The front door of the Crystal Brighthouse slammed so hard it shook the whole building. Izzy and Zipp both felt their chairs vibrate from the force, and the tower of cards they'd been building collapsed. The cards themselves went flying in all directions, but Izzy's magic snared them easily. A clearly annoyed Zipp looked towards the front door to find out exactly who had disturbed them.
Standing in the doorway, with one hoof holding it open, was Pipp. The pink pegasus had the largest smile anypony had ever seen on her face. In fact, it was so wide, it looked like it was hurting her cheeks just to keep doing it. Her eyes stared straight ahead, like they weren't seeing anything in front of her, and the lower lid of her left eye kept twitching erratically.
"Hi there, Pipp!" said Izzy, in her usual cheerful manner. "How's your day going?"
"Fine. Great. Wonderful," Pipp replied, though her pronunciations were off due to the fact that she kept grinning as she spoke. Her words were strained, like it was causing her physical pain to say them.
Zipp stared at her sister for a few more seconds. Then, all of a sudden, her eyebrows rose, and her wings snapped outwards.
Izzy set the loose cards down on the table, and trotted over to Pipp. "Are you alright?" she asked, tilting her head. "You look like you're—"
She didn't get to finish, as Zipp suddenly rocketed out of her chair, flying over Izzy's head and planting herself right between the two ponies. She raised one foreleg and made a slashing motion across her throat, while shaking her head back and forth. Izzy blinked.
"What? I was just asking—" Zipp clamped a hoof over Izzy's muzzle to silence her.
"Well, if nopony needs me," Pipp continued, still keeping her crazed-looking smile on her face, "I'm going to my room. To sit. Alone." Then she began stomping away, looking almost robotic as she walked.
Izzy and Zipp watched her go, and once she was out of earshot, Zipp released a heavy sigh.
"That was a close one," she said, wiping her forehead off with one leg.
Izzy blinked. "What's wrong?" she asked. "I was only gonna ask Pipp if she was having trouble."
"Yeah, and that's the worst thing to do in this scenario," replied Zipp. "I've seen her in this exact mood before. I know what's going on. Trust me, you don't want to ask her. It's best to just step back and let her work through it on her own."
"But I thought friends were supposed to help each other with their problems," Izzy countered. "Why wouldn't I want to hear Pipp out?"
Zipp shook her head again. "I made that same mistake, once," she replied. "And I paid for it. Just stay away from Pipp for a few hours, please?"
Then she turned and made her way back to the table, probably to attempt to salvage the house of cards the two had been building previously. Izzy, however, made no move to follow her. Instead, she looked down in the hallway, in the direction Pipp had gone. Her saddened frown tensed up, and a determined expression rose onto her face.
"Alright, since we have to start all over, I think we should..." Zipp trailed off, noticing Izzy had left the room. "Oh, no..."
It didn't take Izzy long to find Pipp's room. Initially, the royal pegasus sisters had planned on sharing a room, but the final design of the building had enough to allow them separate ones. The unicorn trotted down to the closed door that was currently covered in various concert posters of Pipp herself. Izzy raised one hoof to knock on the door.
But before she made contact with the wood, a laundry basket suddenly fell from above. Izzy, having barely noticed it coming in time, squeaked in fear and crouched down, getting as small as she could. The basket fell on top of her and covered her completely, but it didn't hurt. As Izzy got back up to observe her new prison, Zipp flew down from the ceiling where she'd been hovering.
"Sorry, Izzy," she said, "but I can't take the chance. You have to leave Pipp alone for now."
"Really, Zipp?" demanded Izzy, sounding rather put off. "What's so bad about wanting to help out your sister?"
"Well, let me tell you," Zipp replied. "This happened once already, before I met you guys." As she continued, she failed to notice Izzy's magical aura enveloping the laundry basket. "It was a pretty normal day, as far as our days went. Pipp had just released a new single, and she'd been working on it for months, so she really wanted it to do well. Anyway, she came home one day, and mom asked her—WHAT THE HECK?!"
Zipp's outburst had come from noticing the fact that, while she'd been talking, Izzy had levitated the laundry basket off herself, and placed it over Zipp instead. If that wasn't enough, Izzy had placed an entire shelf's worth of books on top of the basket to weigh it down.
"I've upgraded from medium sneaky!" Izzy declared, doing a little dance where she stood. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to talk to your sister."
"NO! Oh, come on!" Zipp groaned, as she tried to lift the basket off herself.
Izzy, ignoring the protesting pegasus behind her, pushed open the door to Pipp's room with her magic. Inside, she found the pink pegasus curled up in the fetal position, rocking back and forth and still sporting the same mad grin she'd had before. Next to her, there was a discarded pencil and a piece of paper, with some illegible words scribbled on it.
"Pipp?" Izzy ventured. "Are you okay? You look like you're going kinda...crazy."
"I'm not going insane!" Pipp snapped. "Saying you can go there is like saying insanity is a place! But if you were to go there, you'd be going into sanity! So even if I was going there, it'd be totally fine! Right? RIGHT?!"
Izzy took a couple of steps back, until Pipp laid her head back down onto the floor. Then, she moved closer again. "Come on, Pipp. We're friends, right? You know you can tell me anything, right?"
For the first time, Pipp's smile faltered a little. She lifted her head again, and looked Izzy right in the eyes. "Do...do you mean that?" she asked.
"DON'T DO IT, IZZY!" yelled Zipp from the hallway.
"Of course," Izzy replied.
Pipp's eyes began to water, and she flattened her ears against her head. "Well, since you asked..." she began. Then she collapsed in a sobbing heap. "ONLY FIVE-HUNDRED PONIES HAVE DOWNLOADED MY LATEST ALBUM!"
Back in the hallway, Zipp moaned and slapped a hoof into her face. Izzy and Zipp were then subjected to two hours of whining, until somepony else downloaded Pipp's album.
