“This is Hitch, one of Zipp’s close friends who also helped with bringing back magic. Sheriff Hitch? Why is my daughter like this? What happened…?” Queen Haven questions him after seeing the state Zipp was in.

Thunder Light wasn’t having any of it and grabs Zipp, “Stop asking stupid questions. I thank you for your help with giving back magic and getting my daughter here safe and sound, but that’s as far as my gratitude will take me. Now hand her over and I’ll go and bring her to her chambers where she can properly rest.”

Hitch tightened his grip on Zipp not trusting him

“Everyone I’m fine, just overexerted the wings a little…I'll be up and running after a few minutes of rest.” Nopony seemed to believe her.

Before Hitch could react Zipp’s father took her from his hooves. Zipp could be seen growing very uncomfortable with his grip and attempts to worm her way out of his grip

“D-dad..." The minute she says this she can feel a sour taste building up in her mouth, "I’m really fine! Just let me go!”

“I, commander Thunder Light, command you to be quiet and complacent! Princess, do know I’m doing this for you. Since seeing that you have gotten my stubborn attributes it seems.”

She tries to argue with him once more, but she resigns after feeling his grip on her tighten more. Not wanting to be near him any longer, Zipp nodded and flew inside the castle.

Pipp flies towards Thunder very excited, “Oh my gosh dad! I’ve been waiting for what seems like forever to be able to be with you again. I’ve got billions of things to do with you and talk about, but first I have a surprise!” Pipp leads him back inside to the banquet hall as everypony else follows right behind her.

"So...why was everypony panicked?" Hitch asks Sunny in a low voice,

"Hmm? Oh...well let's say our plan backfired in a really bad way."

"It blew up in our faces!" Izzy chimes in,

"Indeed, but alas I'll leave these two to catch you up. I have to make sure nothing else goes wrong in the throne room...we don't want a repeat of the last Gala." Queen Haven mumbles out, recollecting the very thing that made them fugitives.

She flies ahead of the group and takes a sharp turn at a nearby corner. Pipp leads her dad to his seat in the throne room and flies upwards to the royal dressing room to do some last-minute prep.

The throne room was getting filled to the brim with Zephyr Heights citizens. Some could be seen attempting to fly but crashing down on the decorations or the seats lining the room leaving the castle staff to hold in their screams now having to organize everything again.

Sunny guides Hitch to stairs that bring them up to the side boxes surrounding the throne room, Izzy bounces happily behind them both. The guards at the top block them from entering but Sunny shows them a golden crest and they let her through.

Hitch sits next to Sunny, and Izzy seats herself on Sunny's other side leaning on her shoulder, and looks down excitedly at how full the throne room was getting very quickly.

"Ok, so now where do I start..."

"Start when we actually started the plan!" Izzy answers Sunny, who shakes her head smiling at Izzy's antics.

"Sure, that's where we obviously should start, haha! Ok, so we arrived at the palace, and Queen Haven quickly guides us to their dressing room"

A few hours ago

Pipp used all the mane dye she had at her disposal and Queen Haven was working on my makeup.

"Phew! With only 5 minutes to spare! What do you think Pipp? Does she pass enough to be confused for your sister?" Queen Haven leans back after applying the last bit of Sunny's makeup,

"Honestly I think we made her look too good...Zipp has a kind of messiness to her you know...?"

"True, but you are close to her, at quick glance from anypony else she could pass. Right Izzy?"

Izzy approaches Sunny and smudges a lot of the makeup, "There you go!"

Pipp and Queen Haven look at the change with a conflicted expression on their face.

"It's....passable?"

"Well it's a lot closer than what you did mom" Pipp quickly says and plops down a pair of wings on Sunny's back. "Now Sunny, as long as you don't talk, don't trigger your alicorn powers, don't drop this cloak, oh, and under no circumstances hug him! We'll be in the clear!"

"But what if your dad wants me to greet him or something?"

"Well that's easy, Zipp never liked talking to Thunder so you not talking will be in character!" Queen Haven claps her hooves together

"She didn't? I wonder why..." Pipp ponders.

I know why

Ok, not ominous at all. Anywho after that short exchange King Thunder burst into the throne room.

His inner sparkle was very dark! And at that moment it was bubbling like a boiling teapot

Pipp flies to her dad to give him a bear hug. He pats her back stifly, his attention entirely towards Queen Haven or more accurately the unicorn she had so close to her and his Zephyrina's side.

"Dad! Welcome back!-"

"Haven! Are you crazy! Why do you have that fiend next to you and our daughter" He hisses the "fiend" part and reaches out to get his dagger.

"So nice to have you again Thunder." Queen Haven rolls her eyes and waves Izzy closer to her, "This is Izzy, her and Sunny, a bright and optimistic earth pony, helped bring back magic to our kingdom. They gifted us our flight, the least we can do is welcome them with open arms."

"Mhm! They are me and Zipp's close friends! We also have another earth pony in our friend group, he's very kind. I'm sure you'll love him."

"Hmph, sure I would...." He puts his dagger back and looks around, "And where is that Sun earth pony you were talking about?"

"Collecting flowers!"

"Collecting...flowers?" Thunder repeats what Izzy said, trying to make sure he heard her right.

Queen Haven, Pipp, and Sunny also look at Izzy confused themselves

"Yup! Collecting flowers!"

"What my friend Izzy means is that...she heard of your return and wanted to give you a gift as a sign of friendship, so I told her your favorite flower and right now she is arranging a special bouquet just for you!" Sunny stares daggers to the back of Pipp's head. Pipp turns back to her with an apologetic face holding her hooves together,

I didn't know you could do flower arrangements.

Yeah! It's like a skill I've never learned at all and never practiced.

Oh...

"Doesn't matter, it's probably better that she isn't here... I wouldn't want her to stink up this whole throne room."

"Thunder!"

"That's Commander Thunder to you, don't think I didn't catch your slip-up earlier."

"As Queen, I can address you however I'd like. Especially, as your wife."

"You haven't been my wife in moons. Sending that letter to me while I'm giving my life for our kingdom! Wow, awesome move Haven! Acting like a real coward. Oh, and what is this I hear of you and our daughters being fugitives? You had one job and you still managed to mess it up miraculously! I mean really? You didn't think to check up on the equipment before leading Pipp to humiliate herself the way she did!!!" The last thing he screamed made Pipp shrink a little, and Queen Haven trots to him her wings flared up.

"That situation was entirely unavoidable, and recent, and has nothing to do with how I was as a ruler! Unlike you, I don't blow up at every sign of a minor inconvenience and actually think things through before leading a region full of underprepared, undertrained, and uneducated young colts and mares to war with a neighboring kingdom that we've had amicable relationships with until YOU went and insulted their monarch and kingdom as a whole!" She hammers her wings into his chest at every point she brings up. Thunder just stands looking down at her unphased,

"A war that we still won."

"How many lives were unnecessarily lost?"

"Giving your life to the kingdom is the ultimate honor any citizen would want to have."

"How many lives..."

"Not anywhere near your tally." That one sentence was enough to shut down Queen Haven, and she brings her head down in shame and brings herself back to where she was before.

Sunny wants to check on Queen Haven but then remembers her role as Zipp instead of Sunny, so she reluctantly stays still.

"Now Zephyrina, why haven't you greeted me at least once this whole exchange." Thunder glares at Sunny who just looks up at him nervously. Pipp comes to her defense,

"Zipp lost her voice earlier this week!"

"Nonsense, the least she could do is give me a hug or something. Now come quick Zephyrina, you know I have my limits."

"Enough Thun- Commander, stop pushing her she obviously still hasn't warmed up to you. You can't force someone to like you." Queen Haven clutches her forehead tired

Thunder frowns at this and approaches Sunny with purposeful and powerful strides, "That's another thing different about me and you, Haven. You're too soft. She's my daughter, it's her sworn duty since she was born to like me. If it wasn't for me she wouldn't exist."

Sunny takes a few steps back her eyes widening, but Thunder is already close to her and then he forces her into a hug. Sunny pushes herself off him and then examines the makeup on his fur in horror.

"Now, Princess, what was so hard about that?" Thunder looks down and then sees half of Sunny's face is exposed...definitely not Zipp, and then he examines his coat. Without taking one second to process this he slams her to the floor holding his dagger straight to her neck, "Who are you and what have you done with my Zephyrina."

"Hehe...surprise?" Thunder is blinded by sparkles, and now Sunny was nowhere near him. Same as Izzy. He glares back at Queen Haven who was watching the scene with a hoof to her mouth and brows furrowed together,

"This is what you get when you trust unicorns, Haven! Guards put the castle on lockdown! Until I see that Unicorn, that orange pony pretending to be my Zephyrina, and Zephyrina no one is allowed out of this castle alive!" Thunder then dashes upwards towards the ceiling dome. Only one thing on his mind,

Pipp looks back at her mom worried.

Izzy performed her first teleportation spell!

At the time I wasn't really thinking and was focusing on saving Sunny. The only thing I could remember was seeing her sparkle and then the next we were in the hallway outside of the throne room. After I heard Zipp's dad scream about no one being able to leave alive...well, I grabbed Sunny's hoof and we dashed towards the exit.

My hero, but yes that's when we saw you both coming back and well you know what happened after that...

Hitch thinks back at the stuff that Zipp told him in the cave, and the description of her dad lined up exactly with how Sunny and Izzy described their encounter with him, "I see...thanks Izzy, for saving her. I don't know what I'd do if I lost Sunny."

"You don't need to thank me. I'll always protect Sunny. I love her very much..." Izzy confesses glancing back at Sunny who could be seen wearing a small smile, a faint blush creeping on her cheeks.

"Stop being so sentimental you two! It's going to take a lot to bring me down!"

Hitch chuckles at this and pats Sunny's forehead, "So what are we waiting for?"

"Pipp is going to perform a special song for her dad!" Izzy exclaims

"...Perform?" Hitch repeats and glances at Sunny who looks back at him, her eyes emulating the same concern he had.

Izzy starts to talk about some unicycling tips Sunny could use but then stops when she saw that the pony she was talking to wasn’t listening, “Sunny? Hello? Is anypony in there? Hitch, can you snap her out of this” she asked the equally distracted, aquamarine mane, earth pony.

So she uses her magic to pull on both of their ear lobes. They both winced from that and looked at her, “Great now that I have both of your attention! What’s wrong?”

Sunny looks around before whispering under her breath to where only Hitch and Izzy can hear, “It’s about Pipp’s performance. I’m really worried about it since she said before that no pony seemed to have forgiven them yet, I have a feeling something bad is going to happen.”

“That’s true, but maybe they forgot about the mess of a performance we helped make last time…” Izzy comments with a hopeful grin.

Hitch still rubbing his ear lobes would look at Izzy, “Have you not noticed how nopony looks excited? But instead, looks like they're scheming something? The only reason they are even letting them go back to being royals is probably that Zipp’s father got them out of a war.”

Izzy now starts to grow nervous, “Oh come on…they are super excited! I mean they wouldn’t try to ruin the performance right…?”

Before Hitch could answer the lights turned off and Pipp could be seen flying down with two background dancers by her side,

“Hello, all my pipsqueaks! We are here today to celebrate my father’s return from that horrible war. This song l am about to sing will be from the bottom of my heart and directed to my hero. Love you daddy!” It was after that speech that the music started, there the background dancers went to their spots and the performance began with Pipp turning around and reaching out a hoof to her father.

[Cue “Come Back Home” by Sofia Carson]

When the performance was done, everypony in the room started stomping their hooves on the ground, Izzy was probably the loudest with her hollering, cheers, and claps. Sunny would join her for second loudest, and Hitch third place.

“Now who is ready for Glowing Up!” The minute Pipp said that though Izzy noticed that the whole room's aura got different.

She looks at Sunny now very worried and Pipp starts singing her song. The background dancers weren’t dancing along to the normal choreography but instead mimicking Hitch’s dance during the old performance. Thunder took notice of this and sent a glare toward Queen Haven who was now sinking down her seat feeling immense dread.

“Oh no… I mean the good thing is that Pipp is enjoying herself and not noticing anything….right?” Izzy whispers to Sunny who was now busy biting her hoofs, so she looks towards Hitch but he's busy sliding a hoof down his face. “So it isn’t a good thing…”,

“Come on, everypony sing along with me! Glowin Up, Kind of Love, Dip, and Slide, through the stuff! Glowin Up, Kind of Love-“ That was when Pipp opened her eyes and was faced with reality and there she was frozen, whispering to herself, “T-they’re making fun of me… they never made fun of me…”

The trauma of said incident was coming back and she tried to get away from the stage until all-around photos of her and her family being exposed started circulating through everyone’s phones.

“Come on Pipp, give us more! Give us more! Oh looks like she got stage fright, let’s help her everypony!” A random bystander would say and soon the whole room was singing along to the wrong verses of the song,

“Throwing Up! Kind of fun! Doing stuff that I love! You’re like why, and I’m like what!”

This was enough for Thunder to get up from his seat and shout for everyone to be quiet, and there Zipp came flying to get Pipp out of the room, “I left you hanging before, I’m never going to leave you like that again.”

Sunny, Izzy, and Hitch immediately get up to go follow Zipp but are blocked by the guards. “Only authorized personnel are allowed beyond this point, be gone.”

Sunny pulls out the gold crest again, “We are authorized personnel, we are the close friends of Princess Pipp Petals and Princess Zipp Storm. This crest was gifted to me from Queen Haven! Now let us go through!”

The guards moved to open the doors until Zipp’s dad showed up in front of them wearing a scowl, “…leave, you’ve all caused my daughter enough anguish. As your king, I forbid them from entering!”

Queen Haven flies in and blocks Thunder, “As your Queen, I demand you to let them in.”

“What are you doing? Can’t you see they are the reason why Pipp is humiliated like this? Nothing good comes from these types of ponies. As your king, I demand that you prohibit them from entering Zephyr Heights any longer! They are officially banned!”

“As your queen, I revoke this ban. They are both our daughters' friends and therefore another part of our family! Right now what they need the most is their friends by their side. Guards, what are you doing? Let them in!”

The guard ponies were so confused from all the back-and-forth arguing that they just kept on letting them in and leaving them out. Izzy wasn’t having this though so she stomped down her hoof,

“The longer you guys are arguing the more Pipp is going to be crying! Right now she doesn’t need her family arguing on her behalf and instead needs the important ponies in her life by her side to comfort her. Think about who is the real victim of this all. It’s Pipp, she was trying to show her appreciation that her father is back in her life, and instead, the ponies went and mocked her for it!”

This made Queen Haven and King Thunder stop their arguing. “You’ll have your way this time Haven, but trust we are going to be talking about this after.” Thunder Light flies away from them all, and the guards let them inside,

“Follow me, Princess Pipp’s room is just a couple of rooms from here.” One of the guard ponies leads them while the other stays at her station.

Sunny looks back after a couple of minutes of walking and sees Queen Haven and King Thunder back to arguing with one another, that is before Thunder whispers something into her ear that makes her go quiet and get pale.

Sunny was going to stop and run back to help Queen Haven, but she was about to lose the guard pony, so she ran to catch up to them, “Hey guys when we are with Zipp and Pipp…I need to tell you all something that you probably won’t believe.”

Author's Note

Thunder Light, Thunder, Commander Thunder, King Thunder, how many names can one character go by?