away and, I guess, get an idea how close I need to be to keep it."
"Why don't we all go out for a walk and test this?" Izzy bounced on all fours to the door. "Oooh! We could get smoothies!"
"Izzy, you can't live off Sunny's smoothies." Walking up to her friend, Zipp followed Izzy out the front door into the bright morning.
Tapping her chin, Izzy narrowed her eyes at Zipp. "Are you sure of that? I spent a whole year living off grass just to win a bet with Alphabittle. Her smoothies are waaaay better than grass."
"You ate grass?" Pipp couldn't help but wrinkle her nose up at that. Her tone also implied how terrible she considered such a fate was.
"I mixed in some daisies." Tossing her mane around for the sheer fun of it, Izzy felt herself stepping into a prancing stride. "The key was tabasco sauce."
Sunny let out a laugh, then she spotted Hitch down the road a ways, his squad walking at his side as he smiled and greeted everypony on the street. For a moment she realized he was almost the exact opposite of her—everypony respected him and listened to him. Nopony had ever listened to her except for—
"Hitch!" Pipp waved her wing and then spread both to fly toward him as she drew out her phone. "Hope all my Pippsqueaks out there are ready to meet the cutest stallion that ever did a unicorn strut. Get a load of yours truly's new bestie—Hitch Trailblazer. Don't stare too long—take a screenshot, it'll last longer."
Heedless of Pipp's streaming the reunion, Sunny raced up to Hitch and raised her eyebrow. "Hiiitch…" She held up one hoof and wobbled it at him.
After everything that'd happened, Hitch couldn't say no to his foalhood friend. Ignoring Pipp's outstretched phone, he started the ritual along with Sunny. "Up high. Down low. Hitch it to a post."
Sing-songing along, Sunny returned the gestures. "Flip it sunny-side up and on a piece of toast!"
"Pippsqueaks! Did you see that? Friends since they were foals, heroes of Zephyr Heights, Maretime Bay, and Bridlewood. And look at her wings! It's too much!" Pipp spiraled around until she landed against Zipp, her phone camera flipped around for a selfie. "Okay, guys, I love you lots and I'm sorry it's a short one today. Gotta go. Pipp-Pipp-hooray!"
Not moving away from her sister, Zipp peeked over Pipp's shoulder as she put her phone away. "You're still doing this for them?"
"Doing it for us, too. Can you imagine how crazy it will get if we go back there after not saying a word for weeks? Can you imagine how they'd treat Sunny if we don't show them how amazing she is? How pony she is?" Pipp, compulsively, pulled her phone back out to check her numbers. They were down, of course, but she was surprised how many pegasi were watching her stream when they could just fly instead.
"Wait." Zipp carefully moved away from Pipp and turned to face her. "You mean to tell me you're being her—her publicist?"
"Yes. She needs one. I'll have to talk to Mom about getting the unicorns and earth ponies phones." This, of course, gave Pipp an excuse to pull her phone out again and start tapping away a text to their mother. "You should get a phone."
"I don't need one."
"Sure you do. Everypony needs a—"
"I have you."
Pipp froze in her typing and looked at her big sis. For a fraction of a second a million snappy comebacks raced through her head. She discarded all the barbs, smiled, and shrugged. "I guess you do."
Izzy rushed over to the smoothie stand, used her horn to make a bench to sit on, and parked her unicorn butt down. When the window lifted up to reveal Sunny, Izzy tapped her forehooves on the edge excitedly. "How many flavors do you have?"
"All of them." Sunny was busy getting cups ready and giving everything a quick wipe down. "What will you have?"
Wiggling with excitement, Izzy sent a blast of fireworks from her horn. "All of them!"
Hitch jumped up beside Izzy, trusting her to keep the seat there. "You want to try the rainbow, then. Trust me, it's the best." He didn't so much as blink when his squad jumped up onto the seat beside him.
Figuring she knew what both of them wanted, Sunny started making up two rainbow smoothies. "We might have figured something out about my wings and horn."
"Really?" Hitch asked.
"I, Izzy Moonbow, have full control over Sunny's magic horn!" Izzy tried to cackle, but it came out more like a giggle and she almost lost focus on the magic bench they were sitting on.
Hitch stared at Izzy for a moment, still not completely used to her Izzyioms. "What? Really?"
"Maybe. I woke up without my wings"—
Izzy interrupted to say, "She had a big ol' freak-out, too."
"It wasn't a—It doesn't matter. The thing was that when Pipp and Zipp came back inside, I got my wings back. Zipp figured it had something to do with proximity."
"Serve Izzy first." Hitch gestured for Sunny to give the first smoothie to Izzy, whose eyes lit up before she kissed him on the cheek. "Y-Y-You're welcome." Shaking his head while Izzy seemed determined to drink the whole thing in one go, Hitch tried to get back on track. "If that's the case, that might be dangerous for you to fly."
It was right then that Hitch felt his comfortable, unicorn-furnished seat become completely non-existent. His instincts kicked in and he reached out with one hoof to grab his little friends in a hug while he grabbed for Izzy with his other. "What's wrong? Did the magic vanish again? Where did the seat go? Are you okay, Izzy?"
"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! It's too cold!" Suffering from her first ice cream headache, Izzy clutched at her head with both hooves, barely aware that Sunny had used her own magic to secure her cup.
"Drink this. It's cold, but not as cold as a smoothie." Still holding Izzy's cup with her magic, Sunny quickly filled an empty cup with soda and passed it over.
Not able to think straight, and trusting her friend, Izzy took a big gulp of the cool soda and froze—or rather, she un-froze. "Wow, that works fast! Thanks!"
"Just go a little slower. If the top of your mouth gets too cold from the ice cream, that'll happen again." Passing Izzy back her smoothie with her magic, Sunny passed Hitch his own with her hoof.
Taking her smoothie back, Izzy realized Hitch was still holding her up from falling on her rear. Focusing her magic into being again, she remade the bench for them to sit on. "It's really good, and your sparkle gets even brighter when you made them."
"Strawberry for me, please," Zipp said, slipping up beside Izzy.
"Mango here, please." Pipp gave her wings a little fluffing as she sat down. "So, when are you going to test Izzy's horn-thing?"
Zipp cut in before Sunny could answer. "I was thinking. You should do a few tests. How far away it takes for your horn to disappear, how far for it to come back, and also if putting things between you changes that." When all four of her friends stared at her, Zipp only sat a bit straighter. "What?"
"They're just getting reminded that you aren't just a brave and sporty pegasus princess," Pipp said.
"Let's have our smoothies first, then talk business on our way back to Sunny's lighthouse." Nudging the day back on its rails, Hitch took his first suck on his own smoothie and had to remind himself that this was the reason Sunny's was the only game in town.
The walk back to her home felt both good and somber for Sunny. She looked up from time to time—still expecting to see the spire of the lighthouse—and felt another little stab in her heart. There was only one thing that kept her walking toward the wreckage of her foalhood home. Well, there was four things. "Thank you."
Hitch knew what his friend was thanking them for right away—it was just one of those things friends got. "Sunny, we'll always be here for you. Phyllis is up there, do you feel like you can talk to her now?"
Looking up, Sunny spotted the mare and didn't feel anything but joy. Lifting her legs into a prance, she trotted up to Phyllis. "Hi!"
"Sunny—" Biting her lower lip for a moment, Phyllis let out a sigh. "We haven't always seen eye-to-eye, but I hope you will accept my help with mending what my son and—and I did?" She couldn't deny that on the side of Sprout's machine was stamped the logo of her company.
There was some anger about the destruction of her home, but Sunny drew it up and examined it, piece by piece, before casting it aside. None of it was useful to her or Phyllis. "It's alright. This is—this is exactly what I wanted. The price is—is steep, but I'd pay it again to keep us all together as friends." She turned her focus from the destroyed building to Phyllis and gave her a smile. "I'm just glad you came around."
"I'll have some ponies bring you equipment to rebuild with, and I can get Sprout's mach—"
"No. No I need to remember this, and ponies need to remember this. We can't have this happen again." Turning to look at her friends, Sunny felt a new certainty fill her. This was right. "We have magic and friendship, nothing can stop us as long as we remember that."
Izzy was the first to step up beside Sunny, but before she'd even reached her best friend the others were moving. "As if we could forget friendship when you're so sparkly with it?"
With their friendship affirmed, the five started. It was up to Izzy to weld the stonework back together with her magic. She skipped and bounced, pronked and gamboled around the ground floor of the building, her magic lancing out and rubbing away the cracks, holes, and broken stonework.
"Hey, you know what I could do with those arms from Sprout's machine?" Zipp flew down to one to inspect it. "Hey, Sunny, can you straighten these bits out and then tilt them all like windmill blades?"
Pipp and Hitch were left with the task of finding all the bits of stonework for the lighthouse tower. Though the light of their friendship burned bright within each of them, when Pipp opened her mouth and started singing, it was akin to doubling their magic potential.
Moving to the tune that Pipp was singing, Hitch couldn't stop his body from bouncing along even when picking up the stones that now seemed so light. Hefting one up, he tossed it onto his back when he heard Pipp's song falter as she gasped. "What's wrong?"
"Sunny! Is carrying huge weights an earth pony thing?" Pipp asked, pumping her wings for altitude to see Sunny over the body of the house they were repairing.
"'Huge'?" Hitch asked. He turned his head and looked at what felt like a smallish rock—only to see a huge section of three big bricks still together that looked about as heavy as Sprout's robot had been. "H-H-Huge…"
Landing beside Hitch, who seemed frozen at the sight of the stones on his back, Sunny stared at him in surprise. "Uh, Izzy? Are you using magic on Hitch?"
Pronking her way out a window of the house, Izzy looked at Hitch and couldn't help but smile as wide as she could. She looked past the huge rock and stunned expression to see how much he glowed. "You have so much sparkle!"
When he wasn't immediately crushed, Hitch managed to calm himself down. He was carrying enough weight that he should be smear on the ground—heck, he knew full well his legs should be sunk up to his belly in the ground with it, but he felt— "Izzy? Can you lift this off my back so I can have a proper freak-out?"
Turning her attention away from Hitch and to the stones on him, Izzy stuck her tongue out the corner of her snout to help concentrate and— "It's too heavy for me. You'll have to put it down."
"How?"
Izzy tilted her head to the side to attempt to solve the problem from a different angle. "Well you need to—Oh!" She turned to look at Pipp. "Another song?"
Pipp was beaten to creating a tune by Zipp, who found a piece of thin wood and started beating out a rhythm with her forehooves. The sisters looked at each other, nodded, and got to work.
The music was more forceful than Pipp's solo. It grabbed Hitch's body and had him moving and swaying to the beat. With little more than a stray thought he reached back over his shoulder and slid the rock down his foreleg and to the ground at his side. Just to test out his newfound strength, Hitch reached a hoof out and picked the rubble back up, turned it, and put it back down.
Leaving off on the timber, Zipp walked over to Hitch and smirked at him. "Looks like you didn't miss out on the magic after all."
"How am I this strong? It's impossible!" Hitch spun around to stare at Sunny—who was using her wings to hover just above the ground. It was sobering to remember that with magic, anything seemed possible. "Isn't it?"
With Pipp leaving off her tune, Sunny landed and walked up to Hitch. "It's magic, Hitch. All I know is that life is better with it. Everypony is special now. There's nothing that you can't do."
In the last two days everypony but him had seemed amazing. Hitch had watched Pipp and Zipp fly, Izzy do amazing magic, and Sunny do both. Looking at his hooves it sank in that he had something special too. But that shouldn't just be him, then. "Yeah, but is this an earth pony thing?"
"Hey, you're really working on that detective thing, aren't ya?" Zipp shot Hitch one of her best grins and a brief flicker of her eyebrows.
Gesturing at Zipp, Hitch winked. "You betcha. So, Sunny, want to try picking it up?"
Looking between her friends, Sunny finally settled her focus on the huge hunk of lighthouse brick Hitch had been lifting. "I mean, I could probably do it with my horn."
"That'd be cheat—ing!" Izzy bounced around to the opposite side of the stonework. Looking over the stones, she also pulled a funny, strained face. "And besides, I can't lift it either."
Sunny watched as Izzy's horn flared with magic and, sure enough, she wasn't able to lift the rocks. "Okay, so I just lift them and—" It was meant to show them that it was impossible. She'd reached under one corner of the huge brickwork and picked it up—with one hoof. "Uh… How am I doing this?"
"Magic," Izzy said, making spooky gestures at her friend.
"Hold up! I wasn't streaming this!" It never got old how easy it was for Pipp to just flick her wings and suddenly be shot through the air to where she needed to be. In this case, that was right beside Sunny with her phone out and positioned just right.
The magic that was all Pipp's took hold of Sunny and despite the massive load she was holding, she broke into a big smile and looked at the camera of Pipp's phone.
"Just me chilling with Sunny while she picks up half a house, Pippsqueaks!" Describing the scene out loud as she typed it into her phone, Pipp bounced on her hooves as she sent the captioned pic to her social media accounts.
Sunny shook her head to dispel the effect of Pipp taking a picture, only casually remembering she was holding a huge hunk of her home. Spreading her golden wings, Sunny took to the sky still carrying what should be an impossible load.
Pipp was not going to miss this time. She hit Go Live on her phone and turned it so Sunny could be seen over her shoulder. "Hey, Pippsqueaks! Follow-up up stream for that last pic. Look at Sunny go! Those wings are gorgeous!"
Zipp jumped into the air and shot like a missile toward where Sunny was carrying the huge hunk of her home. "Hey, you need somepony to help line it up?"
"Thanks, Zipp." The truth was Sunny didn't. This was her house and she knew where every brick needed to be. She could have described everything with her eyes closed. But, she'd confirmed recently, it was always better to have a friend helping. "Keep an eye on the mortar joint there. I need it to line up with—"
"I got you, Sunny. A bit this way. Down a bit. I think this side is straight, what about over there?" Not waiting, Zipp flicked her wings and banked around the rock to the other side and spotted that—it was perfectly lined up. "You know exactly where this needs to go, don't you?"
"This is my house, Zipp. I grew up here. I spent hours running a hoof along every inch of this. I know where the grout is weaker because I got bored one day and worked a stick into it. I know how it all goes back together." Closing her eyes, Sunny let the weight of the huge hunk of her home settle before a golden flash that superimposed itself even on her eyelids.
When Sunny Starscout opened her eyes, the section looked perfectly attached to the supporting wall under it. There was a softly glowing white line where the two pieces met, but she was happy with that—it reminded her of what had happened to her home.
"You've got the wings, the horn, the strength—do you even need us, Sunny?" Zipp asked.
Glancing back at their other friends—spotting Pipp and waving to her while she filmed—Sunny turned back to Zipp. "Do I need the help of my friends? Always. I can fly now, but I can't fly anywhere as fast as you can or as elegantly as Pipp. Izzy's magic is so much more amazing, and I'll never figure out how Hitch manages to not only put up with me, but keep up with me, and show me how to be flexible and grow."
Watching Hitch as he practiced his unicorn walk with Izzy, Zipp nodded. "You know, I thought he was going to be a problem when I first met him. He seemed like the kinda guy to grab your legs and pull you back from problems you want to solve."
"He was." Sunny couldn't help remembering her dark moment before she'd met Izzy for the first time. "But like I said, he worked around his prejudice."
"Yeah, but everypony did. The difference"—Zipp landed on the edge of the brickwork, one wing out for balance while the other pointed at Hitch—"is that he did it without the shock of all this fighting and destruction. He just let go of it." She let the words hang there before going on. "He also learned that pegasi and unicorns are ponies too. You think he has a thing for my sister?"
Sunny snorted and shook her head. "Hitch has a thing for bouncy music he can dance to, Zipp. If you came up with a musical number, he'd be looking at you like that, too." She searched around for the next piece—one she knew would go beside the current block.
Zipp figured out what Sunny was doing and jumped, catching her weight on her wings. Every time she took off a little different, but every time it was the best feeling in the whole world. She didn't even shout I can fly! every time she did it—though the urge was there.
Realizing Zipp was looking for the next piece too, Sunny spread her own wings and flew up to join her. "It needs to be about a third the size of the last one, so it can fit in that gap beside it."
"Over there, then." Zipp pointed with a hoof at the right piece. She didn't expect Sunny to zoom around her in a tight spiral, spreading golden light everywhere. "What are you—?"
Sunny kept circling her friend, showering magic everywhere to show off how much Zipp meant to her. She let out a laugh of pure exuberance and did a quick roll under and then over Zipp.
It was impossible for Zipp to resist laughing along, and seeing her friend enjoying flying so much sparked her own need to do more than just hover. Flying spirals and twists with Sunny, she closed her eyes and used the air itself to feel out her friend and keep up with her.
"Are they just flying around for the fun of it?" Hitch looked over at Izzy and realized she was a lost case—staring up at the two flying friends.
Pipp, with her phone tilted up and filming, gave Hitch a nod. "Check it out, Pippsqueaks. More magic than you've ever seen before! Aren't they just amazing?"
For Izzy, seeing her friends burning through the sky—their sparkle almost searing her vision—was the greatest sight she could hope for. She felt her own sparkle surging as a result and, from the corner of her eye, she saw Pipp glowing bright. "Hitch, you don't need an invitation to glow up, you know."
When Hitch turned to look at Izzy, to ask her what she meant, he was surprised when she kissed his cheek. Eyes widening, he was about to ask her why she'd done it when she giggled.
Izzy barely managed to interrupt her giggles to say, "There you go. Was that so hard?"
In a blushing panic, Hitch started to just toss masonry onto the walls willy-nilly. Izzy laughed outright and started zapping them with magic as they landed, binding them in place. Pipp turned her camera to the new sight and, when Zipp and Sunny dove to take a look, they all got involved in the haphazard new method for building a lighthouse.
By the time they lifted the top of the lighthouse on and Izzy's magic locked it in place, the building was a mess of shapes. Brickwork was sideways, upside down, and inside out in various places—but despite that the building stood and it had the right shape.
Staring up at the manic construction work, Sunny tried to make sense of the chaos.
"I-I'm sorry, Sunny." Hitch walked up and stood beside her, his focus on the crazy construction.
"We got a little carried away." Izzy took Sunny's other flank, looking up at the building too.
"No. No, this is perfect." Sunny spread her wings and flew up, then around her lighthouse. It didn't resemble what her father had left for her, but that was okay. "This is better. Don't you see? This is just like our friendship!"
Zipp was more a realist than her sister, but she could follow Sunny's logic—not that it dampened her sarcasm. "I thought our friendship was a bit more… sane?"
Not one to leave a good line alone, Hitch snorted. "Friendship is the glue that binds the gears of—" When a jolt from Izzy hit his flank, Hitch jumped. "Hey!"
"No. I get it." Pipp spread her wings and let the air lift her into a spiral around the lighthouse. "For all our flaws and uniqueness, our friendship binds us into—into exactly what magic needed. What do you think, Pippsqueaks? How do your friendships make you feel?"
With everypony gathered at the front door, Sunny reached out with her hoof and opened it. The sight of the still-destroyed living room made her chest tighten. When she couldn't hold back a sob, a pair of soft wings covered her—one from each side of her. With a glance to Zipp and then Pipp, she let out another few sobs and wiped her eyes with her foreleg. "I'm okay, it's just—"
Izzy was a little upset, herself. Upset that the world wouldn't be kind to her friends, Izzy pouted and looked around the room. When she'd first visited, she'd memorized every little detail. "Fix it!"
Even Sunny, the only remaining member of their group with a horn, backed away from the blast of Izzy's magic. There was the smell of ozone mixed with slightly singed hair that spoke of truly powerful unicorn magic—or at least, so Sunny and her friends had noticed when Izzy did magic. When the spell finished, Izzy backed up and tapped her chin. "Needs more—" A second blast followed the first, but its duration was only a fraction of a second. "Taa-daaaaaaaaa!"
Sunny stepped in and froze in the doorway. Just like the outside, things weren't exactly right indoors, but everything—absolutely everything—was there and had a touch of Izzy about it. "Izzy, this is amazing."
"Well, I couldn't go leaving the job half-done." Izzy snorted and walked over to the counter in the kitchen, reaching her hoof up and polishing the surface. The bowl, with the empty can of beans (and some of the beans), was still there from where Sunny had cleaned it up just before they'd made their getaway.
Sunny walked over and picked the bowl up—or tried to. "Uh, Izzy?" The bowl was part of the bench, the can of beans were part of the bowl, and each lovingly rendered bean was solid, some kind of crazy matter, that was likewise a part of the bowl.
Seeing a pattern, Sunny walked over to the flowers she'd had on a side table. Just like the bowl, the flowers were part of the vase and the vase part of the table. The water inside was solid, but wasn't ice. "You're really amazing, Izzy." She tried not at all to hide her smile.
"It looks a-maze-ing!" Pipp prance-walked into the room and turned her phone around. "Imagine it, Pippsqueaks, just moments ago this whole place had been ruined! Look at it now!" Reading all the comments flowing by on one side of her screen, Pipp flipped the camera to front-facing and gave her fans a huge grin. "Isn't unicorn magic amazing?"
Zipp was distracted from the room by Pipp's comment. She remembered her sister saying she was going to be working on Sunny's image, but this was directly improving the way pegasi saw unicorns. She waited for her sister to sign-off with her usual patter before bumping her with a wing. "You're doing great, Pipp."
"Just trying to help ponies feel compassion and empathy for their fellow ponies, you know?" Pipp was bubbling with joy inside. Her sister had never connected with her about her fans and following before. It had always been an annoyance to Zipp—or so it had seemed.
Pipp smiled at seeing her friends examining the slightly unusual room. "Hey, you should do streams of your flying."
"Huh? Why would anypony want to watch that?" Zipp asked.
Rolling her eyes, Pipp bumped her sister back with her wing. "Oh, I don't know, maybe the fact that every pegasus is now learning to fly again except for two—you and me—and of the two of us only you have been practicing stunt-flying for… How long have you had that contraption?"
"You mean the flying thing I was telling you about?"
"Yes."
Zipp shrugged her shoulders as she remembered back. "Just over three years."
"So, of all the pegasi, we have all but two that have never flown before, one who has done wire-gliding stunts, and one who has been training for three years." Pipp leaned on the last two words as heavily as she could, hoping they would reach Zipp's brain. "And you wonder why they'd want to watch how you fly?"
"That was pretty good," Zipp said with a smirk.
"Really?" Pipp fluffed and refolded her wings. "I felt like I pushed a little far."
"What? Nah. You were just leaning on your big sis on account of how she doesn't always look at the bigger picture—no matter how brutally smart she is."
Pipp snorted and gave Zipp a hug. "We cover each other's weaknesses pretty well, don't we?"
"Yeah. Let's do the stream thing and I'll tell my Pippsqueaks to go and take a look. Trust me, you'll be flying so fast you won't need to explain anything—just fly. They'll love it and will start to learn from you." Flicking her front-cam back on, Pipp checked over her mane and face, pursed her lips, then nodded and turned it off again.
Seeing the problem, Izzy looked around the room and noticed why Sunny had said it was her style before even finding the stuck things. The shapes were all perfect, but every now and again she'd used her own favorite colors for things instead of the right ones. "Oooh. I see the problem with the colors. Let me fix—"
Sunny moved fast to interrupt Izzy's spellcasting. "No. Please, Izzy, I like the colors. I just need to work out what to do about the way things are stuck together."
Checking the kitchen appliances, Hitch found the fridge to still be working and the taps worked just fine. "I think the electrics were only damaged above here. Water too." He turned, looking as Sunny tried to detach various items from what they'd been sitting on. "Sunny, have you thought of using your magic?"
"To fix it?" Sunny glanced at Izzy.
Izzy just snorted. "Oh, please. It doesn't take a genius to realize I messed up with the magic. Saying that won't hurt my feelings."
"No," Sunny shook her head and turned to face Izzy—looking into her eyes. "No, Izzy, this has helped remind me of where everything should be. Besides, we need to do the magic together."
Staring for a moment, her eyes widening a little, Izzy let out a delighted laugh and trotted her forehooves in place. "Well, of course it needs to be done together."
"With my memory of how things worked and your memory of what they looked like, we've totally got this. Ready, friend?" Sunny held out her hoof to Izzy.
Clopping Sunny's hoof with her own, Izzy gave a nod. "You got it, friend!"
Hitch stared first at Sunny and Izzy as they both started glowing and rising into the air. Their horns were almost too bright to look at they had so much magic going on, but then a sort of line extended out to each side of them. When they started to turn, everything the lines of magic touched glowed and became right again.
Pipp, yanked out of the conversation with her sister, turned her phone on again and hit the Initialize Stream button. "Pippsqueaks, I've got a special one for you. Unicorn and pegacorn, united in their magic, restoring the whole house to how it'd been. Words can't explain how excited I am."
Feeling excitement and magic rushing through her, Zipp spread her wings and reached out—grabbing the phone from her sister. "Hey, Pippsqueaks, hope you're loving those new wings." She aimed the phone at Izzy and Sunny and then flew in a sideways loop around them, showing the magic working in a full circle before setting the phone back onto her sister's hoof again.
Looking at her screen, Pipp giggled at all the excited emojis flowing past. "In case you missed it, that was my big sister showing off. If you ever wondered why we never saw that much of her, it was because she was practicing using her wings until magic was fixed. Well, she helped fix it, and now you all get to see her showing off her stuff. Tune in tomorrow, Pippsqueaks, for an exclusive—hour-long stream—from Zipp Storm showing how you can all learn to fly! Pipp-Pipp-hooray!"
"'Hour long'?" Zipp asked when Pipp had stopped streaming again.
"You can't fly for a whole hour?"
The challenge in Pipp's question was more than enough to get Zipp's competitive edge up. "Of course I can. I just don't know if your Pippsqueaks won't be turned into Zipp—uh—Zippstorms?"
"No, Zipp, you can't just use your nickname for yourself." Pipp turned her attention back to Sunny and Izzy as their magic spell finally finished. "Hey, you figured it out?"
Sunny, back on the ground again after having worked with Izzy to fix everything, looked around at the four ponies with her. "There's nothing I can't figure out with my best friends here."
"You know," Hitch said, a moment before the four mares were set to pile-in for a big hug, "we're probably going to want to add extra bedrooms. You know, for when friends are staying over?"
Izzy looked at Hitch and giggled. "Get in here you big cutie. I've got a hug with your name on it."
Hitch, with absolutely no attempt to resist, was dragged into the group-hug by Izzy's magic.
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