In the beautiful town of Maretime Bay, a new day arrived for the little ponies to enjoy. But this wasn’t just any regular day like going to the grocery store or watching afternoon talk shows. This day, sugar filled fillies and colts ran around town, apple treats stuffing their mouths. Street performers enact their prowess to onlookers. And games were displayed out and about in front of stores and crosswalks.
Yes, this is Maretime Bay Day, The Day of All Days.
The festivities were rife with a cacophony of sounds haphazardly tossed across the city, all speaking the same language: fun! And what way to boost those sounds to all across Equestria? A concert of course!
That’s what Pipp had in mind, and made sure her friends knew about it too. It was all laid out in front of them.
“After the set-up artists get the crowd warmed up, I’ll come out flying with fireworks shooting off the stage! Then after I’m done, I’ll fly over the tarp where more fireworks behind it shoot into the sky behind me!” Pipp excitedly explained, grabbing the plans from the table and rolling them up. Zipp, while supportive of the idea, showed skepticism. It wasn’t everyday that somepony wanted to be dangerously close to fireworks.
“Sounds pretty… sophisticated. Are you sure you can handle-”
“Of course I can, Zipp! I have been prepared for this for months, taking everything into account.”
“Yeah!” Izzy shouted in excitement, her hooves clacking on the table as a piping hot pizza was delivered on a platter by Sunny.
“Hot pizza!” She warned before going back to the sink.
“This is going to be so awesome! It’ll be jaw dropping to the point of a drooling waterfall… and speaking of waterfall, this smells spectacular!” She grabbed a slice and bit down, forgetting that it was hot, but went on in stride like a warrior. “Guawh! I-I’m for it!”
Sunny walked up to the table just as Pipp was leaving with her plans, taking a slice for the road.
“It does sound pretty cool when you think about it. Do you need any help with setting it up?”
She turned her head, smiling. “I already got a set crew helping with the preparations, Izzy including.” She opened the door and extended her wings, elated. “All I have to do now is be around the public, where my adoring followers are waiting!”
“Alright, see…” Pipp shut the door behind her. “...you soon, Pipp.” Zipp sighed. Knowing her sister, this was going to be one eventful day. Pipp jumped off the porch with grace before being met with a pizza stealing cat that ran off with her slice.
“What the-” the black feline was out of sight, taking shelter in the bushes. Not that it mattered to Pipp. She didn’t want the pizza anyway. Too many calories she told herself.
Trotting away from the lighthouse, Pipp yelped as her body vibrated. She knew what that meant, and that meant something was going on through her social media. “Oh!” She took the phone out from her wing. “Must be getting more followers,” a smile formed on her face, eagerly pressing on her phone while opening her socials. “My Pipp Squeaks are growing and I knew that-!!!”
As if the world turned upside down, she saw her followership falling off a cliff. No. Not a cliff. That wasn’t even close. It was falling into the abyss of darkness. What once she had over a million followers, began to collapse below that threshold she held great pride in getting. “Wait, what!?” She squeaked, bewildered with her mouth agape. Pipp couldn’t even process what was going on and she tried to figure out why she was losing and not gaining followers. “What did I do?!” She frantically went through the trending page, seeing different hashtags come up, and all of them did not look to be in her favor.
Some of the tags were, #PippSqueaksisOverParty, #NotMyIdeal, and #LivestreamUnearthed that were trending on the very top of the page.
“Wait, livestream?” Pipp gulped at that hashtag. “What livestream? There’s nothing I said wrong!” Her eyes teared up while clicking on one of the tags, seeing multiple ponies replying and sharing part of an old livestream she made years ago.
One post said, “How could Pipp even say something this atrocious to us unicorns? She’s lied to us and her character! Screw you, Princess!!!! #NotMyIdeal.”
“My son and daughter were crying their eyes out upon seeing how much prejudice the princess has for us earth ponies! As a mother, I refuse to have Pipp taint their minds with her words! My children will not grow up to be like her! I swear! #PippSquaksisOverParty.”
“Wow. I’m shaking and crying right now. So much for admiration! Yo, Queen Haven! Maybe you should monitor what your kid is saying on the camera before she uploads it to the internet for all to see! #LivestreamUnearthed @realQueenHaven”
“I say, this is ludicrous. We are outraged! Kick her off the platforms! Who’s with me?! #PippSquaksisOverParty”
“Ha! Well, Princess. Looks like you're getting the hate now, and not me! Woooo!!!” #Yesterday’spunchingbag #SproutCloveleafFTW!”
The more she strolled through the comments, the more depressed she became. They were like knives that penetrated through her soul, twisting and turning as she clicked on the video of her livestream. Her ears flattened upon hearing her own words. It was enough to make her sob. “No!!! I-I…” She flicked her mane and tried to smile. “I’ll just delete it! Yes! That should work, right???”
Pipp signed into her account and went to look at the video that caused an uproar. “Oh no,” she fell on her flank. She managed to scroll through her video archive to find the video, with the title of it saying, ‘Why Unicorns and Earth ponies have no tact and are soooo boring.’ The amount of terror in her eyes was widely visible as they looked like they could’ve burst out from their sockets.
Not delaying, she pressed the delete button, with the video taking a few seconds to be erased. “Phew,” she stood back up while grinning in glee. “Who says I can’t fix the problem by deleting the video? Pffft. Now they’ll love me and not hate me. It’s all goooood.”
Or so she thought.
Her phone was buzzing like an insect that continued to fly around, but only this time, there was no way to swat the invasive bug from her sights.
Pipp’s mind was panicking, but she tried to make the best of it, knowing that it was Maretime Bay Day. “I still got this. Totally got this. Nothing to worry about. I still have my life ahead of me and I’m sure things will get better. Right?”
She grinned while trying to suppress the negatives with the positives. Her eyes, however, were running all over place while she spread her wings out, heading towards the town while keeping her composure for the event.
“I got this,” her voice was filled with determination. “Nothing is going to ruin my day.”
While she pressed on with as much vigor as possible, Pipp couldn't help but notice a few ponies looking her way, trained on her like wild dogs, with big teeth. And they were angry dogs too. Lucky for her, the set was not too far away for her to completely process the quiet scolding they were giving her.
She just needed to hum to herself. Yeah, that's it! That usually shuts out all the issues. It helped her out many times when Zipp tried to teach her things; surely it will work here!
Plus, it'll help to remember the new song that she had plan-
"You're a terrible princess!"
She stopped. This couldn't be happening. This could not be happening! The comments were getting more direct in real life. Pipp was in trouble, and she needed to get out of there fast!
And so she flew away in the sky.
"No one can pull off Pi-"
"I'm sorry, OKAY?! I was young and stupid!" After her little stunt, Pipp realized that she had overflown her destination, making a quick U-turn before landing. Zipp was there, standing close to the stage. Perfect.
She landed just in front of her.
"Hey, Pipp! Are you…" Zipp saw her sister in a different tone. Rather than the most upbeat pony on site like a couple hours ago, she's now more stressed and worried. "... Pipp, are you okay? You look sick!"
Pipp tried to regain her composure, trying to at least reassure Zipp that everything was fine. “O-of course! I was… Uhhh. I was just having a hard time getting here. You know, traffic and all. It’s been so busy flying in the skies while navigating.”
“Pipp, there’s barely anypony flying around here,” Zipp blatantly said, pointing at the cloudy skies that showed to be darkened for a possible rain storm. With feeling concerned, she walked over to her little sister. “If you feel like maybe you need a few minutes to regain your positive attitude, we can do that. There’s no need to go through with it under yo-”
“Everything is fine!” Pipp snapped at Zipp, causing her wings to flare outward, making Zipp tense up. “I can totally get this down pat!” Her breathing was uncontrollable as she tried to think straight. The events that have transpired left her mind in an unfortunate state of affairs. “I’ve been planning everything accordingly for this day, and nothing is going to stop me from doing this performance!”
BOOM!!
The sound of thunder caused both Zipp and Pipp to jump. “Oh you’ve got to be kidding me!!!” Pipp was red in the face. Her rage was like that of a demon, ready to unleash her fury with seeing how the weather was going to ruin her day. “I just want my day to be filled with cheers from my adoring fans and not have it rain down on all of them! Uggghhh!” She stomped on the wooden stage in utter anger.
Zipp wanted to comfort her sister, but it was then she noticed Fifi, the Zephyr Heights delivery pony, land on the stage, carrying what appeared to be a package of sorts. Now who it belonged to was what needed to be answered.
“Delivery!” Just when things were getting dire in these uncanny set of events, the one thing that just may save her from this travesty had finally arrived, and on time no less!
Pipp averted her gaze to the mail pony with a large package on her back, rife with multiple strips of tape around the box, proper and haphazardly placed. Anypony would raise questions on the state of the package, along with a look of skepticism. But it didn’t matter to Pipp. She’s just glad that it was here, to where she made a zipping beeline to the mare.
“FIFI!” Pipp shouted to the mare, making her jump in surprise and throwing the box in the air from instinct. Clear as day, Pipp sees the label on the package with her name on it. With this, a new mission was unlocked: save the makeup!
Fifi scrambles to fly for it, only to be swiftly twirled by the most determined Pipp nopony has ever seen before.
“I got it!” Almost hitting the floor, the pegasus superstar grabbed the parcel with her hooves. And what a relief that was for her. It would have been such a shame if all of the cosmetics went to waste after so many bad things have happened to her today. She needed a win and by golly, she had it now! She cheered a mighty cheer, albeit exhausted. She wished she had that pizza that black cat stole now. It would’ve been great for the protein recovery here.
“Finally! After so much time in going through the internet, I can finally say my life is going back on-” Before she could finish her thought, something felt off about the package itself. It felt lightweight and not very assuring since she remembered buying a large selection… Now thinking about it, even the box itself was too small.
“No, don’t tell me this is actually happening right now…” She sat it down on stage and opened it to find… bottles of liquid. Don’t know what type, just liquid. She took out two of them. One wasn’t labeled as if a company cared about it, the other just said “brake fluid”.
Pipp’s right eye began to twitch. Her teeth clenched in anger. Her eyes looked like they had the fire of a thousand suns that could have annihilated everything in their path. This wasn’t just rage. It was wrath. And Pipp couldn’t take it any longer.
“ERRRAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!” She tossed the package in the air, flapping her wings as she lifted off the ground and was in proximity to the parcel. She turned around and bucked it as hard as she could. She didn’t think straight before committing to destroying the fraudulent package, but it didn’t matter. She just lost 268 bits for this hazardous waste!
The package was sent flying into where the fireworks were being set up at. The jars of brake fluid smashed into pieces, with the dangerous liquid splattering everywhere. Then suddenly, a fire erupted from behind the stage, igniting the fireworks and causing them to blast off into the murky sky.
Pipp looked on in horror at the carnage being done by the industrial explosives, hitting businesses and houses, and maybe even ponies, but no pony was saying that. All she knew was utter chaos that ensued.
“YOU’VE GOT TO BE BUCKING KIDDING ME!” She screeched like a banshee, angry and very very very mad.
“Wow… putting that torch by the fireworks was a pretty bad idea.” Izzy skipped close to the girls, to which Pipp beelined for her cute little face.
“You did thi-... WHY DID YOU PUT AN OPEN FLAME BY THE FIREWORKS?!!”
“Well everything had to be prepared for the show, so I ensured all things were ready to go, even the fire!”
Pipp stood back, confused by the answer Izzy gave. “So you thought a live flame close to curtains and fireworks was a really good idea?”
“I mean, I already denounced my past thoughts with my more updated thoughts, and they said ‘this was a terrible idea’. See? My thoughts are always ready to admit guilt. Isn’t that progressive?”
“IZZY, I-” The fire department made their presence known as sirens and a big red wagon of water came by. They immediately gushed the water out through the hose, using taxpayer resources to fix Pipp’s astronomical failures.
Izzy chuckled, Pipp staring daggers into her little naive soul. “Hehe, at least you won’t get fined out the wazoo, Princess Pipp. Amiright?”
Pipp wanted to ridicule Izzy. Maybe even kill her. Killing felt like the most appropriate way to settle this disgraceful act. But before she could take a jab at her, her eyes looked out at the corner, seeing Thunder Flap was ablaze, trying his best to put out the fire that was burning his fur coat.
Zoom flew as fast as she could, trying to get to her fired up friend. “Thunder! Stop! Drop! And roooooll!”
Thunder stopped in his tracks as he proceeded to drop and roll around as he did his best to extinguish the fire. Zoom held a blacknet and threw it on him, leading to finally seeing the remaining flames put out. She signed, only to see how Thunder’s coat was all gray, along with his mane, too.
“Thank you, Captain…” Thunder managed to say.
Many of the town's ponies who saw Pipp in her unstable state pulled out their phones, recording the carnage, tarnishing her reputation even further.
“I can’t. I just…” Pipp looked down to the floor. What was supposed to be the greatest Maretime Bay Day day, turned out to be the worst nightmare she’s ever had since her first day of flying.
“Oh ma Gawsh! This is like, tch, so baaaaawwwd.”
The chewing gum, the vocal fry, the snapping sounds of a digital camera, followed by more and more and MORE. If Pipp thought she was in for a terrible show, Celestia had decided to serve up a nice helping of cream pie.
Her life, her fully pampered and protected life was OVAH! She couldn’t recover from this. Nope, no way. She’ll have to go away for a while. Yakyakastan almost seemed like a nice vacation spot, even though she just got scammed from them. But it was far better than what’s here right now blowing up her beautiful face.
The humiliation. The shame. The unfortunate chain of events left Pipp with a heart of shattered glass. This wasn’t her day. It wasn’t close to her feeling glamorous, much less feeling happy. Everything that she had planned was completely thrown in the opposite direction.
“I’m done!!!” She screeched while tears streamed down her face.
She ran from the scene as fast as her short legs could take her, knowing that Zipp was calling out to her while seeing her little sister completely and utterly distraught from what had transpired just now.
“Wait, Pipp!” Zipp galloped in the direction that Pipp had gone into, wanting to get the latter’s attention.
Pipp stumbled in the one place she knew to find solace in. At the lowest of her life, it always brought the brightest out of her soul, since it was deemed one of the best cuisines money can buy. They never let her down in these trying times, especially now because she’s hungry.
And she needed the filling. It’s raining, dull, and social media thought she’s a terrorist and war propagandist; maybe even a war criminal due to indirectly causing harm to Thunder, allegedly. Her mom was going to call her again, but in a not very happy attitude. Just a wild day.
“Hi, welcome to McDonald’s! How may I take your order?”
“Let me have a happy kids meal and Sprite with NO ICE. Oh, and an apple pie”
“Will that be all for you today?”
“You know, let me also get the 10-piece McNuggets with BBQ sauce.”
The smell of this place really took her back. She always came here as a filly when the Queen did her duties to serve the public from which she stands. She and her sister would always play with the little toys that came with them, galloping and horsing around like the little devils they were. She missed those days. They were simple and rewarding. Now everything just felt like a downhill spiral the older she got. Will she be a better Queen than her mother? Will she be anything like her mother?
The people love and adore Queen Haven, and all of Pipp’s love was neatly laid down in a pit of garbage just 10 minutes ago. The only way she could ever make a comeback is if she-
“Order number 69 is ready!”
Pipp’s number was called. Her meal, it was ready to be devoured, consumed, to be unburdened by what had been.
“Wait, I have only one Barbeque cup. Can I get another one?”
“Sorry mam, we can only give one cup per. Store policy.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“Sorry, but we need to store some so more people can also get the BBQ sauce.”
“I don’t get it, you guys get stocked literally everyday with all the condiments that can feed a Zebrican village and I can’t get like 2 more for my 10 PIECE NUGGET? Who’s mother do I have to tattle on so I can get my sauce?”
“I mean come on, do you need all of that sauce?”
“What I do need is none of your insight. I already have too much on my mind.”
“It could be a good time to… reflect? Maybe even shorten down if you know what I’m saying?”
“Does your father know you’re doing this right now?”
“My father has always taught me to be truthful. That being said, enjoy your food and thanks for-”
“You know, the ONLY reason I came here today is because I’m having a terrible day. Whoever hired you obviously doesn’t care about the store anymore.”
Pipp carried her tray of delicious government food to one of the tables that weren’t occupied by anypony.
But there was an enemy that she didn’t foresee that would deter her objective in needing to cope hardcore.
There was a puddle of water that came from the complimentary beverage machines that was left unchecked by the workers, exposing a critical area with no wet floor sign to deter Pipp from going through.
She was about to get to the table before she lost control of her balance, with gasping in holding onto her tray while sliding on the floor. “Please, no!!”
She slid like she was ice skating, but with no ice skates to accompany her in her righteous struggle in getting some food in her belly.
Unable to control it, she ended up face planting the ground, her tray fell in front of her with all the food and drink splattering before her like rotten tomatoes.
The workers witnessed what had transpired, but none of them helped her up. Instead, they started to snicker, and chuckle, and then finally laughed their flanks off.
“Hahahahaha!! Hey, guys! The younger princess of Zeyphr Heights fell! Looks like her sister will get the throne after all!
Pipp tried to rise up, but her body was so exhausted. Tired, deprived of having a moment of peace and relaxation. Her eyes began to tear up. Then came the whimpering. And finally, the dam burst.
Those insulting words could be heard by Pipp. So much so that it finally got to her.
“WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!” She cried hysterically, covering her eyes with her hooves knowing that this day truly was the worst moment in her life.
“Don’t cry, PP!”
Pipp only knows one pony that calls her that. She looked up to notice her clean looking and non-diseased coated sister, looking down at her disheveled face ruined of its pristine vigor and colorful sheen.
The white pegasus leaned down to her, brushing her mane. “When we were fillies, I fell more than you, remember? And while sometimes it was a drag, you end up being stronger than me by laughing along at my pain, and getting me to join in on the fun!
Pipp sniffed while Zipp helped her off the floor. Her belly was soaked with whatever was on it. “Yeah, I guess that was fun.”
“Exactly!” she wiped her face and cleared her makeup, given way to some of the spunk she had earlier. “So, never give up Pipp!”
“OK.”
With giving her little sister the motivation to stand up for herself, she proceeded to get Pipp a new order, along with her own respectively. After some time, one of the workers managed to get over to the counter. Zipp told him her order along with Pipp’s.
A few minutes went by, wondering where the worker went. Getting to the five minute mark, the employee had two trays of food.
“Well, I’ve got your orders, Princess Zipp,” he told her, but sounding defeated.
“Thanks, but why do you sound all demoralized?”
“Uhhh. Well, my manager just reported that corporate is laying us all off, so me and everypony else who works here just lost their jobs as of today.”
“Huh? Wait, why?” She carried her tray and Pipps with both hooves.
“Automation,” he told her. “Not like that’ll help everypony get their food done at half the c- ahhh!!” An engineer in the tech department pushed him aside by slapping down a massive, overly ginormous, kiosk screen in front of her.” Sorry about that, Princess. But he already overstayed his welcome here. This machine is all that will be needed to bring quality and beat the atrocious time that ponies complain about! Come again soon!” He grabs the employee and throws him out the building. “You’ll get your last paycheck tomorrow, ya bum!!”
Zipp was left perplexed, not knowing that was going to happen after all that had transpired today. “I guess bad luck finally got to somepony.” She shook her head while heading back to her sister.
Zipp placed her food tray and her sister’s on one of the tables. While both were finally able to have a sense of sibling time for each other in McDonald’s, a particular black feline came into the building and was meowing, catching the ears of the princesses.
Pipp looked down, seeing the black cat looking at her curiously. “Meow…”
Her eyes widened, scared knowing that this cat was back to meet her again. “Oh, Faust, please don’t give me more suffering!” She pleaded for mercy while acting so dramatic, tears running down her face.
Before thinking she was going to meet her maker in Paradise, the black cat jumped onto the table, went over to Pipp’s food tray and started to eat some of the fries from the bag. Zipp looked up to it, amused.
“Oh look, a pussycat.”
Author's Note
I would like to thank the artist who made the artwork of Pipp. Same applies for two other pictures they made that helped me get this idea for the story between Zipp and Pipp.
This may be the only story that I submit for now. Been having to focus on my health and job heavily these days.
Hope you enjoy it.
