Far away, in the highest mountains of Equestria, Zephyr Heights came to view as a pegasus worker flew towards it but bumped into another pegasus who twirled around in mid-flight.

"Hey! Watch it! I'm flyin' here!" The pegasus worker scolded the other.

Pipp was in her room inside the castle, trying to pack her things into a suitcase. She and Zipp were getting a few things at their home that they would bring to the Crystal Brighthouse so they would have some comfort while moving close to their friends. However, Pipp struggled as she tried to close her bag.

"Get-in-get-in-get-in-get-in-get-in!" She said repeatedly, trying to keep the suitcase shut. But after that failed attempt, clothes burst and scattered everywhere, as a piece of clothing landed on Pipp's head.

"Augh, come on!" Pipp groaned in frustration, trying to keep her things in place as she moved the clothing out of her eyes. But then, she looked in the mirror and now had sparkly eyes. "Ooh! Cuuute!" She sang, taking out her phone and taking a selfie.

Zipp came to her sister's door as she knocked. "Hurry up, Pipp. Mom wants to say a 'little' goodbye," she said, smiling, knowing that their mom would say a longer goodbye so she could keep her daughters in Zephyr Heights for as long as possible. But then she heard Pipp grunting and panting as she struggled with her suitcase. "Everything okay in there?"

"Yep! Totally... fine…" Pipp replied, standing on her bed. She then backflipped as she dived into her suitcase. "Hi-yah!" she cried as she dived straight to her bag.

Zipp opened her sister’s door suddenly and saw Pipp lying down in her bag with a thud. Zipp looked at her sister in confusion, wondering why she had jumped on her bag.

"Phew!" Pipp exclaimed in relief. Hey, Zipp! Just finishing all my packing," she said, exiting her suitcase with a smile. But then, her smile disappeared when her suitcase started straining. The clips opened up, causing all of her clothes to fly out and spread to the entire room. And, for some reason, Cloudpuff was in it as well, as he flew out.

Pipp looked nervously as her clothes spread out. Then she looked at Zipp, who was looking confused at her sister about why she had packed so many of her things. Pipp saw that Zipp was dressed like a queen with royal garments, a necklace, a crown, and a robe on her, as Zipp held Cloudpuff in her hooves.

Pipp looked at her sister with sparkling eyes and a smile. "Aww, Zipp!" she said, taking out her phone and taking a picture of Zipp wearing royal garments. She found it beautiful.

Zipp looked in the mirror and gasped in shock at what she was wearing. She grumbled furiously while taking the royal garments off her, not a fan of wearing anything royal. She tossed Cloudpuff away, and he hopped away with a bark.

"Ugh, let's go!" she told Pipp, grabbing her bag and placing it over her. "Grab your bag," she told her sister.

Pipp cleared her throat as she turned to her. "Ahem... Bag?" she asked sheepishly as she turned to the corner. "About that…" she stated, revealing that she packed two dozen or so bags as Cloudpuff barked and jumped into the pile.

Zipp gasped in shock, seeing so many bags her sister had packed, wondering why she would need all that stuff.

Meanwhile, back at the Crystal Brighthouse, Sonic found himself in the room he would share with his friends since Hitch would continue to live in town.

He had spent the last few hours trying to figure out how to reactivate the Chaos Emeralds because even though he had found them - or at least 3 - in a forest, they didn't seem to have as much energy as before. Usually, when Sonic came into contact with a Chaos Emerald, it reacted immediately and released some static in Sonic's body. But as soon as he took one of them, nothing happened: it didn't glow brightly nor give off that static that gave Sonic a certain feeling of chill, nor did it float slightly. He tried again with the other 2, but the result was the same: nothing happened. Another thing he noticed was that despite retaining their colors, they were faded as if they were cheap copies made to trick him.

But that was strange too: the Emeralds were glowing when Sonic found them, their glow fading as soon as Sonic touched them. "What is happening?" Sonic asked himself, looking at the Emeralds on his bed. "Usually I feel like they speak to me as soon as I touch them, but this time a little touch turned them off. Did they spend some of their energy just for me to find them? Damn... If Tails were here, he'd help me find out what's up with the Emeralds, no doubt, but I'm in this alone."

'Actually, I'm not...' he thought suddenly, remembering that he had made new friends in that dimension.

"No," he told himself immediately. "They don't have to deal with my problems. I know they'd be willing to help me, but getting involved with the Chaos Emeralds is a danger they're incapable of dealing with... I hope I never blurt out a comment like that with them."

He turned to see the Emeralds again as more doubts flooded his mind. He tried again to use 'Chaos Control' with two of the Emeralds, but he didn't feel their energy coursing through his body, any breeze entering the room, or the gems he held even glowing. Nothing out of the ordinary happened.

"Oh, come on!" Sonic yelled in frustration. "This is supposed to shine! It's my goddamn ticket home, and it's not like I want to leave now, but eventually I'll have to! And at least having the exit ready would be nice! But these things don't want to work, AND I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHY!!!" he yelled again, his newfound power buoying up and throwing the Blue Emerald towards a wall to blow off steam.

But as soon as the Emerald reacted with his new ability, it regained its usual glow, and Sonic noticed that, with his new power disappearing. He moved closer to the Emerald, but when he touched it, his glow disappeared again. Seeing what happened before he made her glow again, he had an idea: he closed his eyes and let the electricity out of her body, causing her quills to light up in a neon hue. Immediately, the Chaos Emerald he held in his hand began to shine again and even floated. Sonic opened his eyes, which were blue now and was glad to see that the Emerald was shining again.

Worse, his joy didn't last long because he hadn't noticed that part of the electricity released by his body collided with the other two emeralds, which also shone again. Soon, the 3 Emeralds began to synchronize with each other and were preparing to release a powerful beam that could pierce through the Brighthouse, so he let go of his newfound power, and the Emeralds fell, no longer glowing.

"Wow…" Sonic said. "Looks like my new power can recharge the Emeralds, but if I keep it up long... who knows what might happen? Maybe I should..."

But the sound of Sunny's voice approaching the room made him panic. He felt the door open a little, so he concentrated some energy to slow down time, lift the mattress off his bed, put the Emeralds in a bag, put the bag under the mattress, put the mattress in place, and arrange the sheets. It was only when his hands touched the sheet that time returned to normal while Sunny entered the room.

"There you are, Sonic!" Sunny exclaimed. "The farewell parade for Zipp and Pipp is about to start. We're going to watch the live broadcast on TV. Do you want to come?"

"Sure! I wouldn't miss it even if I were crazy!" Sonic said with a smile as he walked towards Sunny.

He took one last sidelong glance at his bed, hoping no one would check under his mattress.

'For now, I won't tell anyone this. I'll check another time to see what happens to the Emeralds.'

And with that, Sonic and Sunny went down with Izzy and Hitch to see their pegasus friends in a parade that he already sensed would not be a 'little' goodbye.

Outside Zephyr Heights Castle, a crowd of ponies was waiting for the queen and princesses to leave. Suddenly, the front door opened, and the crowd saw a balloon version of Queen Haven come out, and they began to scream with excitement.

"And here come the royal balloons!" Skye Silver announced, while two more balloons, looking like Zipp and Pipp, shot out from the castle wall as the crowd cheered. But two pegasi accidentally bumped into something amid the cheers, and another hit a statue while a foal hit its face with the Queen Haven balloon.

Dazzle and Skye wince as they almost bump into each other. "Ooh! Another close call, Skye," Dazzle announced.

"There's been a lot of those lately, Dazzle," Skye pointed out with a smile. Magic was still relatively new to the Pegasi, so they hadn't mastered flying yet.

"It's true. But you know what they say, Skye. Progress over perfection!" Dazzle responded with a smile, then saw something that made her gasp, “Here comes the royal family now!” She yelled as she saw Queen Haven and her daughters coming with a pure gold chariot with their thrones.

The crowd cheered as they saw the royals walking past the crowd during the parade. The three royals greeted the ponies here.

Zipp waved nervously, not used to having so many ponies admiring them. When she saw the balloon version of herself approaching her, she freaked out and then growled.

"For the record, mother, this is not a 'little' goodbye!"

"Smile, Zephyrina," Haven told her daughter with a smile. "This is all for you," she pointed out, waving to the crowd. Zipp rolled her eyes, thinking her mother had gone too far with her goodbye.

Pipp, on the other hand, was blowing kisses and loving the crowd. Then, a bouquet came towards her when he caught it.

"Awww!" she said in thanks.

A group of fillies and foals screamed with excitement as they tossed the flowers, and one earth pony filly was about to faint with excitement when another earth pony filly caught her.

Pipp then took the camera phone out of her and took several selfies. Zipp realized what Pipp was doing and immediately gasped as she ducked down to stop her sister from taking pictures of her. "Pipp, no pictures!" she yelled, trying to make Pipp understand that she didn't want to be seen on camera.

"Come on, Zipp," Pipp said, trying to convince her sister of hers. "Just one? Don't you wanna remember today?" she asked, obviously talking about the parade.

And suddenly, a colt wearing a Zipp mask appeared right before her. "I love you, Zipp!" she yelled, causing Zipp to duck out of sight as the colt returned to the crowd.

"And which part exactly would I want to remember?" Zipp asked, looking at her sister, disturbed by what she had just seen.

"Oh, I don't know..." Pipp said rhetorically. "How about the loving send-off from your mother? The queen?" she pointed out, getting straight to Zipp's face. They touched muzzle while reading at each other.

"Enough!" The Haven queen yelled, Tired of hearing her daughters argue. "Zephyrina, you are the future queen. Now sit up straight and wave!" she said sternly to Zipp, who immediately returned to smiling and waving very forcefully. She glanced sideways at Pipp, who was looking at her back with a leer. Pipp sighed at her older sister's rebellious personality as she waved to the crowd.

Back at the Crystal Brighthouse, the three remaining ponies of the mane 5 and Sonic were watching TV on the couch. They saw Zipp and Pipp in the goodbye parade, and Zipp and Pipp turned away from facing each other, waving at the crowd.

"Look! There they are!" Sunny called out happily, putting her front hooves in the air in a cheer. "Hi, Zipp. Hi, Pipp!" she called out.

"Geez and I thought that parade at Soleanna was fancy as hell, but Queen Haven took it to the next level," Sonic snorted, impressed that Haven had gone that far to say goodbye to her daughters.

"Soleanna?" Sunny asked with a little smile. "Sounds a little fancy. Is it a kingdom or something similar in your home?"

"Yup," Sonic answered, smiling back. "Weird... every time I think about Soleanna, I feel like something's missing... Meh, it's probably nothing important."

The TV then changed to the next scene, showing foals screaming on screen to the royalties.

"Are those pegasi crying?" Hitch asked in confusion.

"Sounds more like they're yelling excited," Sonic added. "I guess the royals have more fans than they can imagine."

Izzy sighs dreamily at the cheers. "I know exactly how Pipp and Zipp feel right now..." she says, flashing back to how Bridlewood felt when she was leaving for Maretime Bay.

Izzy twirled her bag from her hoof to land, prepared to move to the Crystal Brighthouse. The Unicorns were cheering for Izzy to live her dreams as she walked down the pathway, blowing kisses at them and waving to the ponies. But then it's revealed that Izzy was only daydreaming while walking through the forest on the path to Maretime Bay. No pony was around but a lone unicorn foal playing the kazoo to her as Izzy kept smiling.

Izzy smiled at that memory, completely oblivious to what happened, lost in her little world. "I remember it like it was yesterday..." she commented.

"Maybe because it was yesterday, Izzy," Sonic reminded her as he, Sunny, and Hitch looked at her with a boring expression.

"Was it? Oh!" Izzy questioned with a smile. She had forgotten that she had told them about that. "Ooh, look! The queen!" she squealed, as the others looked at the TV with excitement.

"Hope that those giant balloons don't cause a little trouble to the royalties," Sonic said, looking with a neutral expression on the TV.

On a stage at the front of the Castle, Queen Haven made a little speech to the crowd about her daughters. "It seems like only yesterday my daughters were adorable little fillies..." she said, as she pointed out some pictures of Zipp and Pipp that were taken over the years: one when they were fillies, one where Zipp was not amused with the picture and Pipp was laying on a cloud; and then finally one where Pipp pose to the camera and one with Zipp sleeping on her bed. "But look at them now!" she gestured to her daughters to the side as the crowd cheered them.

Pipp was blowing kisses to the crowd, but Zipp blushed a lot in embarrassment after their mother revealed those photos. She looked around, trying to get her mind off of the pictures.

At the Crystal Brighthouse, Sunny, Izzy, and Hitch couldn't stop laughing at the photos Haven showed. They had seen a lot of Pipp before since he was a celebrity, but they had never seen photos of Zipp, much less ones this embarrassing.

Sonic took out his phone with a smirk and took a picture of the TV, saving Zipp's pictures for his convenience.

"And click!" he exclaimed after taking the photos. "I'll pester Zipp with this until it bores me," Sonic said with a smirk. "I feel a little bad for her, but sweet Chaos was that hilarious! Embarrassing, but hilarious."

"Right!" Hitch responded with a snort.

"Oh, when Zipp gets back, she will never hear the end of this!" Sunny exclaimed as she laughed.

At the stage, Queen Haven started to sob because she saw her daughters go. "All grown up... and leaving me…" she said. Then she realized that she was crying and cleared her throat while recomposing herself. "And to celebrate their new adventure together, I now present…" She stopped and turned to two of her guards on the other side as they removed the tarp, revealing a stone statue of Zipp and Pipp doing a flight pose.

The crowd cheered, and a few pegasi took pictures of the statue by flying close to it but didn’t realize they were about to bump into each other. All of them shouted out but smacked into each other anyway. One pegasus crashed into the statue, while the other screamed and collided against the balloons, napping them and letting them go.

The crowd gasped, and the royalties looked worried at the balloons that crashed against some pegasi flying. They tried to dodge the balloons but then crashed into other things: a blue pegasus crashed into the Queen Haven balloon as it popped, causing the real Haven to duck.

Then, the blue pegasus crashed into the strings of Pipp’s balloon, which caused the strings to snap, and the blue pegasus got stuck as the crowd gasped. The blue pegasus started to regain his focus as he realized he was tangled and was now floating away, as she screamed in panic. Pipp looked on with a cringe, but then she saw a yellow pegasus trying to keep her flying together. Pipp ducked and turned, nervously whimpering as the yellow pegasus came back screaming.

The yellow pegasus continued to scream and zoom as she smacked Thunder, sending him flying in a roll. Thunder screamed as he smacked right into Zipp’s balloon. The crowd gasped as Zipp, Pipp, and Queen Haven braced themselves for what could come next, but Thunder whimpered nervously and clutched Zipp’s balloon, keeping him steady. Now, the royal family and the crowd sighed, relieved.

"As I was saying…" Haven tried to keep going with her speech, but she didn't know that Zipp’s balloon started to deflate. "May I now present, Sisters, Take--" She was interrupted when Zipp’s balloon explosively deflated, as the explosion wind came right at the royal family, with Thunder wailing from being blown away, along with a couple of other pegasi with them. The wind stopped, but it left the manes of the royal family made a mess, as Queen Haven finished her speech in an amused tone, "... Flight..."

Haven, Pipp, and Zipp looked at each other but then smiled and busted out laughing, and the crowd started to laugh as well, finding funny all that happened, besides finding their manes funny as well.

Pipp took out her phone as Zipp and Queen Haven huddled together for a family photo. Pipp clicked her camera as they took the photo, which Pipp labeled as "SISTERS TAKE FLIGHT!" with a heart emoji and a pony smiley face emoji on it to remember this day.

Once again, the four friends were laughing back on the Crystal Brighthouse.

"Say, that was a hell of a goodbye!" Sonic said with a giggle. "And don't make me talk about the aftermath! Gold comedy right there!"

"I know! That was really funny," Sunny replied with a smile. "Did anything like that happen on that Soleanna parade you mentioned before?"

"Nope. It wasn't half as entertaining as this one," Sonic replied with a smirk. But then he felt a little headache, and he shook his head while scratching it, feeling a little confused. There's that sensation again. "Why do I always feel like this whenever I think about Soleanna?"

"Are you okay, buddy?" Hitch asked with worry as he and the two mares looked at Sonic.

"I... I don't know..." he replied, still confused. "It's something that always happens to me whenever I think or hear about that kingdom... but my memories in that place aren't too interesting or relevant. I just arrived one time for some celebration, and then I saw a feather flying up to the sky; then I saw one of Eggman's ships up in space and went to fight it. That's everything I ever did in Soleanna..." he explained, still not so sure why he felt that something, or someone, was missing.

"It must be weird, for you, I mean," Sunny said, putting her hoof on Sonic's shoulder.

"Eh, it's okay. I'm pretty sure that if I forgot something, it probably isn't important at all," he assured with a smile, and then his smile became bigger as an idea crossed his mind. "I totally have to tell you about the adventure I had once I arrived on that ship. It was great, yet unbelievable!"

"Maybe we should wait for Zipp and Pipp to arrive," Hitch suggested.

"Well, once they get here, we'll decorate the Brighthouse. And after that, it's story time!" Sonic assured with confidence, excitement going through every inch of his body.

Zipp and Pipp then started flying past their statues as they left Zephyr Heights on their way to Maretime Bay to be with their friends.

"Zipp?" Pipp called, turning to her sister while flying through the sky. "Aren't you gonna miss Zephyr Heights, even a teeny bit?" she asked, wondering if she would miss their home.

"I dunno" Zipp answered, but then she smiled at her sister. "But... I know I am ready for a new adventure. You know, together" she added with a chuckle.

Pipp smiles at Zipp’s answer. "Yeah, me too. All we really need is each other!" she replied as she stuck her hoof out, wanting Zipp to touch it.

Zipp smiled at her joyfully, and then they touched hooves, holding each other while flying to Maretime Bay. Behind them, Thunder and Zoom were carrying Pipp’s bags.

"All you need is each other?" Thunder asked in confusion. "Then what's in the bags?! " he asked tiredly as he and Zoom carried them.

THE END

Author's Note

Thanks to JD1 for editing this chapter!