“Where could Zipp have gone?” Sunny asks confused

Izzy pops up with the answer, “She started flying away when the Queen said her dad was coming back”

Haven paces around nervously, “Oh no she can’t be gone, we need to leave now if we want to be there in time for the welcoming banquet”

Sunny ponders the situation for a second, and then an idea pops up in her head. She hooks her hoof around Hitch’s neck, “I’m sure Hitch can find her in no time! After all, he was able to find me and Izzy in under a day!”

“That is true, but the problem is she flew away so there aren’t any tracks for me to follow her with…” he states.

Izzy floats a weird-looking item towards him, “This item is based on that Pegasibusters book you showed me. I used my magic to give it power and then did some decorating and voila! Your very own pegasi tracker! All you need to do to make it work is add a clip of her hair, which we luckily have some on the sand..." She picks up the lone strand and inserts it in the device, then tosses it towards him. "and then boom magic!”

Hitch catches the strange device, “Thank you, Izzy! Strangely you think of everything, now let’s go everypony we can’t give her much time to escape!” He started running with the pegasi tracker leading the way but stopped in his tracks when he saw nopony following him. “Why isn't anypony coming along?”

Sunny having caught everyone to her plan answers with an innocent smile, “You see just in case you and Zipp don’t come back in time, I’ll be there as a diversion. Since I don't know how to trigger my new alicorn form...or even fly... I'll put on some fake wings and Izzy will use her magic to make it look like I’m flying around just in case some pony gets suspicious.”

"But you're shorter than Zipp.."

"Shush her dad probably hasn't seen her in a while, I'm sure he can't predict how tall she'll be now" Everypony near her nods along, “So hurry along and find her Hitch!”

Hitch sighs not being able to argue against that and salutes to the others, uttering a quick goodbye. He now starts to follow the direction the contraption was pointing to, taking only a day until he finally catches up to her. There he finds Zipp in a cave sleeping soundly next to a poorly assembled campfire, probably to combat the cold breeze.

He carefully steps towards her and gently puts a stray hair strand behind her ear. Zipp after feeling the small motion starts to open her eyes and looks up. There their heads would be mere inches away from each other. They would stay staring at each other for a couple of minutes, not one budging, but at the last second Hitch is the first to pull away. Zipp wears a face of disappointment and then gets up from where she was lying and leans towards him.

“Sheriff, I didn’t think you'd be able to track me down. Let alone this quick, your skills are rather impressive I see. We should hire you to train the Zephyr Heights guards.”

Hitch composed again turns away from her feeling slightly conflicted.

“Hitch? Are you alright?” Zipp turns towards him again and lays her hoof on his forehead but he pulls away again now staring straight at her with a hurt face,

“Zipp…stop”

This response takes her back, “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you're distancing yourself from me.” Zipp jokes to clear the air though she would get tenser when Hitch wouldn’t respond. “Come on Hitch, you’re starting to scare me…”

“Zipp, why have you been lying to me? And why are you acting up like this?” Hitch asks her in a serious tone.

Hearing this she starts to feel offended and states defensively, “I would never lie to you.”

“So you have been inside kingdom management classes with your mom? Without a kingdom? I mean you could have at least told me that-“

“What? That I’m currently homeless and have been camping out under the stars with my family ever since magic came back? Hitch I didn’t want your pity, and I especially never lied to you. Just never told you everything.”, Zipp slumps down on the floor near the campfire.

“Zipp that’s still lying” Hitch states deadpanned before restructuring his approach, “I thought you were living inside your castle Zipp... Plus I don’t care about that stuff. The only thing I really need to know is if you're okay and if you need help. Now let’s start small, why did you fly away when your mom mentioned your dad?”

Zipp meekly pats the spot next to her, signaling for Hitch to sit next to her.

He takes a seat where she patted and looks at her expectantly. She takes a couple of deep breaths before looking straight at him, “Hitch… my dad... He’s horrible… aggressive…scary even! The only time he’s been around was when I was just a young filly and Pipp a foal so of course, she would run to him with open arms.” She ends bitterly. Hitch takes her hoof into his as a kind of reassurance. She smiles at this before continuing.

“But if she could remember half the things he did to Mom, if she knew just a 1/5 of the things he did while being King, well she would do everything in her power to distance herself from him…she might even try to release her fans to bully him off the throne…” She looks up in thought.

"Why didn't you remind her?"

“I guess I didn't want to ruin her happy memories with him. Mom still to this day thinks I don’t know anything, that’s why when I heard he was going to war… I-I started dancing around happily! That of course resulted in me getting in trouble, but I didn’t care. I hoped he would rot in that place, we never needed him and I hate that we now do just because we lost our political stance in Zephyr Heights.”, Zipp tries to blink back tears as her voice starts to break.

Hitch hugs her, “I’m sorry for being insensitive and thinking that you were lying to me. I shouldn’t have forced you to open up, this is a very sensitive topic for you…” Hitch keeps on apologizing while comforting her in a hug. This annoys Zipp since she stated earlier that she didn’t want to feel his pity.

“Sheriff…” he kept apologizing, not hearing her. She then does the first thing she thinks of and gives him a quick peck on the lips.

This takes Hitch by surprise but technically it does stop him from apologizing

“Stop apologizing. I already told you that I don’t like when ponies pity me, especially you…” Zipp tilts her head back, blushing a little.

She looks at him and snickers at how red he turned. Every time Hitch tried to say something the only thing that came out was gibberish, but eventually he's able to recompose himself...well barely.

“Zipp, I d-don't think you're thinking straight right now? You're very vulnerable… and you might be confusing your feelings.”

Zipp gets up defensive, “What? So you think I’ll go around kissing any pony that’s there to comfort me?”

“Of course not! It's just...Well, you know what? We can talk about this later. Our friends and your mom could be in Zephyr Heights right now! Before I left they were going to do a diversion where Sunny pretends to be you! We need to protect them, Zipp.” Hitch tries to defuse the situation and Zipp starts stretching her wings, still mad at him but deciding to do nothing about it. After all, there are more important things at stake,

“What are you waiting for Sheriff? Hurry up and get on my back.”

Hitch would be hesitant about it though, “You know I weigh a lot...W-we can walk since thankfully we are close to Zephyr Heights!” Zipp wasn’t having it with the excuses and scooped him up, throwing him onto her back. She does heavy lifting in her free time, Hitch should be nothing...right?

They arrived in front of the castle to Zephyr Heights after like 5 minutes of flying. There she spots Sunny and Izzy running out of the palace in a panic. When they spot her flying they wave them over.

Zipp lands and throws Hitch off her back, “Dang Sherrif, what have you been eating? You're heavier than a wagon of apples.”

Hitch would blush in embarrassment at the comparison, “I eat mostly veggies for your information. I thought I would be a little too heavy for you, but somepony never listens.”

"Hmm, it's probably because I'm not used to you. What do you say we go for a quick lap around the castle?"

"Please don't."

Sunny and Izzy catch up to them, very giddy.

Sunny hugs them both “Amazing guys! You were able to come back just in time! Woah, Zipp, you look a little… tired?”

Which was an understatement seeing as she had dark eye bags under her eye sockets, swollen eyes, and her posture was very uneasy. Hitch was able to catch her when she tripped.

"...why do you always do this to yourself?"

"Do what?"

"Overexert yourself?"

"It's nothing, a quick nap will bring the energy right up!" She flexes her left hoof. The muscle deflates,

"Wow, even your muscles have left you" Izzy comments.

"Here's a candy bar I got from inside." Sunny offers Zipp the bar and she's about to grab it before it gets shot down by a....dagger?

A very tall and muscular pegasus appears from above, with a satchel of daggers on his sides, standing before them menacingly. His coat was a greyed-out maroon color. He had his fawn-colored hair tied up in a messy high ponytail that reached his shoulders and sported a stubble on his jaw. He was covered from head to hoof with battle scars, some recent, some old, all of them in general did not seem to help ease his scary aura.

Queen Haven and Pipp, who were chasing behind him, breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that Zipp finally arrived.

“…What is this stinking earth pony doing here holding my Zephyrina? Haven care to explain?” The muscular pony orders with a gruff voice,

"Hitch...meet my dad. Commander Thunder Light or King Thunder for short" Zipp motions her hoof towards him.

Author's Note

I like to headcanon that Zipp has a low blood sugar