Chapters Queen Haven stood on the coastal street of Maretime Bay, watching from afar as her younger daughter positioned her phone and took a picture of her older daughter, who was posing in front of a movie theater with a unicorn, two earth ponies, a seagull, and Alphabittle's armadillos.
"Stunning!" she heard Pipp claim moments after she looked at the shot she had taken.
"Alright, I don't know about you, sis, but I definitely have to see this movie," Zipp said, nodding up to the large marquee above the theater entrance, showcasing a film called 'Judgement Neigh'.
The celebrating among their newfound unity was nice and all, but truth be told, Zephyr Heights' deposed ruler had other things on her mind. If this rainbow wave had truly reached across the continent, how was their city reacting at this very moment?
She saw a familiar face over by the sidewalk, also looking at the various theater posters showcasing the films the venue was playing.
"Staff Sergeant Zephyrwing," Haven began, approaching the sky blue armored mare.
"What can I do for you, Your Majesty?" the guard replied, giving Haven her complete attention.
"Your honest opinion, Staff Sergeant. With these new revelations, I am honestly wondering if my daughters and I have a home to return to."
Zipp and Pipp had overheard her, and trotted over.
"Yeah, you actually bring up a really good point, mom. Are we fugitives or what, Zoom?" Zipp asked, who had always been less than formal with the royal guards.
"I don't believe I have the knowledge to say, or the authority, for that matter. My squad gave chase after you three pretty quickly, so I can't say how things proceeded in the city, and that was before everypony could fly. I would hope they're more concerned with not colliding into each other in midair."
"I mean, the royal family played a part in getting these crystals and started the reunification of Equestria. That has to count for something, right?" Pipp offered.
"And that's supposed to make up for the years and years of deception?" Haven asked incredulously.
"I mean... Yeah, why wouldn't it? Pegasi can fly again, mom. That's pretty big," Zipp answered.
Haven didn't know quite how to reply. There would be no telling how Zephyr Heights' population, who rose up against them with astonishing speed a couple nights ago, now felt with flight having returned to all pegasi everywhere.
"You know what this calls for?" Pipp said, digging her phone out again and checking the signal and battery life. "An apology video."
"A what?" Zipp asked.
"An apology video. Streamers do it when they've screwed up big time."
"I don't think you've ever had to do one of those before," Zipp quipped.
"First time for everything. But it'll be great for optics. All of Zephyr Heights is no doubt elated right now, so let's take this opportunity to improve our optics, and tell everypony that you and I played a part in getting the magic of flight back to everypony."
Haven stood bewildered, never really having grasped the streaming culture her younger daughter had become almost completely engulfed in.
"Well, sweetheart, I think we'll defer to you here, because you're clearly the expert. Is this video rehearsed, or what?"
"It depends on the situation, and ponies are usually really good at figuring out if you're being sincere, or if you're reading something from a script. So while I don't think it should be live, I don't think it should be rehearsed, either. We need to come clean about the years of deception and the genuine good that we believed it would do."
"But, just how many of us are returning home? I don't know about you, Pipp, but I want to stay in town here with Sunny, Izzy, and Hitch," Zipp interjected.
"Yeah, me too, but we should at least find out if we have a home to go back to when we need to go back there," Pipp replied, as she began to go into her phone's camera settings.
"However and wherever we're doing this, I'm sure you have to charge that battery, and I'm not going on camera with my mane looking like this. I'm sure there's a stylist around here somewhere..." Haven said as she began to look around for a directory, or a local who could point her in the right direction.
"Hmm, a stylist... You might be onto something there, mom," Pipp said as the seeds of a new idea were implanted in her head.
Zipp glanced towards the glass doors of the movie theater, saw her reflection, and immediately decided that her mane looked fine, so she would just play the waiting game while her mom and sister got themselves ready for the camera, and she now wondered how to keep herself occupied because that could take anywhere from fifteen minutes to half the day. Glancing around, she saw Sunny and Hitch standing over by the former's smoothie cart, still looking up at the streaks of rainbow that were arcing across the sky and over the horizon.
"Hey, Sunny," Zipp called out, trotting across the street to join her friends. "I know the past few hours have been, you know, intense and celebratory, but... Do you have a place to stay?" the pegasus asked.
"Phyllis has already made arrangements," Hitch told her. "CanterLogic is going to pay for a hotel room for as long as it takes for the lighthouse to be rebuilt. I've already got a team of movers getting everything salvageable out before demolition starts."
"Well, that's good news," Zipp replied with a smile.
"What about you, Pipp, and your mom? Do you guys have a place to stay?" Sunny asked.
"We're actually in the process of figuring that out right now. But no matter what Zephyr Heights thinks, I know that I want to stay right here, for now, with you guys."
Sunny smiled warmly at the pegasus.
"I still can barely believe this is happening after envisioning it for so long my entire life. All three pony kinds in the same town, the same street... Getting along."
"Thanks to you," Zipp told her. "You convinced us all to do our part," Zipp said, bringing her hoof up and softly bumped it to Sunny's before putting it to her barrel. "Hoof to heart."
The warm moment was interrupted when the rainbows in the sky suddenly intensified their glows, as the streaks of multicolored light began pulsing back towards the remnants of the lighthouse, and Hitch, Sunny, and Zipp could swear they felt a tingly warmth underneath their hooves.
"Wh-what's going on?" Sunny asked, alarmed.
"Look!" Hitch said, pointing back towards the hills. The pegasi and two earth ponies immediately began to gallop down the coastal street towards the damaged lighthouse, as the rainbows overhead continued to ebb and pulse brighter...
Zipp, Hitch, and Sunny headed down Maretime Bay's coastal roadway at a full gallop, their hooves thumping the ground as the paved road gave way to the dirt path heading towards the white beam of light that was currently shining out from the damaged lighthouse. The rainbow trails spread out across the sky continued to ebb and pulse towards it, almost as if they were being... Sucked in towards it?
"What's going on? Is this being caused by the crystals?" Hitch asked as he ran.
"Those things didn't exactly come with a manual, Sheriff" Zipp replied as she kept pace with her friends.
As they made the right turn to make the gradual climb up the hill to the lighthouse, their attention was again pulled upward, as they noticed the rainbow trails end as the last of them were pulled inwards towards the pillar of white light. The moment the last multi-colored stream disappeared, the light grew in intensity and size, to the point where the trio of ponies had to skid to a halt and shield their eyes.
After about a half minute, the blinding light on the edge of their periphery died down, and they collectively lowered their forelegs from their eyes.
"Oh, my stars..." Sunny said, refusing to have her breath taken away as they immediately resumed galloping towards what looked like a brand new, fully intact lighthouse. The trio of ponies crested the hill, and came to a halt for a second time as they beheld the crystal and glass structure. Blooming cherry blossom trees stood around the structure, their rich pink branches reaching above the rooftop.
"That's not something you see every day," Hitch commented.
The four movers who had been in the process of removing Sunny's intact belongings from the house stood in shock over by the organized pile of what they had removed from the premises so far.
"Are you all alright?" She asked, coming up to them.
"We're fine. We have no idea what happened, Sunny" the head mover replied, a gray earth pony. "Those crystals that were floating in the sky suddenly moved towards where the top of the lighthouse used to be, then that beam shot out into the sky. We got most of your stuff out, pretty much the only things we missed was furniture and appliances, things we hadn't unhooked and unplugged yet."
Indeed, all the rubble and debris that had been scattered around by Sprout's rampage were gone.
The structure roughly resembled Maretime Bay's old lighthouse that had been heavily damaged the night before; a two-story crystal house with a two-tier glass lighthouse. The front doors were considerably more elegant, with two tall deep pink doors replacing the single one, with gold horseshoes as handles. Surrounding the front doors was a simply stunning stained glass display, depicting a pegasus, a unicorn, Zephyr Heights, Bridlewood, and at the very top above the door, the lighthouse itself.
"Whoa..." the group heard behind them, turning to see Izzy come up to them. "Now that's the biggest glow-up yet! Talk about a bright lighthouse! No, no... A brighthouse! " the unicorn exclaimed.
"Should we... Go in?" Hitch asked, glancing left and right at his friends.
Sunny shrugged.
"I don't see why not," the earth pony mare said with a smile, barely being able to contain her excitement. Maybe she wouldn't even have to spend a single night in a hotel room. Step by step, they approached the front door, and Hitch motioned for Sunny to be the pony to do the honors; it had, after all, been her house. She took a breath, took a step forward, and pushed the double doors open, and this time, her breath was positively taken away.
Two short steps descended into the foyer, with multi-colored crystal tiles making up the floor. The walls were painted a sky blue. The kitchen on the right side was roughly in the same place it had been originally, with a bit more space this time around.
Instead of stairs off on the left side wall, two spiral ramps made of crystal and polished wood provided access to the second floor. Sunny ascended the curving walkway and her smile widened further when she saw all of the available space on the second floor, where the elevator to the top waited in the center, a rainbow beam shining up out of the glass cylinder.
"This... This is way too much room for just me. This is for all of us, I just know it," Sunny commented, turning around to the three friends who had accompanied her inside. "We can get five beds in here with room to spare!"
She got smiles and nods from her friends, who were realizing that with that idea, they now all suddenly had a place to stay in Maretime Bay as well. Izzy's grin was the widest as the opportunities for unicycling was expanding in her mind by the millisecond.
Not wanting to get too far ahead of herself, she stepped towards the elevator with her friends, and once they were all on the platform, it rose effortlessly up to the top of the lighthouse. There, just above the heads of all of them, in the middle of the rainbow beam, floated the three unity crystals. The view from the balcony provided the same spectacular view of both the ocean and Maretime Bay.
"So, what now, Sunny? Shopping spree? I can pretty much guarantee that CanterLogic will be footing the bill for whatever furnishings we get for this place. Not to mention it will likely be cheaper than however many months you were going to be spending in a motel," the sheriff told his friend as she looked out over their town.
Sunny turned back towards the elevator, and her eyes locked with the crystals that floated inside the sparkling rainbow beam.
"That sounds like a terrific way to spend the afternoon. And Zipp?" she paused, turning to the white pegasus. "You might want to get a hold of your mom and sister; I think we have the perfect setting for whatever apology video Pipp is thinking up."
"You pretty much do this for a living, how much longer is this going to take?" Zipp asked, as she stood by waiting with her mom as Pipp got her phone set up on a tripod on the top floor of the new Crystal Brighthouse. Sunny, Izzy, and Hitch decided to leave them to do their thing, and went into town to look at furnishings for their new place to live.
"Yeah, and this won't be livestreamed; we have to get closer to home before I can upload it, so I want to make sure the lighting is right," Pipp replied, as she slowly slid her hoof across the screen.
Each of them were a little worried that they'd be headed back towards home before they'd even have a clue if this apology video would have any kind of effect. It had been decided that no matter what happened, all three of them would head back to Zephyr Heights so Zipp and Pipp could pack up some personal items, since they would effectively be moving to Maretime Bay for the foreseeable future. If this was positively received, there might be some kind of sendoff parade for them.
But right now, it was one step at a time, so they stood patiently while Pipp made the adjustments that she needed to. There would be no rehearsed speeches, just an impassioned explanation as to why they made the decisions that they had, and to ask for forgiveness. They had both told their mom to mentally prepare to move down to Maretime Bay with them if the Zephyr Heights populace no longer wanted anything to do with them.
"Alright, I think we're finally ready," Pipp announced, tapping a button on the side of her phone before joining her mom and sister in front of the Unity Crystals.
"Hello, not just to the Pippsqueaks, but to all of Zephyr Heights. I'm here with my family, because we want to clear the air, and offer an explanation for why we did what we did. So, to acknowledge the winged cat that is certainly out of the bag, yes, we created the farce that the royal family retained the ability to fly, which was exposed at my concert a few nights ago."
Haven took a step forward.
"We don't come from a family of royals, but from stage performers. We hired the best stagehands in the city, and swore them to secrecy, after they agreed that it helped give all of you a sense of hope. That was wrong, and all three of us are ready to admit that now. We are very sorry, and by the time you see this, we will be on our way back to Zephyr Heights."
Zipp cleared her throat.
"I won't mince words, my reluctance to appear in my sister's livestreams, as well as shrugging off royal duties my mom has continuously attempted to pass down to me, has made it clear that I've always gone my own way; usually down to the abandoned airship docks to practice my gliding. I'm thrilled that I, and all pegasi everywhere, are now going to be able to do a lot more than that," the older sibling stated.
"I will accept any punishment Zephyr Heights sees fit to pass down," Haven began again. "I only beg you not to blame my daughters or stagehands for their part in deception. They were acting under my orders. The responsibility for that farce lies entirely with me."
Queen Haven took a deep breath, preparing what she had to say last of all.
"Lastly, flight was ultimately restored to our kind because of cooperation, forgiveness, and unity. By letting go of the past. So if our city allows it, I will willingly and proudly resume my duties to Zephyr Heights, if you will have me. Again, we are very sorry for the choices we made, and hope to be able to move forward from here. Thank you."
With that, Pipp stepped forward and shut off the video.
"So why do you have to wait to get closer to post that?" Zipp asked.
"No signal this far away," Pipp answered. "I'm sure that'll get rectified once we get signal towers here in Maretime Bay and Bridlewood. I'm sure there's quite a bit of technology sharing that everypony is going to be able to do."
"Should we try and find the others in town so we can say goodbye for a few days?"
"Sounds like a plan. Getting back home shouldn't even take half a day with these," Pipp said, fluttering her wings. "Although let's not bank on that. Zoom and Thunder are coming with, and let's not pretend that our endurance matches yours, sis."
Zipp smirked as the trio began to head downstairs, stepping onto the levitating platform that lowered them down to the second floor.
"I'm almost jealous of you two, being able to move into a place like this. So shiny, so new," Queen Haven commented as they made their way down to the ground floor. As they opened the front doors and stepped out onto the front walk, and wouldn't have to go far, as they saw Sunny, Izzy, and Hitch coming up the hill, with the sheriff puling a large wagon covered with a canvas cover.
"Well, that didn't take long," Zipp commented. "What ya got under there?"
"Well, after we got the couch moved in, Izzy decided she wanted to try making as much furniture for us as she could. So, that's what we've got in here. Building materials."
"Unicycling!" Izzy cheered.
"You three taking off?" Hitch asked.
"As soon as we go get Zoom and Thunder, yeah. We should be back in a few days, well, me and Pipp will," Zipp said.
Sunny came forward and hugged her two friends.
"Hurry back," she said, squeezing them, before releasing them and stepped over to Queen Haven.
"Your Majesty... Best of luck. If things don't go well, you're always welcome here. We'll find a place for you," Sunny assured her.
"I appreciate that, Sunny. I really do," Haven replied.
With that, the trio of pegasi trotted down the dirt path towards downtown Maretime Bay. As Hitch took the wagon through the front doors, Sunny stood and watched as the two armored pegasi guards met their charges by the coastal street, then all five of them took to the sky.
"Come back soon, friends."
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Pipp took a deep breath, before slipping her phone back into her easily accessible front pocket on her left saddlebag.
"Alright, it's up. Now to just... Wait, and hope," Pipp commented.
The royal family had flown most of the way along with Zoom and Thunder, but once Pipp got a signal on her phone to begin the apology video's upload, they descended to the ground to continue at a slower pace.
Pipp remembered what Zipp had told her after their escape from Zephyr Heights a few days ago.
'Look, once we get our magic back, the whole kingdom will be so excited they won't even remember what happened back there. You'll be a hero, Pipp.'
Seeing as how they just recorded and uploaded a video that reminded everypony of 'what happened back there', Zipp didn't look quite as confident as she did when she had first said them. All three of them were undoubtedly nervous, and they knew why; because no matter what they said, how they said it, and how unrehearsed it was, the pegasi of Zephyr Heights still had every single right to be livid at them.
The cityscape of their hometown loomed in the distance, and they'd likely be able to spot pegasi in the sky if it wasn't for the heavy cloud cover which was pretty common most days this time of year. As they began to make their way up the mountain path, they saw an airborne pegasus pass overhead, and were pretty sure they spotted them down on the ground, because they saw the pony do a 180 and zip back into the city.
"Did they spot us?" Pipp asked.
"Does it really matter?" Zipp asked in return.
Pipp took another deep breath, and the group continued on their way up the path. As they closed in on the final turn before the gates, they definitely heard chatter you would expect from a large crowd, and sure enough, when they rounded the bend to the main gates, there was hordes of pegasi in the streets, and dozens upon dozens of eyes immediately laid upon the royal family and their two escorts.
Zipp winced as the voices grew to shouting, and she heard pounding hoof steps so great that she felt the ground vibrate. Certain that they were about to be trampled, she did a double take as nothing happened, her sister tapped her on the back, and the white pegasus realized that her eyes had been closed. She opened them, and they immediately widened in surprise.
They weren't shouting. Well, not exactly. They were cheering. And the pounding hooves wasn't a galloping stampede, but cheering. Smiles slowly grew on the three royal faces as habit slowly returned to their minds, and they began to wave as they stood just inside the gateway of Zephyr Heights. They stood on ceremony like that for a few moments until they were approached by a pair of ponies that they were all too familiar with; Dazzle and Skye, ZBS's most popular reporters, along with a camerapony.
"Greetings to everypony who was understandably unable to join the immense crowds out here in the west gates of Zephyr Heights," Dazzle began. "The moment you've all been waiting for is here; our royal family has come home!"
Cheers once again erupted from the surrounding crowd, and the reporters paused to let them get it out, before they quieted down once again.
"That's right, Dazzle," Sky said. "They uploaded an apology video for all of us just minutes ago, and we can now tell them, face to face, that it wasn't needed. Queen Haven, Princesses Zephyrina and Pipp..."
Both reporters turned to the trio of royals.
"What you did was wrong, but you returned something to the pegasi that we had lost for generations, and when we stopped to think about it, that absolutely more than makes up for your actions. Your Majesty, you were really quite impeccable at managing the day-to-day operations of our city, so to answer your proposal in the video, the Zephyr Heights City Council has voted unanimously to welcome you back."
Haven's expression was clearly touched, which brought on another wave of cheers from the citizens of their city.
"So what do you say?" Dazzle asked.
Haven took one last look at her daughters, only to get soft nods from them, and she turned back to Sky and Dazzle, and gave them, and the surrounding ponies a nod of confirmation.
The streets of Zephyr Heights cheered again, and a good amount of the ponies were clearly prepared with streamers and confetti poppers, some even taking to the sky before releasing them, and Haven winced as she saw a couple collisions as the airborne celebrators weren't watching where they were going. The pairs faltered before clumsily coming back down ot the ground.
"Yeah, to say we need some help would be an understatement," Skye commented. "Princesses, we know you two are going to be headed back to Maretime Bay to move in with your new friends, but we'd love to plan you a proper send-off as you're getting ready to leave. It's the least we can do."
Pipp was truly taken aback. Here they had taken the time and trouble of putting together that heartfelt apology video, and Zephyr Heights was so elated with getting their flight back that they were already asking what they could do for them before they left.
Fighting back tears, Pipp merely nodded in thanks, and Zipp took a step forward.
"I know it won't take long for me to pack, so maybe I could give some pointers on how to fly safely. I've only been practicing gliding most of my life. But that right there is why we're going to need to spread out to the surrounding area, because we're all going to need space to practice, to lower the risk of us hurting each other by knocking into each other in midair. Pipp and I will be here a few days at the very least, so I'll go through some of my material and see what I can come up with, but honestly, it probably won't be much. Gliding is just falling slowly with style, when it comes to flight, I'm just as new to it as you all are."
Dazzle smiled at her.
"I'm sure we'll take whatever help you can give us. Welcome home, royal family!"
Author's Note
Not quite done just yet, I've been cooking up a short epilogue. Stay tuned, and thanks for reading!
To Haven, the past few days had felt... Odd. A harrowing mix of old and new. On one hoof, she had quickly fallen back into the swing of things when it came to the castle's, and city's, day-to-day, feeling like she had almost never left. On the other hoof, she did feel like this was a fresh start, and that she was stepping into these halls for the very first time.
Zipp and Pipp were busy packing what they wanted to take back to Maretime Bay with them, and true to what they said, the Parade Planning Committee was already hard at work putting together a sendoff for the two royal siblings. Haven had seen them put together some celebrations quickly, but this one would be one for the books if they actually pulled it off; her daughters would be here for about two or three days, and no longer. They were both rather eager to get back and have their hooves in decorating the new lighthouse.
As for the queen herself, she was hoping getting back into the insanely busy routine that being the city's royal ruler had would help melt away the lingering guilt of the farce she and her family had pulled. Probably the most pressing matter was to figure out some kind of traffic flow for the airspace above the city; once the celebration had wound down, she took a moment to look at the reports, and hospitalizations in the city had tripled because of admissions for midair collisions and injuries. For now, the quickest solution was to urge the populace to stay on the ground within city limits, and to practice their flying in the surrounding canyons and mountains.
Turning the next corner, Haven came up to the large double doors of the throne room. The guards present came to attention and opened the doors for her. The large room on the other side was empty, save for a mail delivery pony who was waiting by the throne. She was noticed immediately by the sound of the doors opening, and he gave a bow as Haven came up.
"Good morning your majesty," the stallion greeted as he came up from the bow.
"Good morning," Haven answered, half-distracted by the item that had been neatly set on the throne; the Zephyr Crown, without the crystal, of course, which now resided at the top of the lighthouse with the other two unity crystals. "What can I do for you, sir?"
"Ah, a unicorn courier dropped this off at our post office, addressed to you, Your Majesty," the courier said, reaching into his saddle bags and pulling out a small canvas pouch. "There we are, and if you'll just sign this right here, confirming delivery..."
The courier pulled out a clipboard and pen, and offered them to the queen. Haven signed it on the dotted line, and the courier took the items back, gave the pouch to the queen, and gave a quick bow before exiting the throne room to resume his rounds.
Haven ascended the steps to the throne, and carefully slid the crown to the side to set the pouch down before unbuttoning the flap and lifted it out of the way, finding a folded letter sticking out of the pocket. Pulling it out, she unfolded it and read silently.
Dear Queen Haven,
I hope you've returned home safely with your family. I tried to put this together as quickly as I could without rushing it. I want this gift to be another step towards unity and cooperation between our tribes.
See you again soon.
Regards, Alphabittle
She smiled, and set the letter down, and reached deeper into the pocket of the canvas pouch, and immediately came into contact with something solid. She withdrew her hoof, and it came out with something that had looked very familiar.
It was a replica of the Pegasus unity crystal, carved out of what looked to be amethyst. A near-perfect replica, she realized upon taking a closer look at it. This was seriously impressive if he only did this in a matter of days, not to mention minus the time it had taken to get over here from Bridlewood.
She picked up the crown, and gently placed the amethyst jewel where the turquoise crystal used to be, and knew she would need assistance in getting it properly mounted to the crown.
"Well, there's my first item for my to-do list!"
