"She's not alone!"

The entire room seemingly went silent when I said that, and they all started looking at me in confusion.

I reached up and removed the horn before tossing it to the ground. I then reached down, undid the buckle, and tossed the dress off to one side with my hips, where it landed on the floor. I then extended my wings to their full width and heard the crowd gasp.

"I'm not a unicorn either. I'm a pegasus, and she and I are friends!"

The gasping was soon followed by more gasping of some sort. Seriously, had they never seen a pegasus before?

I noticed several of the patrons moving towards Sunny, so I moved forward. "Don't think about touching her," I hissed. They got the message and backed off.

Sunny looked at me with an appreciative look in her eyes. Well, what sort of friend leaves another in the lurch, huh?

But we couldn't stop as the atmosphere continued to heat up. "I knew it!" A unicorn cried. "The earth ponies and pegasi have allied to take over our lands!"

Not that this seemed to phase Alphabittle. I mean, this guy was pretty huge. He towered over us, and even if we didn't have magic he'd still be able to damage an artery or something like that if he stabbed one of us with his horn. "You tried that trick at Thunder Bay, but it won't help you now. Now then, you'll have a 30 second headstart-"

Thunder Bay? Zipp had mentioned something about that. But I thought the unicorns allied with the earth ponies, rather than fighting against an earth pony and pegasus alliance. Was this another piece of their distorted history we'd need to unpack?

Luckily, we got some help. "I'm an earth pony too," Sprout said, also discarding his horn, and looking fiercely at Alphabittle. "I know I don't look like much, but if you let your bigotry consume you then you'll just be miserable."

The original Sprout would certainly know all about that. Hopefully we wouldn't have to go through the lighthouse battle this time- falling off things is not my cup of tea.

And then Hitch joined him in an act of solidarity. "I'm an earth pony as well. And I will not tolerate my friend being spoken to that way."

AWWW! Hitch and Sunny really do stick up for each other! I wonder if they'll get together?

Before anypony else could interject, Izzy bounced forward, having recovered from Alphabittle being so rude to her. "And I'm a unicorn! But you probably knew that already."

A smaller, less confident voice soon joined the rest of our voices. "And I'm also a unicorn, but you probably didn't know that seeing as I'm not from here."

I looked back to see Misty bravely stepping forward, her mane shining in the dim light of the tearoom. Considering how quiet she usually is, this was seriously brave of her. "And I'm also a unicorn, but you probably didn't know that seeing as I'm not from here."

Then something uber weird happened. Alphabittle called her 'my Misty'.

HE WAS MISTY'S DAD!

I don't remember this being established at any point in the story!

Unfortunately, he took advantage of our freeze and pulled Misty towards him, saying something about her no longer being a hostage. When at any point had we indicated she was a hostage?

Luckily, Hitch rode to the rescue. "Wing! Feather! Magic! MAYONNAISE!"

This caused the room to stop moving, and then launch into their respective chants to ward of jinxies.

That convinced us it was high time to get out of there. I sprinted for the door, followed by the others. We barreled out of that teashop and into the open air, with Misty leaving just seconds before the sign collapsed.

I knew Alphabittle was yelling something, but I didn't care. I just wanted to get back to Izzy's house, and put these crystals together, and get our magic back.

If we could do that, I would be a very happy camper.

But as we were dashing along through the trees, I suddenly heard a familiar voice.

"This way!"

Wait a second. I knew that voice. I had last heard it in Zephyr Heights all that time ago.

I began to run in its direction, determined to find the speaker. I rolled through a bush and into a clearing.

The rest caught up, and just then I saw who had been speaking.

The voice that spoke to me at the campfire was right! It was Zipp! She was OK!

"Zipp!" I cried, launching myself over to her and pulling her into a hug. "I'm so, so glad you're OK!"

Words cannot express how happy I was. After so long apart from my family, I was just so, so happy to see my sister again. Having feared she was dead, to just be able to embrace again meant so much to me.

"Hey Pipp," she said, hugging me as best I could. "It's been a wild ride."

My nose then kicked in, and I detected she had... shall we say a rather distinct aroma. "I'm not surprised," I said. "You smell pretty bad."

Zipp sighed. "Well, trekking across mountains and walking through forests rather does that to ya. I could do with a shower."

Hitch, ever the man of action, ruined the moment. "Walking across mountains? I don't remember that from the movie."

I didn't either, to be honest. I know we had a night on a mountainside (two if you count the one the night we fled Zephyr Heights), but we spent most of our time walking through fields."

"It's a long story," Zipp sighed, as I released her from the hug. "But I'm here now, with you guys, and we can move forward. Have you got the crystals?"

Suddenly, a group of pegasus soldiers popped through the bushes and spotted us. After clearing up some confusion, they no longer regarded us as hostile, before some odd noises came from a nearby bush.

Just then, mom rolled out of it and landed on her tail. "Ouch! I think that dislodged the tailbrace. Must ask Pipp to check it."

Just then she saw us, and sped over to pull us into another hug. "Thank Faust you're safe, Pipp!"

"Well, I had a little help from my friends," I answered. Seriously, what's with all the hugging? Harvest and Hugs isn't for another few months!"

But it didn't matter. We were a complete family unit again. And there was nothing more I wanted after being apart from them for so long.

"I'm just so glad to have my little fillies back. And there's an extra surprise for you too. Pipp, this is going to be quite hard to believe... but this stallion is your father."

I suddenly spotted a stallion with a yellowy mane and beard, who looked like some sort of mountain stallion. But I somehow knew him.

Tears welled in my eyes as I knew what was happening.

He really, truly, was my dad.

He looked at me. "Hello, Pipp. It's been a while. Ten years to be precise."

I sped over as quickly as my legs could carry me and launched into an embrace. "I've missed you so much!" I sobbed, quietly.

"Me too," he replied. "You certainly have grown, though."

That tends to be a part of aging, in my case more upwards than outwards.

Unfortunately, care to guess who rode in to ruin the moment?

Yes, Alphabittle showed up. And he brought soldiers with him. And some tanks, both of which poked out of the treeline and pointed their guns at us. This was a bit of overkill, don'tchathink?

Alphabittle looked at us, and was seemingly very annoyed. "I knew it," he growled. "This was your plan the entire time. Why am I not surprised the pegasi are behind this?"

What followed was a long and pretty boring argument that dragged on for way too long. I went and played on my phone whilst they bickered amongst themselves, only looking up at one moment when things got especially vicious.

But as I was fiddling on my phone, it suddenly played a very odd noise, rather like those emergency broadcast tones you sometimes hear.

And then that nutcase General appeared on the screen, talking at length about how he would defeat opposition.

Unfortunately, this guy did not specialize in using the camera well, and leaned way too close. "Make no mistake. We know where the rebels are. We will find you and we will kill you. None shall stand in the way of our glorious future."

Seriously, dude, don't get so close! I don't want to see your teeth!

Zipp went white as a sheet seeing as (which is quite impressive seeing as she has white fur), whilst mom was able to secure some last minute diplomacy to get us some unicorn support.

And then we set off back for Zephyr Heights- though not under the most ideal of circumstances.

Author's Note

And that about does it for this block for of Princess Pipp Petals! :)

We'll return to her later on down the road during Phase Five, but for now... and coming up next month... we shall return back on over to a certain red earth pony. =)