*POP!!* “Ouch!”

I shouldn’t have stretched my back that much, but I was feeling positively sore. No pegasus should spend so much time sitting in front of a screen without stretching their wings. My sister might be used to doing that by now, but not me, no sir.

But that’s exactly how I’d spent the better part of the previous week, going over Twilight’s message over and over again, scrutinizing it for anything our combined sight might have missed. Alex had assured us, after having sifted through the message numerous times, that without those missing pieces, there was little more to interpret from what we’d already seen. We had tried to summon it back, each of us touching the crystals in the hope that Twilight’s projection would return. Perhaps the second time it would be clearer, or even an entirely new message would appear.

None of that happened. All five of us ponies tried, and all five of us failed miserably. Alex wouldn’t touch the crystals, fearing its defenses would trigger again against his presence. ‘Better not risk it’, he claimed, disappointed. I would have preferred him to at least give it a try, but after my reckless behavior during our conversation back at the beach I didn’t want to come off as too pushy… more than how I already felt I had been.

So, I took it upon myself to find the truth! Or, at least as close as I could get to it with what I had, which seemed to be only a few scraps. My detective senses were screaming at me that we were missing something crucial. The answer was there, I just knew it! I had to conduct more research!

However, the only available material, apart from the message itself and Alex’s long conversation with Discord, was Argyle’s notes, which Alex was about to finish checking over during his own research efforts regarding the nature and true purpose of the Unity Crystals.

I went to him asking if there was something more on them that could help identify the new threat in light of what Twilight’s message had provided. The answer was the same as last time: nothing that he already didn’t know. It was true that he had lived through most of the events retold in Argyle’s notes, immediately before the fall, but there was always the chance something might have slipped. Some time had passed since he’d entered stasis and the separation of the ponies.

Also, that alicorn he’d told us about, Opaline, didn’t sit well with me. There was something about them that just didn’t click for me. Alex’s reasoning was solid, it had been centuries since those events transpired, and against our previous beliefs, alicorns are not immortal, at least not by natural means.

“How can she do that to somepony… how can it benefit anypony at all? Even after what Alex explained at dinner…”

That’s what I’d kept asking myself over and over for the better part of that night, until my eyes couldn’t keep themselves open anymore. All our friends were rendered speechless when learning that horrifying reality, and not in the good sense. Alex was immortal, just as countless leaders of numerous races all over Equus had been. All Empyreans were leaders, but not all leaders were Empyreans. Even if his purpose was not to lead in the same sense as the alicorn sisters had, he was still trapped under her influence, a slave in all but name.

As firstborn, I will one day inherit my mother’s throne; I have been schooled all my life knowing that that was my role in life. I knew for a fact nopony of the pegasi royal line had been bestowed the role of Empyrean. But, just imagining myself endlessly ruling over the pegasi for countless centuries while my friends and family died around me…

Only a monster could do that to somepony else.

Shaking my head to dispel the mental ranting, I finished with my morning stretches, albeit more carefully, and quietly jumped down from my bed so as not to wake my still-slumbering sister. I wasn't looking forward to another day of blindly looking over notes and theories until my eyes fell out of my sockets, but somepony had to get the job done, and who better than your trusty detective Zipp on the case!

‘Hmm, gotta print some contact cards someday…’

With my laziest groan, I drowsily flapped all of the way out of our shared bedroom and down to the kitchen, where I fixed myself some coffee and grabbed a muffin, Sunny’s latest attempt at baking. A complete success, in my opinion.

I decided that I at least deserved to properly enjoy my breakfast, instead of scarfing it down where I stood like I usually did. I resisted the urge to wolf down my cupcake to maximize the time I could spend researching. This morning, I decided that I would take it slow, and that meant having a relaxed breakfast while watching some TV like anypony is entitled to do so on a Sunday morning.

To my surprise, the living room was already hosting some occupants in the form of my friends Alex and Izzy, both hoarding the couch facing the TV. Said TV was already on and broadcasting the morning news from Zephyr Heights.

Noticing my wing flaps, Alex’s head turned over the couch to find me awkwardly hovering behind the pair. “Oh, good morning there, detective slash princess slash speed demon slash marshmallow.”

“Marshmallow?” I scrunch my muzzle at the weird term.

“Any white-furred pony is automatically a marshmallow pony. It’s scientifically proven.” He explained with confidence, returning his sights to the TV.

Too sleepy to put up with his weird antics, I corrected my flightpath and landed on the smaller side couch, depositing my mug of coffee on a small table and then taking a bite out of the muffin.

‘Mmmm, vanilla….’

Now fully facing them, I glimpsed the weird choice of sitting arrangements the pair found themselves sharing, especially Izzy. While Alex sat leisurely on the right side of the couch, Izzy’s hindquarters took over his lap while her upper body rested over the rest of the couch facing away from the human. Her muzzle was buried deep within the space between the cushions and the back pillows, almost like a filly having a tantrum would.

“Uhhhh…”

Chuckling at my utter lack of understanding, Alex proceeded to explain. “Well, it just so happens that I’ve forgotten to give Izzy here their mandatory good morning hug, a ritual whose existence I was unaware of, and now she’s mad at me. Izzy, come on…” He called to the grumpy unicorn, shaking her flank to gain her attention.

Izzy’s response was a low grumble and a wiggle of her body so she could bury herself further into the couch.

“So… yeah,” Alex concluded, resting his back against the couch as his fingers lazily traced the contours of Izzy’s cutie mark.

“And why don’t you just get up and… oh, right. You legally can’t.” I remembered that silly law Alex claimed to be an actual thing.

“I mean…” He mulled it for a second. “It’s kinda a gray area here, ‘cause she’s technically not using my lap…”

Another grumble, this one noticeably more threatening, put an end to our brief search for a loophole. With a shrug and a supportive smile, I left the pair to their antics, my attention now fully focused on my steaming mug of coffee that would provide me with a much-needed kick in the internal clock, waking me up the whole way, ready for another boring day of looking over the same notes repeatedly until the idea of throwing myself out of the window with my wings tied and bound started sounding appealing.

‘Now, that’s the part of being a detective I most assuredly do NOT enjoy.’

“Meh, at least I can delight myself with the all-you-can-grab buffet in front of me.” Alex playfully voiced, referring to the unicorn’s flank resting over him, which he decided was an intelligent idea to get a good grope on.

A blue tail with faint taints of lavender on its end smacked him in the face, rewarding him with a mouthful of tail hair for the ‘delight’ of his taste buds. It took the entire time I spent finishing my muffin for him to spit out the last of Izzy’s long tail hairs.

“Blegh… how can such a thing be so kinky and so disgusting depending on the context?” He wondered to himself, pulling one last strand from his tongue.

“For one, there’s a chance your own tail gets in the other pony’s mouth?” I answered his rhetorical question.

Taking a moment to process my answer, confused by the fact we all knew he didn’t possess said appendage, Alex's eyes lit up in understanding. “Damm, Zipp. That’s a good one!” He praised with an amused chuckle.

“Thank you.” I humbly took it with a mock bow.

The morning news ended with nothing major to report, giving way to a cooking show from a local pegasus celebrity chef and her assistant. I knew her personally since she was part of the royal ensemble of cooks back at the palace.

“Dammit, now I’m hungry…” Alex lamented, seeing the appetizing delicacies the pegasi pair prepared on screen.

“So why don’t you go get yourself some breakfast?”

With a tired look, he pointed towards the hindquarters still resting over his legs. “Oh… right.” I embarrassingly averted my gaze.

“How’s the search going for you?” Alex changed the topic.

“Terrible. You?”

“Little progress here, too.”

Both of us seemed to be at an impasse regarding our respective research efforts. His attempts at deciphering the Unity Crystals’ spell matrix and true functions were rendered pointless since any available research material had burned alongs with the rest of the Restricted Wing of Canterlot Castle’s library. All he could had now were guesses and half-baked theories from his early efforts designing them all those centuries ago.

“Hey, Zipp?”

The change of tone caught my attention. “Yeah?” I asked over the steaming mug in my hooves.

“Um… aside from all that detective stuff and investigating… what is it that you do?”

My head tilted in confusion. “Huh? What do you mean?”

“I mean… what do you do for a living? You’re the only one among us who doesn’t have a paid job per se.” His innocent claim hid an undertone of smugness.

‘Oh, so that’s how you want to play it...’

“I’ll have you know that I’m a full-time heir to the throne of Zephyr Heights. While not my choice or preference, I am bestowed with numerous responsibilities befitting to my position, responsibilities I take with pride.” A humongous lie. “And I’m confident to say that my position gets me more money than you make in a year! Hah!” I proudly proclaimed in a tone my mom would be proud of, holding my head high.

However, any semblance of confidence promptly drained from my face as the smugness on his evil grin raised tenfold, flashing me a good view of his small fangs. “My dear Zipp. Do you realize that, as the last Prince of Equestria, all of Canterlot’s riches both in land and treasure are mine by right?”

I almost spat my coffee out when he said that. It was true. While we didn’t visit it, both Sunny and I were well aware that there was a royal treasury full of treasures somewhere around the castle. And the absence of any evidence that any other creature had stepped hoof in the old city for a long time only reinforced my suspicion that it must still be overflowing with ritches.

And in front of me stood proudly the rightful heir to it all.

Izzy’s ears perked up at the news as mine did. Quick as lighting, her mood flipped upside down as her pose did too, now laying on her back over Alex’s lap, bedroom eyes and a coy grin growing on her muzzle as a naughty hoof brushed under Alex’s left cheek. “Well, hello there, handsome…”

“Sorry girl, I only date lavender-furred ponies.” Alex swiftly ended Izzy’s shameless advances.

Her muzzle scrunched at his words. “Huh? What’re you talking about? I AM lavender-furred.” She motioned towards her fluffy chest in emphasis.

“No, you’re not. You’re purple.”

I could see Izzy’s eye twitching. “… It’s the same thing!!”

“It’s totally different.” Alex calmly denied, not even bothering to address the unicorn’s bold advances.

No matter how much pleading and whining left Izzy’s muzzle, Alex remained impassive. Finally giving up after several failed attempts, the once-again grumpy unicorn resumed her previous position, burying her head even further into the couch, having failed to bribe the human after learning of the size of his saddlebags, so to speak.

“You’re cruel,” I muttered after shaking away the astonishment.

“But just.” He swiftly countered.

Rolling my eyes at his silliness, I allowed the human to have this one. The cooking program didn't quite catch my interest, so instead I spent some time going over my phone, checking if there was anything interesting on ClipTrot.

“Dude,” I called my human friend. “Why is your last post so popular?”

“Which one?”

I selected the post from the feed and showed it to him. “This one.” I pointed with my hoof over the short video that had accumulated a surprising amount of views over the last two days.

“Oh yeah.” Recognition flashed in his eyes. “What about it? It’s hilarious.”

“… It’s a waffle flopping over the counter.” I flatly described. That’s what it was. A twenty-second video of a waffle standing straight until it falls flat on the kitchen counter at the last second. For some reason, a lot of ponies found it hilarious. I swear, for the life of me, I couldn’t understand why.

“Mhm.”

“… So, how is that funny?!”

“Oh, Zipp.” He condescendingly declared. “You’ve SO much to learn still...”

“Ugh.” Seeing I wasn’t going to get a straight answer, I decided to let it pass, not wanting to waste what little energy I had on more human nonsense.

Finishing the last of my coffee, I decided that I’d fooled around long enough and, albeit regrettably, decided to head back to the kitchen to return the mug, after which I’d fly up to my little studio within the shared bedroom… but, not without witnessing one last attempt of my human friend trying to remove the grumpy unicorn from his lap.

Tapping on her flank he began in a singsong, “Izzy, are you okay? So, Izzy, are you okay? Are you okay, Izzy? You’ve been bit by, you’ve been bit by, a smooth criminal.” After which, his deranged mind thought wise to get a chunk out of Izzy’s unprotected cutie mark, making the unsuspecting unicorn jump in the air and land back on the couch, hindquarters clenching in preparation, muzzle red in embarrassment and narrowed eyes glaring daggers at the innocent-looking human.

“Oh, so now you act all offended after all those sultry looks and rump wiggling an- NO!!”

Pouncing like a lion, poor Alex had made a terrible mistake this morning, and he now found himself on the receiving end of one of Izzy’s nipping sprees. No manner of protecting himself would keep her jaws away from his delicate skin.

“You’re so stupid,” I said, stating the obvious.

“HELP ME!!!”

“Oh, neigh way dude. I’m not getting in the middle of that.”

Leaving Alex to his punishment, I exited the living room in haste, pumping my wings and flying out before on the receiving end of any collateral damage.

After a quick stop in the kitchen, I left the mug to dry and flapped into our shared bedroom, the sound of my sister’s voice addressing her online fans behind the door letting me know she was wide awake. Doing my best to remain unnoticed, I allowed her to continue with her morning stream as I sneaked into my little studio. However, her excited mentioning of this year’s royal portrait painfully jabbed the memory of what day today was right into my forehead.

‘Oh, no no no, please not today…’

“*GASP* Ziiiiiiiipp.” Pipp, after finding out I was in the room with her she teasingly called to me, phone in hoof and still streaming.

‘Nonononono!’

Speeding across the room, she practically shoved herself against me and forced my head to look at the camera. “Tell the pippsqueaks: What do you think of my combo for today’s special occasion?!” She demanded, referring to her choice of accessories.

“Ugh!” I detached myself from my sister and tried to cover as much of my desk with my body. “Pipp! No cameras! This investigation is private!”

“Alright, alright!” She finished the recording and put away her phone. “No need to be so grumpy about it, sheesh…” She scoffed.

“How can you even think about Portrait Day when the mystery of that warning from Twilight Sparkle is still waiting to be solved?!” I exclaimed, somewhat miffed at her disinterested behavior. This was our number one priority, and Pipp was acting like it was no big deal. “She said we are in danger, Pipp!” I jabbed her chest in emphasis.

“Uh, yeah, we ARE in danger…”

‘Thank hoofness she finally gets it…’

“In danger of looking awful in a portrait printed on the cover of Pegasus Weekly and referenced by the media for all of time! Canternet does NOT forget, sister!” Pipp loudly finished, her attention back to her phone, threatening to resume her livestreaming.

I couldn’t help the twitching of my left eye, biting my tongue in an effort to prevent me from spewing something I would later regret. It took all my strength, but a long sigh saw the end of my outburst. Deciding it was best to just leave my sister be, I turned on the tip of my hoofs and faced my workplace again, mind already set on resuming yesterday’s progress…

*PING!* “Oh, Mom says she’ll meet us at Mane Melody in an hour or so!” Pipp informed me with a happy trot in place. “We’d better go ahead and get ready, she’ll want us all to go together back home. Oooh, I can totally work on her mane! Mom’s gonna LOVE IT!!”

Pipp's enthusiasm drowned out the sound of my head smashing against the desk in resignation. It seemed that I wasn’t going to get any progress done this morning and, knowing how Mom hated me skipping family occasions, I was due for a looong, boring day of standing still while some painter pony took over five hours to achieve the same result a photo could provide in ten seconds!!

“Siiiiigh, let’s get it over with…”

"You're so melodramatic," Pipp muttered under her breath accompanied by a sideways glance.

"And you're a pain in the flank," I murmured back.

Like an angry filly, my sister stuck her tongue out at me, a gesture I returned in kind. With a final huff, I followed my sister out of our room and down the ramp towards the hall, where a very satisfied Izzy headed for her workshop with a peppy stride.

A disgruntled-looking human soon followed after, the stub of hair atop his head as much of a mess as his clothes were, the uncovered parts of his body full of bite marks from one unhappy unicorn. My sister was, again, too absorbed in the digital world to notice, but his state didn’t escape my attentive gaze.

“Had fun, did you?” I teasingly asked.

“Shut up, Zipp.” Came his unamused answer.

His voice wasn’t unheard by my sister. “Oh, good morning, Alex.” She unglued herself from the screen and addressed him, her muzzle scrunching as her eyes took in his sorry state. “Wow, you’re a mess.” She talked without filter, eyes widening as she quickly realized her mishap. “I-I mean, um… y-your mane could really use a bit of TLC… and a surgical intervention, perhaps…”

“You think?” His question was loaded with sarcasm.

“We’re heading for Mane Melody, some important stuff came up. Want to tag along? Sis can fix you up…” I pointedly looked him up and down. “... fix whatever’s left to fix, that is.”

The truth is, I wanted him to tag along in a desperate attempt to distract my mom while I sought out a chance to play hooky, ‘cause extremely urgent investigation pending or not, the last thing I wanted was putting up with her and my sis and all that royal portrait nonsense, much less on a Sunday. It was fun when we were younger, I guess, but now? Ugh…

“Whatever it takes to get me away from that… monster.” Alex jumped at the chance, a fearful look directed towards Izzy’s working station.

“But you guys had so much fun.” I teased, bumping my hip against his.

Flapping away to avoid his attempt to flick my ear, the three of us set out on our way into town, shying away from my sister’s uninterrupted streaming of our trek, endlessly asking her fans for their opinions on her numerous choices of attire for our little ceremony. Well, at least I shied away; Alex continued making silly faces in the background to the pippsqueaks’ amusement and Pipp’s utter bewilderment.

“What are you ponies laughing about so much?” She asked her viewers, The fact that she was so focused on herself that she didn’t catch the human’s silly expressions behind her was both amusing and a bit worrying.

Being a Sunday, Mane Melody was closed to the public so my sis and her coworkers could take the chance to restock and prepare everything for the upcoming week’s rush of clients, although they’d never said no to a customer with a ‘fashion emergency,’ which was exactly what my sister claimed we were currently having, which to her was apparently reason enough to drag my flank into a salon chair and stick my head into a mane steamer.

Our little entourage accidentally bumped into Sunny as she was finishing her morning deliveries. That mare really loved her job, enough to work even Sundays. Well, every other Sunday. One of the perks of being the owner, you open the shop whenever you want.

A quick explanation later got Sunny hooked into accompanying us into my sis’ salon, excited at the prospect of learning more about pegasi traditions… or the traditions of my family, to be more precise.

“And just what happened to you?” Sunny noticed Alex’s disgruntled state.

“I got into a fight with a racconicorn.”

“… And?”

“I lost.” He briefly replied, not meeting Sunny’s gaze in an attempt to preserve his dignity.

Scrunching her muzzle in bewilderment, Sunny decided to leave it there and proceeded to follow us on her skates.

Once inside the salon, Pipp thought it better to start with the most urgent case, that being our human pal who she dragged into the closest chair as I took the one furthest from them, my thoughts automatically returning to the cryptic message from the presumably long-dead princess.

Sunny, ever the curious mare, bombarded my sister with a thousand questions about Portrait Day, which she was more than happy to answer as her hooves worked to fix and trim Alex’s… mane? Whatever it was, Pipp expertly tried to fix the hair in it.

“Come ooon, Sunny. You aren't actually interested in this stuff, are you?” I couldn’t help but jab into my sister’s tirade.

“Of course I am! Who else gets to learn about royal pegasus traditions like this from actual royals? What's not to like?!” Ever curious Sunny wondered.

“Uh… everything?” I stated the obvious. “Getting primped and pampered all day just to sit still for hours? My wings are twitching just thinking about it…” The feathers of said wings ruffled in discomfort. “Besides, there are more important matters at hoof. I mean, we all saw that hologram thingy, right?” I directed my question to my human friend, straining my neck to watch him over my chair. A grunt of acknowledgment was his only answer.

“Zephyrina Storm!” My sister flew up in my face with a scowl.

“Only mom calls me that...”

“Wait.” Alex’s focus left the mirror in front of him. “Your full name is Zephyrina? Like the orchid?”

I didn’t know what he was referring to. “Uuuuuh, yeees?”

“… Pfffff.”

“Don't you dare!!” I sharply threatened as a laugh struggled to escape his flat muzzle.

Pipp tapped me with her wing to regain my attention. “Ziiiipp.” She whined. “You used to love this stuff when we were little. Why not recapture that feeling and just enjoy it, hmm?”

My rebuttal was cut short by the doors suddenly opening inward, a pair of pegasi guards flanking the royal figure of my mom. “Girls! Oh, my hoofness! It's been far too long! Quick! Hug your mother!” She greeted us with open forelegs.

“Mom!” Pipp flew into the embrace, with Sunny following in tow with a respectful bow. Alex remained in his seat, using the distraction to undo my sister's extravagant work on his hair. I felt a little bad for him.

“Hi, Mom.” I offered a scarce greeting, not feeling my sister’s excitement in the slightest.

“That's it? Just a ‘Hi’?” Her brief look of hurt drove me forward into a somewhat convincing hug. “Now, that's the princess… Oops! Sorry. That's the detective Zipp I like to see.” My mom corrected herself with a playful wink. I was thankful that she was at least trying, although I knew for a fact she’d have preferred me to take my royal status more seriously like she’s been insisting on since I could remember.

Taking a quick look in one of the saloon's numerous mirrors, my mom soon realized her own messy state. “Oh, dear. It seems the trip here has done a number on me, Pipp. Flying through heavy wind is just dreadful on the mane!” She dramatically exclaimed.

Having fixed himself up as best he could, Alex rose from his seat and offered it to her. “All yours, Haven. I’m finished here.”

“Thank you, darling.” My mom took on the offer, lightly chuckling at my friend’s lack of use of royal decorum. While others might have found it disrespectful, my mom’s always been easier on the subject.

With Rocky accompanying her, he and my sis began preparing anything necessary for my mom’s turn. “Come on, Zipp. One more chair with your name on it.” My mom called to me, pointing towards a chair at her side, the other one now being occupied by Pipp, ready to start her own round of pampering after the preparations were completed.

“I was thinking maybe I'd skip the…”

“Zephyrina Storm!” An echo of the previous warning, this time from my mom, put an end to my feeble attempts at fleeing.

The session ended up being as terrible as I had expected, culminating with the three of us with our faces slathered with…. some kind of sticky, smelly lotion which Jaz claimed to work wonders for the wrinkles and other imperfections.

‘Is she calling me an old hag?’ My brain angrily thought, already fuming at the situation I was forced into.

My mom kept rambling on and on about her day and something or another while my sis and the rest politely listened. I wasn’t so subtle about it, the unhealthy amount of goo and the cucumber slices over my eyes made a great work of hiding how my face screamed to be anywhere else but here.

“Ugh! What even is this stuff?” I couldn’t tolerate it any longer and began freeing my face from the sticky product, not being able to stand it a second longer.

The only answer I got came in the form of my mom’s continuous rant about how the preparations for today had been going. My ears threatened to fall off my head if they had to listen to it any longer. The solution came in the form of Alex, or more precisely the wireless headphones he was accustomed to wearing since Pipp had gifted them to him.

Since my mom was right next to me, I silently gestured as best as I could about my urgent need for them to him. With a confused frown, my message got across and he levitated them to me. Quickly linking them to my phone and selecting the first classical music track after a quick search, I shoved the headphones over my mom’s ears.

“How about some calming music, mom?”

For the first time since she entered, there was silence at Mane Melody. Sweet, merciful silence.

With my mom distracted, for the time being at least, I took the chance at another escape attempt. “Psst! Hey, Pipp! So, is this the time you're finally gonna ditch this thing with me?”

The little amount of hope bearing in my heart promptly shattered. “Of course not. I actually like taking time to be pampered. It's my favorite thing!” She confidently stated. “Right after singing, spooky stories, and... selfies!” The sound of the camera clicking immediately followed, the pictures terribly out of target since her face was still covered in green slime with cucumber slices over her eyes.

“Ugh!” I had to rethink my strategy. “Huh… Hey, Sunny! How well can you do an impression of me?”

Puzzled by my request, Sunny rose from her seat and took a pose. “Uh... Is that a mystery over there?! Cool, cool!” She did her best to imitate my voice.

It was terrible, and a smidge worrying if that’s how my friends saw me. “… I’m taking offense in that.” I offered, scowling at her sad imitation.

“Are you kidding me? It was perfect!” Alex offered his two bits, eliciting a threatening growl from me.

With an embarrassed blush, Sunny returned to her seat, leaving me without any options that would get my mom’s attention. “Looks like I'm stuck suffering through another Portrait Day…” I lamented.

But my grief was short-lived; a second later, my phone buzzed with an incoming message. Believing it was my sister’s doing, I turned to protest about the fact that I was literally at her side for her to send me messages when I saw she remained in her little world, hooves away from her phone for the first time since this morning.

‘Huh… if not her, then...?’

Puzzled, I tapped on the pop-up message. The image that opened took my breath away, long-buried memories resurfacing at the sight of the Ocean Lily on the screen. “No way…”

Excitement washed over me. “Hey, Pipp!” I jumped from my seat and reached out to my sister from behind her. Bothered by my interruption, my sister removed the cucumber slices from her eyes with a grumble. “What now?”

“Look!”

Shoving the phone in her muzzle, a deep gasp escaped her muzzle. “Oh... my... gorgeous! Is that the rare Ocean Lily that only blooms once every decade?! The only time I've ever seen one is when we wore them in our manes for Portrait Day! *GASP* This could totally blow up my socials!” She cheered excitedly. My mom at her side remained lost in the music. “Wow! Who sent this to you?”

I hadn’t thought about that with the rush. The message stated it was from an anonymous sender.

‘Uh, weird…’ “I don't know, but it must mean the flower is in bloom right now! We HAVE to go find it.” I proposed as I bolted for the doors.

“But…but…” My sister’s hesitant voice brought me to a halt as I was to reach the exit. “Portrait Day…” She whined, looking back to our mom conflicted.

I knew exactly how to bribe her. “Oh. Oh, no, you're right. Who needs a picture with the most ponygrammable, once-in-a-decade flower there is anyway?”

That did the trick. “Mmmmm... Okay! But we'll be back to Zephyr Heights in time to sit for the actual portrait, right?”

“I promise we'll get back in time. Hoof to heart.” My sister and I exchanged our little gesture of compromise. However, one last problem remained to be solved.

“What are we gonna tell Mom?” My sister noticed.

We had to keep her distracted for as long as it took us to find the Ocean Lily, time that I, in reality, could use to keep working on Twilight’s message, even if it was only reviewing it in my head. I had seen it so many times I had practically memorized it and could recite it by heart.

My sight fell on the two friends who had accompanied us, the guards accompanying Mom having been dismissed for the time being. “Hey, Sunny!”

My earth pony friend left the magazine she was reading to meet my call. “Anything I can help with, Zipp?”

“We're gonna take a little break from Portrait Day prep, so we're gonna need you to cover for us. 'Kay, thanks, bye!”

“W-wait!” Sunny reacted before I could make for a hasty escape. “What about Queen Haven?”

“Um… Keep the cucumbers going, and she won't even notice we're gone.” I spewed the first thing that came to mind.

“You playing hooky?” Alex commented, noticing my hurried attempts to leave my sister's local.

“Ye-” I began to answer, only to notice Pipp’s harsh glare. “NO! No, we’re just… there’s something we have to take care of. We’ll meet Mom back at Zephyr Heights if we take too much time, nothing to worry about. I’m just about done with the pampering myself anyway.”

“Well, I most certainly am NOT!” My sister exclaimed. “So, we’d better hurry and come back soon. I need to get myself presentable for, you know? The whole pegasi race scrutinizing us with their overly critical judgments!”

Rolling my eyes at my sisters’ dramatism, we didn’t delay any longer and set off on our ‘search’. The truth is, I was far more interested in returning to my studio and continuing with my research, as much as it pained me to spend the entire day sitting on my rump instead of enjoying the skies. Perhaps I could go for a quick lap around the bay if I did it quickly.

“Ah, finally out of that stuffy salon!” I thought as I stretched my cramped wings.

“Hey!”

Stupid of me for not realizing I had thought it out loud. “I-I mean… great salon! Hehe…”

My pathetic smile wasn’t bought by my sister, but she chose not to delve further into it. “So, where are we headed anyway?”

“Um…” I began my attempt. “I think I left something back at the brighthouse. Better go now and get before I can fog-”

Said attempt was interrupted by both our phones vibrating with an incoming message. Checking them, we were rewarded with more photos from our mysterious sponsor, this time revealing more about the location of the flower.

“How did that mysterious pony get my phone number?” My sister wondered after having received the same message on her phone and was promptly met by my flat look. “Oh… right.” She remembered the fact she was an Equestria-wide pop star princess with a sheepish grin.

With her interest now peaked, I couldn’t make for an escape without raising her suspicions regarding my true intentions. ‘Ugh…. I guess I now have to see this through.’

“Those rocks look just like the ones by the beach,” I informed my sister after a quick analysis of the photos.

Of course, my sis’ one-track mind could only make one thing out of it. “Ooooh! Beach day! Selfie in the sand.” She then took said selfie. “Definitely good for my feed!”

‘But, we’re not even in the… bah!’ And with that, my sister took the lead in our trek towards the coast, taking far too long for my liking since she was constantly stopped by her fans asking for a picture or an autograph.

“Why didn't we choose to fly there?” I lamented under my voice.

After a painfully long time, sand replaced the feeling of stony roads under my hooves. As we made for the southern part of the bay, the right way judging by the direction the shadows the rocks were casting in the picture, my mind continued to return to the cryptic message, analyzing it for any hidden meanings or piecing out the blurry fragments.

That alicorn Alex had warned us about sounded like a promising lead, but he was adamant it was impossible for her to be the culprit, and that opinion stretched to most of the villains he’d faced off with in the past. While he claimed that long-lost villains returning to torment Equestria once again was a recurring theme during his adventures, the absence of magic closed many doors for that particular chain of events to happen in our age. Whoever wasn’t trapped in Tartarus until the end of time was most likely dead. Twilight’s message revealed we’d been hidden from the world somehow during all those centuries as the three tribes remained within their own settlements’ borders.

‘How can you hide an entire country from the world like that?.... Was it even the entirety of Equestria?’

That and a thousand more questions plagued my mind as I continued going through her message in my head. Who was she warning us about? Was she actually warning us about somecreature in particular, or was it more like a generic ‘watch out for danger’ kinda warning? But Harmony’s own warning had mentioned an incoming darkness. That’s something specific. Were they even talking about the same thing?

If there was anything I’d been able to make out of the message, it was her request for us to find Alex. Funny, considering we’d done so already. I know that he would help us face whatever was coming, we didn’t need her message to know that he would.

My total lack of progress was only worsened by my sister’s endless tirade of streaming and selfie-taking. No matter how many times I asked her to please stop it, in case Mom or somepony else found out about our search, it fell on deaf ears. Not only we would be busted, somepony might take that flower before us… not that I cared much about the flower, but still!

I was starting to regret asking her to accompany me. There’s no fun in playing hooky with your sis if she’s just gonna lose herself in her own little world and completely miss the point of the search. She could at least stop being so annoying and grant me the peace I needed to think!

As we reached the end of the bay, the nearby landscape began to feel somewhat familiar. Following my gut, I opened the gallery app and searched for the picture showing the immediate area of the flower’s location. Comparing both the picture and the rock formation in front of me, I found a perfect match.

“Bingo!” I celebrated, for myself alone apparently since my sister had used the chance to take what must have been the millionth selfie of the morning.

“Zipp!” My harsh tone made her jump a bit. “What did I say about keeping our location a secret?!” I scolded her, again.

“Whaaat?” She whined “I turned the geotagging off. We're totally off the grid… technically.”

‘We’re literally half a kilometer away from the beach…’ “Whatever. Let's just go find this Ocean Lily already…”

As the clicking of my sister’s camera once again flooded the coastal environment, I set off on a quick search around the area for any more leads. Comparing the nearby flowers growing near the smaller rocky edges proved a dead end, none of them resembling the one in the picture.

“Come on, it’s gotta be around here somewhere…”

It would have been easier with two sets of eyes looking, but my sis remained occupied with her social media, and continued being so until I had checked and rechecked every single rock, crevice, and ledge around the area indicated by the picture.

“Flower mission. Total. Fail.” I dramatically fell on my side after having exhausted myself looking around the place, ready to give up. Snorting away the sand getting into my snout, my impact blew away some of the surface sand, revealing a single blue petal with yellow markings literally in front of me.

“Could this be…?” I wondered, taking out my phone and comparing. Sure enough, they matched. “YES! Pipp, I have a lead!” I cheerfully cried. Seeing this one buried under a thin layer of sand, I pumped my wings, creating enough wind to blow the thinnest layer of sand away in the area in front of me. More petals were revealed under the sand, most likely having been buried by the sea breeze that clashed against the cliffs, blowing the smooth loose sand over them, completely dry since the tide had lowered earlier in the morning. Which also meant it would rise up again soon, erasing any potential evidence left for me to find. We had to hurry!

My enthusiasm was short-lived against her total disinterest in my efforts. With an angry stomp, I loomed over her. “Pipp! For the last time! NO! SOCIAL! MEDIA!”

Pipp remained impassive at my strong warning. “But I put a filter on it so nopony will be able to tell where we are!”

I just couldn't stand her nonsense any longer. “Your influencer stuff has been getting in the way all day!” I angrily stomped, lifting more sand and making us both sneeze at the same time.

“Ugh!” She protested as she scratched her snout. “I thought the whole reason we were searching for this flower was for us to look our best for Portrait Day!”

“The only thing you care about is Ponygram, and ClipTrot and... whatever the remaining hundred apps are called!” If that was how she was gonna be, then I had no reason to continue pretending. It was pointless and made me waste a lot of time. “You know what?! It was never about the flower! I just needed an excuse to get out of Portrait Day, okay?!”

“W-what?” My sister asked, surprised as well as hurt.

“I have to admit, I did actually get into the search for a while there. But the truth is I don't care a salt lick about your Ponygram posts!”

My sister’s pained expression was enough to throw me away from my angry fit, her hurtful eyes thrusting an icy dagger into my heart. “Wait, I didn't mean…”

“Well, fine!” She cut me off, any semblance of sadness erased in a second. “If this Lily is so silly to you, then why don't you just go home?!” With her muzzle held high, she followed the trail of petals, some of them having been blown away from the strength of the current I had generated.

“Oh no, no, no. I'm NOT giving this up now! I came all the way out here! I'm gonna see it through to the end!” Mirroring my sister’s pose, I followed her to the very edge of the bay, where a cave’s entrance was hidden behind a particularly big protrusion of the rocky cliffs, basically cutting through the beach, forcing us to use our wings to reach the entrance.

Both of us shared a moment of excitement, which immediately died after remembering the fact we were mad at each other. As Pipp shamelessly trotted towards the deepest parts, I remained a bit behind, my searching eyes on the hunt for the prize.

Her singing voice filled the cavern. “Mmmmm, great acoustics.”

Only smelly seaweed could be found near the entrance. Bothered by another failed search, I threw a particularly long string of algae in the air in a fit of frustration, almost hitting my sister accidentally.

“Um, could you not be so annoying? Don't even know why you're still here…” Pipp ‘kindly’ asked.

“Uh, I did all the hoofwork in this investigation. I deserve to see what I tracked down.”

Continuing deeper into the cave, we reached its end in the form of a big cavern, in its middle a small lake shimmering in the pale sunlight filtering from the ceiling’s cracks as well as from some bioluminescent plants that hung from the ceiling and walls. More algae left behind by the current decorated the interior. The ground mirrored the beach’s sandy texture, muffling the echo of our steps.

Both my sister and I gasped in surprise, but once again avoided each other’s enthusiastic looks with a humph.

However, the prize, in the form of the Ocean Lily, proudly rested over a solitary rock at the very end of the cavern. Any other day I would’ve celebrated a successful hunt with a victory loop in the air, but my sister’s tantrum had sucked all the joy from the search by that point.

“Well, we found it.” I pointed at it with a flat voice. “Go ahead. Take your picture.”

“Well, maybe I don't want to anymore. Wouldn't want to ruin my feed with the bad vibes you brought to the bloom.” My sister stubbornly refused.

I could practically hear my teeth grinding from the sheer anger I was experiencing. “WHAT?! You’re not gonna take a single pic, after all we've just gone through?!”

“Well, if you hadn't l-iiied, we wouldn't have ‘gone through’ anything!” Pipp rebutted, getting into my muzzle.

“I can't believe you're acting this fillyish!”

“Oh, well, I can't believe that you are a liiiiiar!”

Before we had the chance to continue with our back and forth, a deep rumbling shook the entire cavern, small pebbles began falling from the ceiling, soon followed by rocks big enough to cause some serious damage.

No verbal communication was needed as the decision to bolt the hay out of that place crossed between us. Pipp began to flap her wings, but my reaching hoof grounded her. It was too risky to fly with all that debris falling down. We would have to hoof it!

Pumping our legs as fast as we could, we exited the cavern and reached back for the short tunnel leading to the exit.

However, lines were traced in the sand as both of us were forced to a screeching halt when the cave entrance completely caved in, trapping us inside the seashore cavern. Without the light of the midday sun illuminating the entrance, the ambiance turned even darker, leaving us both breathless and disheartened within the dim gallery, which at that moment I remembered would most likely flood back again by the time the sun began hiding behind the mountains.

“No! Nonononono! No!”

Ponies didn’t make for excellent swimmers. Outright passable at best, compared to how Alex managed himself in the water, that is. Training had allowed me to hold my position stationary in the air for a good while, but my sister was unlikely to be able to hold that long.

In other words, we were screwed.

“Damm. I can see where Pipp gets her voice from.” I praised the Queen of the pegasi, amazed by the little musical number she had rewarded us with as a product of another of Sunny’s feeble attempts to keep her within the salon for as long as she could. I was having a blast seeing her coming up with one sorry excuse after another. A typical show of pony silliness I had grown to adore.

“Encore! Encore!” Sunny cheered in her own bout of praise.

Haven, an embarrassed blush adorning her muzzle, didn’t entertain us. “Oh, thank you! But I couldn't possibly do another. Now where were we? The brighthouse?” The pegasi queen recalled the last of Sunny’s excuses, that being the sisters returning to the brighthouse for their tiaras and best not meeting them there since the brighthouse was apparently a complete ‘mess’.

“We can’t!” Sunny, once again, sought to delay the queen with a half-assed excuse, and no musical number would work this time to distract her.

“Now, why not? And don't try to push that ‘mess’ business again.” Haven inquired, looking a bit tired of Sunny’s constant delaying tactics.

“Well… the truth is…” Sunny’s brain worked a thousand miles per hour in search of a new reason. Not finding one, her eyes meet mine in a pleading request. My answer came in the form of several gestures from my seat behind the queen: my phone, thumbs crossing and hands flapping in imitation of a pair of wings, and finger pointing towards the rough direction of the mountain range behind the forest lining the coastal town, where the pegasi city was located.

Taking a second to process it, Sunny understood my proposal and jumped towards her phone, currently resting on the mirror’s shelf. “…. Zipp and Pipp just, uh… texted me!” She informed Haven, looking over her phone as if the sisters had actually done so. “They wanted me to let you know that they've already headed to Zephyr Heights and that you should just meet them there.” She finished with a not-so-convincing grin.

Tense moments passed under Haven’s scrutinizing gaze, poor Sunny sweating bullets under her prying eyes. Luckily, our little bout of improvisation bore its fruits. “Ah. Of course, they did.” Haven bought Sunny’s version, leaning back on the salon chair. “You know,” She began with a hint of melancholy. “Those two can be quite the hoofful. They are doing okay on their own, aren’t they?” She asked with a healthy dose of maternal concern.

“Absolutely.” Sunny replied with absolute confidence. “They do have their moments of fighting over who used whose manewash and such, but I think living at the brighthouse has brought them closer!”

Haven's lingering worry evaporated with a sigh, a tender smile growing on her muzzle. “I'm so happy to hear that…”

“Did they… get along as fillies.” Now came Sunny’s turn to ask about the pegasi pair, noticing the queen’s change of mood.

“Ha! They were attached at the wings! They did everything together. Their personalities were always so different, but they laughed about it then. Not like now…”

“They grew up.” I offered, gaining the queen's attention.

Queen Haven let out a heavy sigh, a sigh that only a parent could truly understand. “I guess they did. Gosh, how I miss those days now, it almost feels like it happened in the blink of an eye!”

“Yeah, that’s how it is…”

Haven took notice of the shift in my features. “I know that smile, darling. Is she like that too?” She hinted with a playful grin.

‘She got me.’ “Oh, she most definitely was….”

“Ugh, come on! I thought we were besties, phone! Come on, just give me one bar! One bar!” My sister pleaded for the umpteenth as she went up and down the length of the cavern again and again, sticking her phone into any crevices she could find. I had decided to take a more direct approach to our predicament, which consisted of me trying to dig our way out of the mountain of rubble standing in our way. I didn’t want to alarm her, but I could feel through my hooves the slight rise of humidity in the sand below them, meaning the tide had begun to reverse; soon, water would begin to filter inside the cave as the tide flowed back in.

I was unsure of how high it would reach, but there were algae and loose stalks of seaweed from previous floodings resting over the rocks and creeks of the walls at least two pony heights up.

“It was your ‘bestie’ that got us stuck here in the first place.” Not wanting to alarm her didn’t mean I wasn’t positively pissed at her and her behavior.

“Um, if I remember correctly, it was your idea.” She pointed an accusing hoof at me after landing back on the sandy floor, her search for a phone signal a complete failure. “Who trusts random Dewdrop photos anyway?”

She had me there. I hadn’t given it much thought at first, reasoning it must have been an anonymous fan that had seen the flower in our first portrait back at the castle and had found the same flower here and wanted to surprise us, or play with us or something. I didn’t give it much thought since I wasn’t planning on pursuing the search to the point of completion, instead just deciding to use it as an excuse to get out of Portrait Day and back into the important stuff. I had allowed my stubbornness to get the better of me.

“I thought it would be a thing to do together! But noooo. Somepony had to tag along ONLY when she thought it'd get her a few extra hooftaps!”

“Ugh! I can't stand you!” My sister got in my face as we went back and forth until we had exhausted all possible ways to express how mad we were at each other.

Not standing to be near each other for a second longer, my sis flapped back towards the cavern’s interior, sitting on her haunches in front of the tiny lake that had begun to grow in size, the water threatening to grow quite dangerously at any moment.

I resumed my digging efforts, albeit completely heartlessly, barely managing to move a few pebbles out of the way as my heart ached for my sister.

‘Faust dammit Pipp, this is not how I wanted things to go…’

Tired of arguing and being mad at her, I abandoned my efforts to find a way through the rubble and joined her near the lake, sitting back-to-back as I looked for the appropriate words to apologize.

But Pipp beat me to it. “Well... looks like you got your wish. No Portrait Day for either of us now…” She murmured with a sniff.

Nothing hurt me more than seeing my sister cry, not even after almost having my wing torn off by a timberwolf. “That's not what I wanted… Ugh. I really did want you to play hooky with me this one time, to have fun together like we used to have. But... it was selfish of me to trick you into coming along. In the end, I made it all about me. I haven't been a very good older sister, huh?”

Sniffs continued to reverberate through the humid cavern, leaving my question unanswered. No amount of words could express how sorry I was for putting her up to this, for putting her in danger! She's my little sister, I was meant to protect her, to take care of her, to be a good role model for her.

But our combined foolishness had left us trapped in a musty cave without any chance of escape and, in our attempt to keep our little search a secret, leaving no clue of to our location to anypony that would miss us.

A simple sorry sounded empty and meaningless. Hurtful words had been exchanged. It hadn’t been the first time we’d gotten into a sisterly fight, but we always patched things up in the end. Now, we might not have the chance. Right now, I’d happily take sharing one meaningful moment again with her, even if it meant staying put for endless hours until the portrait would be finished.

A crazy idea popped into my mind, something I would never consider doing, much less in public. But now… I realized I couldn’t have cared less.

Taking a deep breath, I began to sing that little song my sis had come up with all those years ago. “….Be still, don't move….”

“*GASP* Our song…” My sister soon recognized the lyrics.

“It's easy to smile with you by my side. Don’t blink.”

“Don’t blink.”

“Big smile.”

“Big smile.”

“Just beeeing with you, my heart opens wi-i-i-i-i-i-i-ide.”

A full-body shudder brought my feet to a halt, my sight impulsively focusing on the southern end of the bay, where my poor magic-sensing instincts had suddenly triggered in response to a sudden surge of harmonious magic, a brand of magic I was painfully familiar with.

“Is everything alright?” Sunny, whom I had left Pipp’s salon with after Haven had taken off towards Zephyr Heights to join her daughters, asked with concern.

Since the pegasi queen had left for her home, and most likely would not find her daughters waiting for her, Sunny and I had decided it was best to search for the missing sisters. Whatever they had planned to do, they had had enough time already to see it through. It was time to meet back with their mom before she had a chance to blow a fuse.

It was painfully evident Zipp wanted to play hooky. After asking Izzy on the phone, I was surprised to hear she wasn’t back in her little studio back in the brighthouse, neither was she up in the crystals’ room running her analysis. They weren’t answering their phones either, so we both had started to become worried for the pair, especially considering the fact Pipp would never willingly miss a phone call.

Asking around the town had pointed us to the direction we were now heading in: the beach, where some ponies had caught a glimpse of the sisters walking together alongside it, heading south. Just about the same direction my senses had pointed to.

“… I’m not sure.” I answered with uncertainty. “Best if we hurry and find them before Haven returns demanding answers.”

Just as we reached the town's limits, taking the furthest path down the coast, both our phones buzzed at the same time. Hurriedly checking them over, we searched for any indication regarding the sisters’ whereabouts. We were rewarded as such, but in a most unconventional way.

*Heeey, pippsqueaks! I'm in a bit of a bind! Me and my sister need some help, like, yesterday!* A short video of Pipp was portrayed in the post, followed by a geotagged location pointing towards the southern end of the bay. Not much could be discerned about their location since the background was somewhat dark, but I could see she was flying, and she was inside some kind of cavern.

“Faust dammit, what have those two gotten into?”

Sprinting towards the location marked in the post, we were met by a certain trio of fillies standing atop the cliff where the bay ended and gave way to the rest of the coastline. A pile of rocks was spread in the middle of the three, rocks which the fillies were hurriedly removing, each of them using their own brand of magic.

“Yes! That’s it, keep going!” The voice of Zipp reached my ears from that very same pile of rock, or most precisely, from under it.

Asking the fillies to stand aside, I assessed the situation. Through small gaps between the rocky formation, the flying forms of Pipp and Zipp could be discerned, both nervously waving at me with their hooves.

Needless to say, I was not amused.

“Fly back. This could get messy.” I warned the sisters and powered up my gauntlets. Some of the rocks were too large for the trio of fillies to safely move aside without the unstable roof of the cavern collapsing over the sisters’ heads. I had to take the matter into my own hands.

My sister’s plan had worked! After finishing our song together, we patched things up, as good sisters should. None of us meant what we had said and, with a tearful hug and words of forgiveness, we returned to be the best sisters Equestria had ever seen.

But our time of reconciliation had to be cut short, since now our hooves would splash with each step we took, the seawater slowly but surely consuming the sandy floor we were stood upon. For some reason, the bioluminescence from the hanging plants had risen tenfold in response to our song, allowing us to get a better view of the cavern's interior, revealing a series of cracks on the surface of the ceiling, possibly weak enough to be punched through. A few reverse dive bombs and a sore hoof later, the smallest of openings allowed the late sunrays to filter inside the stuffy cavern. My sister took the chance and, miraculously, found a single bar of signal on her phone. Cheering as if she had just won a singing contest, she recorded and sent a short message explaining our current predicament and location.

Soon enough, the clamoring of little hoofs resounded over the cavern’s roof followed by the sound of three of Pipp’s most devoted fans coordinating with each other to begin removing what was soon revealed as a bunch of loose heavy rooks blocking the natural exit leading out towards the upper part of the cliff.

With cheering from my sis and I, the fillies managed to remove enough debris for a fair amount of light to begin filtering inside, followed by oh-so-refreshing clean air which worked wonders to disperse the stale, humid ambiance built up by the cavern’s sealing.

Heavier hoof steps soon followed the fillies’, accompanied by my human friend’s telltale bipedal pace.

‘Oh, thank hoofness, they’ve found us!’ I silently cheered.

Searching through the small gaps opened by the work of the three fillies, Alex’s unamused leer met mine and my sister’s nervous greetings. Yep, he was angry alright.

Alex ushered the trio to step back so he could assume the more delicate work; while the cracks might grant us an escape route, they also revealed the fragility of the cavern's ceiling. One false step and my sister and I would end up buried under a ton of rocks. A slightly worse way to go than drowning but not by much.

The warning to the fillies also reached us. Still aloft, my sister and I flapped our wings and put some distance between ourselves and the growing opening, restlessly waiting for Alex to free us from our smelly prison.

The familiar hum of magic being cast reached our ears, immediately followed by a bluish glow surrounding the heavier boulders which floated upwards, clearing a big enough hole for us to squeeze through. Pipp took the chance and dived for the Ocean Lily, securing it within her mane, claiming that it would be a shame to leave it behind after all that effort.

“HURRY!!” Alex’s yell was enough incentive for us to get on with it and fly the hay out of there.

My sister went first, her smaller body granting her an easier path through the narrow opening. Just as her tail had disappeared through the hole, I went head-in, folding my wings and using my legs to squeeze through. However, before I had the chance to taste the clean air, part of the ceiling collapsed just from under my rear hooves, leaving me dangling from the opening, my wings still pressed against my side as its narrow width prevented me from opening them.

Tremors began spreading through the cavern’s roof, pebbles and dust trails falling from it as it threatened to collapse, splashing against the still-rising water. My forehooves began to slip, unable to acquire a good enough grip to resist gravity’s pull.

“NO! NononononoNO!”

That was it, that’s how it would end for me. Buried under a ton of rocks, an early grave within the shores of Horseshoe Bay. Not my first choice of a resting place; I would have preferred to be buried alongside my dad back at the palace, but my foolishness and stubbornness were going to rob me of that.

That is, if a pink-furred hoof hadn’t grabbed me at the last second through the crumbling opening.

“YOU ARE NOT MISSING PORTRAIT DAY, DO YOU HEAR ME?!!” Came my sister’s angry yet determined cry. Followed by another one of extreme effort, Pipp dragged my hanging form halfway through the hole, granting me enough momentum to push myself the rest of the way up. The moment I felt chilling stone stop pressing against my sides, I extended my wings fully and pumped them as hard as I could, catapulting myself and my sis away from the pile of rocks as it finally caved in, resulting in a thunderous splash and a tremor that ran through the entire length of the bay.

Entangled in a mess of limbs and feathers, Pipp and I made a rough landing just in front of our human friend, a positively worried Sunny standing by his side alongside the three pippsqueaks.

My feathers ruffled at the feeling of the magic emanating from Alex, four enormous boulders still trapped within his levitating grasp. So strong was the magical effect emanating from his gauntlets that he himself was levitating a half-meter over the grassy ground. Teeth clenched in effort and rivulets of blood running down his nose, he only relinquished his hold once Pipp had I had safely cleared the danger zone.

With muffled thuds, the boulders crashed back to the ground, Alex following immediately after, falling to his knees, wet coughs staining the grass under him a dark shade of crimson.

Sunny, after we flashed a quick look letting her know my sis and I were fine, rushed to his side, holding him as his coughing fit came to an end.

Disentangling ourselves, we too rushed to his side, the image of his devastated state after exhausting his magic keeping the null void open still fresh in our minds.

“Oh my gosh, Alex, are you okay?! We’re so sorry! We di-”

His raised hand interrupted my sister's anxious apologizing. Spitting one final bloody glob, he addressed us without raising his gaze from the ground. “Your mom’s waiting for you back at your palace. You’d better hurry there.”

“B-but…” I began.

“We’ll talk later.”

By his tone not only was it clear that he was positively pissed off with us, but he had no intention of continuing the conversation. Sharing one last concerned look with Sunny, my sister and I silently set off on our way back to Zephyr Heights, not even realizing the absolute mess our manes and tails were, let alone our soggy fur with pieces of seaweed sticking to it.

Said mess had to be explained to our mom once we had arrived, earning a well-deserved scolding from her as well as some motherly fussing over our wellbeing. Aside from our sorry state, Pipp and I had come out unscathed from our expedition. However, in haste to finish the portrait before nightfall, we were denied a chance to make ourselves presentable for it, a fitting punishment for our recklessness. The result came out with our mom proudly standing behind a pair of pegasi sisters sporting their best wet-rat look with a sheepish grin, but with the Ocean Lily adorning our manes like it had done so in our fillyhood days.

Darkness had begun to cover the land by the time the portrait was finished, now adorning the hallway leading to my mom’s room alongside the other two. Even more so it did once we arrived back at the brighthouse after some serious discussion over if it was in our best interest to return and face our friends' scoldings or just stay in Zephyr Heights forever. To our dismay, the obvious answer triumphed over, culminating in us planting our hooves in front of the brighthouse’s main door with rising apprehension.

We found our friends halfway through their dinner. My sister and I scurried along to fix ourselves some too and joined them over the kitchen table.

Alex was sitting with the rest, seemingly recovered from his overextension in spellcasting, but two pieces of tissue were very clearly stuffed into his nostrils to prevent further bleeding, giving him a funny look that was far from amusing given the circumstances.

“So,” he began after swallowing a portion of the salad on his plate. “Do you care to explain yourselves?”

And so we did, retelling our search for the Ocean Lily and our own personal motives behind it, eliciting disappointed yet relieved looks from our friends at the prospect of us getting out of that mess unscathed.

“I ain’t your dad, so it’s not for me to scold you as such.” Alex spoke after our synchronized ‘sorry’ in a similar way my sis and I used to do back in the day after having been caught causing mischief around the palace. “But there is one thing I can say to you, Zipp.”

I swallowed a nervous gulp under the weight of his full attention. “We older siblings have a responsibility to our youngest, I’m sure you know the gist of it. There comes a time when you want to just strangle them or wish they wouldn’t exist at all, but at the end of the day, past all the quarrels and arguments, you’ll always be sisters.” And with that, he returned to his half-finished meal.

“I-I understand.” I sheepishly returned, full of shame for my behavior. And yet, something from his speech caught my attention. “Wait, we?”

Alex’s features darkened as his chewing halted. I could see Sunny wincing a little from her seat, the rest of us expectantly looking at our human friend. “My little sister Elena.”

“You have a little sister?!” Pipp, as surprised as the rest of us, loudly asked.

“Had.” He briefly returned. “It’s been a long time since I left Earth…”

It only took a second for my brain to make the connection. He had arrived in Equestria centuries ago. Assuming time moved similarly both in Equus and back in his home world… and even if it didn’t, seven hundred years is a looong time.

Sunny, who must have known about this previously for her lack of surprise, stood up from her seat and pressed herself against Alex in reassuring comfort.

“Don’t take having a sister for granted, Zipp. I would go through any kind of annoying behavior or childish fights if it meant seeing her again.”

My gaze moved in search of my sister sitting across me, a new reality making itself known in my world. A reality where Pipp wasn’t there with me anymore, to cheer me up with her endless energy, to tease me with our own particular style of sibling nonsense, to listen to my ramblings and private stuff only sisters are meant to know about, to fly alongside with me, to share our responsibilities over the throne, to sneak under my blankets so we could read scary stories until dawn…

The chilling pain I felt surpassed that of seeing her hurt as I had inside that cavern, and by the look she was giving me she was feeling it too. Never in my entire life had I considered such a possibility. And now, after it almost happened for real, I could really comprehend the gravity of my mistake.

The rest of the dinner passed quickly, ponies and human alike eager to get some rest. Pipp and I finished last since we’d gotten a late start. In the solitude of the kitchen where we washed the dishes, no words were exchanged between us, but we wore the shame we felt for our stupidity as clearly as our coat. Once we were done with our dinner and the cleanup, I did the only thing I could think of after Alex’s speech. I hugged her; I hugged her so hard as if she was to disappear any second, with Pipp reciprocating. I don’t know how much time we spent like that, but it felt like it would never be enough.

Together we joined our mare friends in our shared bedroom, wishing each other a pleasant night. Her gentle breathing told me of her passing into the realm of dreams, but that journey wouldn’t come for me tonight no matter how much I tossed and turned under the blankets. I wanted to speak to Alex, even if it was just to personally apologize to him. I felt like I had to, the nagging feeling in the back of my head was preventing me from a good night’s sleep. So, as quietly as I could, I exited the bedroom and tip-hooved towards his.

I found the door half opened with no human inside. Intrigued, I took a quick lap over the ground floor, thinking he might just be watching some late-night TV or something. No sign of him there, either. The only possible option left was the crystals’ room. Not wanting to wake my friends with the elevator, I took the long path out of the living room’s window and went up through the balcony.

Lo and behold, there he was, sitting on the folding chair in front of the desk where his own set of notes, hypothesis and calculations occupied any spare room on its surface.

“Can’t sleep?” He called, not needing to remove his sight from the mess of papers in front of him to recognize my presence.

“I… wanted to talk to you.” I hesitantly told him.

Leaning back from the desk and moving the chair to one side, he invited me to sit in front of him with his hand. I did so slowly, not able to fully meet his gaze.

“So?”

“I just… wanted to say that I’m sorry.”

“I’m not the one you should be apologizing to.” He noted.

“I know, I know.” My feathers nervously ruffled. “I’ve already talked to my sis and patched things up, but…”

“Will it happen again?”

Now I did meet his eyes and spoke with as much confidence as I could muster. “On my life, that I will never, ever put my sister in danger again. Senselessly or not. Hoof to heart.”

My gesture seemed to be enough for him since a warm smile soon erased the scowl on his face. “Good. Make sure of it, especially after today.”

“Huh?”

“Receiving an anonymous tip of a flower’s whereabouts only for the entrance of the cave where that very flower was in to suddenly collapse, trapping you and your sister inside? Come on, Zipp, I know you're smart enough to realize that that was no coincidence.”

That idea had crossed my mind, it HAD been way too coincidental for my liking. “Are you saying somepony is after my sister and I?” I asked with no little amount of apprehension.

“You tell me. Is there anypony who might want you two out of the picture? Aspirants to the throne, enemies of your mother, somepony to whom you owe money…”

“No!” I loudly exclaimed. “Everypegasi loves our family. Nopony has ever considered a coup or something similar for as long as Zephyr Heights has existed. Not even after they discovered we had been lying about our ability to fly. Mom got arrested and all, but everything worked out in the end.” The prospect of somepony wanting to harm me or my sister chilled my blood. All our lives we had only known love and admiration from our fellow pegasi, especially my sister. Practically everypony alive was her follower. How could any pony even mull the idea of hurting us?

Only one possible explanation came to mind. “Perhaps…. The threat that Twilight warned us about?”

Alex considered my words for a second. “Hmmm, there are better ways to get rid of somepony. It seems a little too sloppy an attempt to me but… well, whatever clues they might have left behind must have already been washed out by the tide. Let’s hope it was just a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

I wanted to believe that with all my heart, but the coincidences were too flashy for me to ignore. Another mystery for me to solve quickly if I didn’t want it to nag me for the rest of the year.

Now that we were talking about that mysterious threat, I took the chance to ask Alex something that had been bugging me since that day. “Hey, can I ask you something? It’s about the talk we had the other day at the beach.”

“Sure.” He conceded, wiggling in his seat to find a more comfortable position.

I struggled to find the correct words. “When you said you were completely sure there was no way that alicorn Opaline could be the threat Twilight was warning us about, you, um… kinda sounded like…”

“Like I wanted to believe in it myself above anything else?” He finished for me, hitting the nail on the head.

“Yes.”

His eyes left mine and focused on the nothingness above me as he searched for an answer. “… I remain firm in my claim. If it was truly her, she would’ve obliterated us by now. Even a powerless alicorn has enough strength to wipe us clean, so to speak. I told you already she wasn’t what you would call ‘discreet’. She’s one of those who loudly and obnoxiously proclaims her intention for anypony to hear.”

I listened with rapt attention. “And yet,” He continued. “You’re right. I want to believe she’s not the one. I pray to Faust that she’s as dead and buried as the rest of the alicorns are…”

“You… knew her… right?” I tentatively said.

Alex returned a pained nod of confirmation. “I did. I knew her as a unicorn. One of Twilight’s first and most promising students. Eager to learn and push her limits, very smug and condescending towards other students, but her raw skill and power spoke for her. Something very, very bad must have happened for her to be granted alicornhood. I already told you guys how it was.”

His words matched with his explanation from the other day. “But,” He continued. “What scares me the most, Zipp, is that she didn’t require an iota of her power to achieve what countless others had tried and failed to. Only words, that's all she needed to put Equestria on its knees. Relationships between the tribes are slowly but surely healing and cementing into what they used to be. It would only take a slight push in the wrong direction for everything to come crumbling down again. And she HAS successfully done so once…”

“She could perfectly do it again…” I finished for him, absorbing his words, and understanding where his fear came from.

“Yes.” He pointed towards the Unity Crystals. “Twilight said those crystals are protecting the magic. Since becoming the main conduits of magic in this world, anycreature who wants to get to it must go through these first.” His hand brushed over his chin in contemplation. “I believe I’ve finally figured out what the Unity Crystals are all about.”

That almost made me jump from the cold marble floor. “Y-you have?! But this morning you said…”

“Would you believe me if I told you I had an epiphany just as I was about to fall asleep?” He asked with a coy grin.

“Um… no?”

“Well, I had.” He proudly reaffirmed. “They exist to allow or deny access to magic as long as ponykind remains together or separated respectively, sensing it in the form of how much harmonious magic permeates the land as a product of pony kind’s harmonious coexistence, that we already know as a fact.” He pointed towards the constant flow of Prisbeam magic.

I nodded in understanding.

“They also protect the magic as I just told you. Being the conduits of magic means that, theoretically, all of it flows through them. I’m not fully convinced that’s entirely true but, if you wanna get to the magic, you’ll have to overcome its defenses, defenses not even Discord could penetrate by himself.”

“Whomever wanted to steal the magic would need a tremendous amount of power.” I theorized.

“Indeed. We’ve also seen how the three of them are required to be together to work properly. If one is to be removed with nefarious intentions, or the relationship between the tribes begins to erode, they begin to glitch and fail until magic becomes so unstable it’s impossible to be wielded safely, or at all for that matter.”

“No need to remind me...” I voiced with a shudder, recalling the disastrous event that Maretime Bay Day was.

“We also know they possess both active and passive defenses. Active in the form of a protective shield around them. Passive in granting Sunny her alicorn form.”

My ears perked at that claim. “Wait? That’s why Sunny has alicorn powers? As a means of protection?” It sounded wrong for some reason.

“I believe that, ultimately, that’s the reason behind it, yes. Whether it is by her actively defending them with her powers, or just keeping ponies in line I’m not quite sure.”

“Keep ponies in line?” I inquired with a confused tilt of my head.

“Mhm. Haven’t you noticed how ponies act around her when she’s sporting her wings and horn?”

I shook my head no, not being able to recall any weird behavior from the townsponies at all. “Well, pay close attention next time. You’ll see what I’m referring to.”

Unsatisfied with his answer, I made a mental note to do just that next time I had the chance. “Oookay. So, what do you make out of it all?”

“I’m glad you asked.” He playfully replied. “In order for such a thing as the Unity Crystals to exist, to be able to do such things at the same time, and the sheer power requirements behind their continued functioning, since bending an entire planet’s leylines to meet your settled criteria would require a godly amount of power; I can deduce two things.” He raised two fingers on his hand.

“… And those are?” I impatiently ushered him.

“One,” He lowered a finger. “Such a complex and lasting spell matrix fixed within a physical framework, that being the crystals, can only fit one description: smaller spell arrays intertwined within a superior matrix, interacting with each other, exponentially augmented in scope and intensity while filling multiple purposes.”

I almost fell on my muzzle from the sheer expectancy cursing through my veins, taking in his explanation and making sure to memorize it by heart. This could be key for my own investigation!

“That,” He pointed again to the crystals. “Is what we call a Megaspell.”

My muzzle scrunched in confusion. “A what?”

“A Megaspell.”

“… Again, what?” I repeated demandingly.

“I just explained it to you, Zipp. That’s what those crystals are. I cannot prove it since I lack the necessary equipment to run the tests, but I can’t think of another form of magic that could be equated to what my eyes can see. I was wrong with my initial assumptions, Zipp. That’s what they truly embody.”

I could only remain speechless, but he wasn’t done yet. “And two.” He lowered the remaining finger and got up on his feet facing the Unity Crystals, readying his posture.

“What are you d-” I found my voice again, only to lose it a second time since, in an instant, his gauntlets had charged up and released a powerful beam of magic against the floating crystals. Just as it had happened last time, a shield appeared around them, absorbing and dissipating the blast with a booming screeching that flattened my ears against my scalp.

“Dude, what was that for?!” I complained as I rubbed my aching ears.

“Did you see that?” He motioned towards the unbothered gems. “The shield that just appeared?”

“Uh-huh. Could have chosen another method that wouldn’t render half the bay dea-”

“That’s Opaline’s magic.”

I almost choked on my own words, the notion of a tangible proof of the existence of said mysterious alicorn just in front of my snout making my brain cells short circuit. “H-huh?” I managed to stammer.

“Remember what Discord told us down in the caves under the Royal Castle? ‘It’s not Twilight’s magic powering the crystals, at least not entirely.’ Opaline was stripped of her alicorn magic after her defeat by Twilight’s hooves. That’s where her magic went. To power up the Megaspell, perhaps also maintaining the spell that kept you guys hidden for so long.”

Dumbfoundedly switching my gaze from my human friend to the Unity Crystals and back, I stood back on my hooves and carefully stepped closer to the levitating gems, waving an exploratory hoof near them, not triggering a single response from them.

I felt Alex’s presence behind me, placing his hand on my scalp and gently rubbing it as I had seen him do so with Sunny many times. “Baby steps, Zipp, but we’re getting there, I’m positive.” He finished with a more vigorous scratch behind my ear. “Come on, that’s enough for one night, see if you can get any sleep, ‘cause I sure know I won’t.”

With that said, he returned to his work desk to finish scribbling down what was left to record about tonight’s discoveries. I remained there, my haunches protesting against the cold of the marble floor, but I couldn’t will my body to move. My mind was fully preoccupied with analyzing Alex's discoveries, a small part of it bothered by the fact he had achieved so much more progress than I had. But what can you expect from a scientific mind like his? It made me feel like I was stumbling around like a drunk pegasus.

Shaking myself out of my stupor, I took his advice and, through the same way I had left, I returned to our shared bedroom, passing near my little sis, whom was sleeping soundly. By some miracle, the screeching of the shields hadn't awakened the mares. I couldn’t resist after today’s events and gave her a kiss atop her head, a tender smile growing on her muzzle at the gesture. I vowed to look for a way to compensate her. Perhaps, much to my regret, I would allow her to experiment with my mane the next time I stopped by Mane Melody.

‘Come on, Zipp, it’s just a bit of mane dye and comb work. You can survive that!’

If Alex’s discoveries weren’t going keep me from a good night’s rest, that most certainly was.

“Okay, Misty, on the count of three! One… t-twooooo…”

No amount of self-convincing would get my trembling legs to finish trotting the remaining distance to the twin doors leading to the throne room, where Opaline was surely expecting my triumphant return after putting into practice her one hundred percent foolproof plan to take the two pegasi princesses out of the picture after what we had learned that very same morning.

The plan: using a rare Ocean Lily conjured by her… unorthodox use of magic to trick the sisters into a cave where the detonating potion, that she had prepared herself, would bury them under a ton of rubble, hence getting them out of our snouts.

It was obvious by her wording she would have preferred the pegasi to have been put literally out of the picture, but I couldn’t bring myself to commit such an atrocity, even if they’re supposed to be our enemies.

The first phase of the plan had gone swiftly, the two sisters following my anonymous tips without suspecting a thing. I just modified the plan a teensy tiny bit and waited for them to fully enter the cavern before using the detonating potion. Trapped inside forever instead of buried alive, it shouldn’t matter for us, right? They had water… salty though it was, and seaweed if they got hungry and…

“Misty!”

“AAAAGH!!!”

My heart almost jumped out of my chest, my previously unwilling legs now catapulting me twice my height in fright. I thought Opaline would be waiting inside her throne room, but she happened to surprise me by coming out from one of the castle’s side rooms.

Twisting my body as I fell back on my hooves, I swallowed a nervous gulp and hardened my resolve… more or less. “O-O-Opaline, I-I thought you…”

“Did you get them?” She tiredly asked without caring for my outright panicking nerves.

“Um… m-more or less…”

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” She strongly demanded. “Are those two pesky pegasi under a ton of rubble or not?!” She flared her wings, making me feel even smaller.

“W-well I, um… managed to trap them inside…” I squeaked, once again trembling legs barely keeping me upright.

Her scowl deepened. “And?!”

“I trapped them for a while… then the hooman came to rescue them. There were some fillies too, I think...”

*SLAM!!*

I fell on my rump from the sheer strength of her stomp. She was positively fuming, to the point I believe I saw trails of smoke literally leaving her nostrils. “Ugh! You are useless!” She glared at me so harshly I had to cower under my mane.

Forcefully shoving my shaking form aside, she proceeded towards her throne room, muttering obscenities I was lucky to be unable to discern.

“W-wait!” I tried to call out to her but her tail disappeared behind the twin doors. “I'm sure I can lure them out again! I just need to…”

“Don’t bother. “ She interrupted me from the opposite side of her screening pool. “It is high time I take a more… personal invovement…”

Author's Note

Those who have been around here for a while will surely know what he’s talking about...