Zipp was so relieved to be back in Maretime Bay. This week had been kind of exhausting. When she'd daydreamed of flying in the past, all the things she'd try, all the experiments she'd do, she'd really only been imagining herself flying. She'd been trying to figure out how to give everyone else flight too, of course, but in her mind, she'd imagined it to be a slower process if it did ever happen. Turns out the entire pegasus population suddenly gaining the ability to fly was… chaotic. And as future queen, and one of the few ponies who knew much about flying, Zipp had been doing a lot of work to help ponies become sky ready.

It wasn't that Zipp resented the work, exactly. She was thrilled everypony could fly now. The pegasi were overjoyed. Yesterday, she'd been working with a group of elderly pegasi. They'd been so emotional, getting to fly before they passed on. Knowing that their kids and grandkids could now fly too. Nopony seemed to care about the royal family's lies now that they could all fly.

Zipp was happy to be forgiven, but at the same time, the forgiveness didn't feel earned. Neither her nor Pipp had really done all that much. They never would have brought magic back without Sunny's help. And the pegasus crystal was in her family's crown. What if it was one of her ancestor's that had removed the crystal from the Unity Crystal and lost the magic in the first place? Did anypony else suspect this? What if ponies started to think about it and they came to that conclusion? What would the citizens have done if magic hadn't been brought back? Would her whole family be in cells right now? Would they have been forgiven even if magic hadn't returned?

Probably not no. Zipp didn't have a great track record with ponies forgiving her for lying.

Sighing, Zipp gazed down at Maretime Bay from her cloud perch. She found clouds fascinating. Pegasi had found out very quickly that they could walk on the fluffy things. There were old legends about pegasi being able to harness the weather itself. Zipp didn't want to experiment with that here though, a lot of earth ponies were still on edge with just the flying part. No need to freak them out more.

There wasn't much to do at the moment.

Pipp was out doing social media stuff, which Zipp avoided like the plague if she could. She'd already helped Pipp with that stuff this morning, she'd fulfilled her daily quota. Izzy had gone back to Bridlewood to invite unicorns to their party with Sunny. Zipp would have gone with them to do that, but she'd arrived after they'd already left. She wasn't sure where Hitch was. She didn't know anypony else in the city.

It was weird. Zipp wasn't a… social pony. It wasn't that she was shy, she could trot up and talk to anypony. It was just… she hadn't had many friends as a filly. There were a few reasons for that but the main one was that she hadn't been able to fly and that had been the first thing ponies asked to see when she met them. It was hard to come up with excuses so to keep the secret it was just easier to interact with most ponies as little as possible. It had been… lonely.

Pipp had gotten around this problem by using social media. 'Friendships at a distance.' It was much easier to fake flying on a set with no pony actually in the room with you. But Zipp just couldn't stand social media stuff and preferred real-life relationships.

It wasn't that Zipp had been a princess locked in a tower or anything, she'd still seen plenty of ponies. Ponies who wanted to be friends with her or looked up to her because she was a princess. It was weird to be in a place where ponies didn't all immediately recognize her or instantly want to be her friend. It all just felt very… out of her element.

Maybe she could try to track down Hitch. It might be as simple as him being at the sheriff's station. It was worth a shot.

She got a few looks as she flew down to the station, but no pony said anything. A few ponies even waved as she passed. In Maretime Bay at least, most earth ponies seemed to be okay with the other races being around.

Hitch was at the station. That saved time.

"Hey, Hitch," she greeted. "Hey, critters." The little group of animals that followed Hitch around were really cute.

"Oh, hi, Zipp," Hitch said, getting up from where he'd been sitting writing something at his desk. "What's up?"

"Not much," Zipp admitted. "Kind of just looking for something to do until Izzy and Sunny get back. What are you up to? I'm not interrupting, am I?" Hitch did have his sheriff job, maybe she'd walked in on him doing paperwork.

Hitch glanced at the papers. "Not really," he told her. "I'm trying to write a survey for the earth ponies of Maretime Bay. Get their thoughts on things. See if they've noticed any changes since magic came back."

"What kind of changes?" Zipp asked.

Hitch eyed her for a moment, seemingly deciding if he would tell her or not. Then he sighed. "I'm not really sure. Anything that could be earth pony magic. Our crystal had magic in it. And I can talk to animals now. I don't think it's anything obvious like the other two races, but there must be something."

"Earth pony magic?" Zipp asked, interest perked. "I didn't think you had any. Do you have any records saying you used to?" Zipp had never heard of such a thing, but Hitch's evidence was already pretty compelling.

"Nothing concrete," Hitch told her, trotting over to his desk and flipping through a notebook presumedly full of notes. "Myths mostly. Mage Meadowbrook could make potions, Rockhoof was so strong he could dig through mountains, Breccia could punch through boulders, Prism Pie had some kind of sixth sense, Daisy Twirl could grow a field of flowers in a day…"

"So some earth ponies maybe had special abilities, but the abilities were all different?" Zipp checked, having never heard of any of these ponies.

"Yeah," Hitch nodded. "It seems random, but clearly our historical records aren't the best. Not sure how trustworthy they are. Earth pony magic is the most logical explanation for this ability I have. Nothing else really makes sense."

Zipp nodded, excitement buzzing through her. A mystery! "Seems like a solid hypothesis to me. What kind of questions do you have in your survey?"

"Oh, I've got all kinds of questions," Hitch answered, straightening the pens on his desk. "Covered all my bases. Very thorough."

Curious, Zipp started to flip through the pages. She quickly realized that what she'd thought was a stack of surveys was actually one incredibly long survey that was many, many pages long, filled with very specific questions. 'Have you noticed any strange changes to your garden?' 'Have you noticed any strange feelings in your hooves?' 'Have you noticed any strange feelings in your tail?' 'Have you noticed anything strange happen when you are in moonlight?' 'Have you noticed anything strange happen when you are in sunlight?' 'Have you noticed anything strange happening with your cutie mark?'

"Um, this is- too much," Zipp told him frankly. "You'd be lucky if anypony actually took the time to fill this whole thing out." A lot of ponies probably wouldn't even read half of it. And the data would take forever to analyze. "You should cast a wide net to start then if you notice a pattern, you can narrow things down and ask more specific questions."

"Hm." Hitch stared at the pile for a moment. "That makes a lot of sense, you have some good points there." The stallion's face plopped onto his desktop, and he sighed. "I spent so long coming up with all of those too."

"It was a good effort," Zipp encouraged. "I could help you write a new survey if you want. We can probably condense a lot of what you already have."

"I won't say no to the offer," Hitch said, poking at the paper pile. "Just the thought of going through this all again makes my brain hurt."

"Have you started looking for a new deputy yet?" Zipp asked, using her wing to grab a red pen and start going through the questions. "Seems like you could use the help."

Hitch shook his head. "Not really. Things have been kind of crazy lately. I haven't had a chance. I hate that I had to fire Sprout, but he clearly doesn't have the ability to make good decisions in high pressure situations like the job requires."

Zipp didn't know much about Sprout. When she'd walked in, he'd already been in the robot and declaring war on the other races. "Why'd you make him your deputy in the first place?"

"I'll be the first to admit Sprout wasn't the best at the job, but he wasn't the worst either," Hitch explained, turning his head to look at a photo hanging on the wall. The picture was of Hitch, Sunny, and, surprisingly, Sprout as foals. The group was all smiling at the camera. They looked like they were… friends. "We've been friends since we were colts. I knew he was rough around the edges, but I was sure I could take him under my tutelage and train him up. He was always really eager, and he did genuinely want to protect the ponies of Maretime Bay. He was not far enough along to be left in charge though. Really thought he'd cause less trouble in town than he would hunting a fugitive in hostile territory. If I'd realized how much ponies were panicking about a unicorn being in town, I would've done things differently."

"Were ponies really that scared of Izzy?" Zipp asked. It wasn't that she couldn't believe it, the pegasus would have freaked out way more than they had if Sunny and Izzy hadn't already been captured when they revealed to the public, but Izzy wasn't an especially threatening pony. Especially since no pony would have seen her using magic.

"There was a long series of misunderstandings," Hitch explained. "My analysis of the situation was the unicorn wasn't a true threat. She was alone, she wasn't really doing anything besides wandering around, she didn't seem to be using her magic, though I wasn't 100% sure that she wasn't since I didn't know what using it looked like. I still wanted her out of the city, but her behavior wasn't indicating any incoming attack. I was more worried for Sunny than anything. I wouldn't have left the city if I'd thought there was a larger unicorn threat. But a lot of ponies misinterpreted what was happening. Like, one pony tripped over a rope that was holding a tarp up over a stall. Which caused the tarp fall and land on top of some ponies who were also fleeing. Then those ponies panicked trying to get out of the tarp and knocked over the stall. And every pony who passed the stall after that assumed the unicorn had destroyed the stall with her magic. It was a lot of stuff like that."

Zipp nodded. "Mass panic will do that. I can't even blame them, really. Most ponies would come to the same conclusions." She crossed out a few questions that weren't necessary and combined a couple into one question, then moved on to another page.

"Yeah," Hitch agreed, picking up a pen and beginning to go through one of the survey pages. "I'm surprised you pegasus didn't freak out more when me, Izzy, and Sunny showed up in Zephyr Heights."

"Izzy and Sunny were already captured," Zipp shrugged. "And when you showed up ponies were way more concerned with the royal family being fakes." How crazy was that? Royals not being able to fly had been more world shattering than the first unicorn sighting in over a hundred moons. Zipp had always believed the stories about the other races were exaggerated. Well, not always, it was only after she and Comet had found the abandoned station and they'd realized the races used to be friends that she'd decided the other races probably weren't so bad.

"I guess that makes sense," Hitch said. "It's crazy you were able to keep up the act for so long." The stallion hesitated, seemingly trying to decide if he should say something or not. Then he continued, "But some pegasus must have known, right? There were members of the royal guard helping you with the wires. And your close friends probably knew too, right?"

The wing Zipp wasn't writing with tightened against her body. "Some of the royal guards knew, yes. The higher-ranking ones. As far as friends, well- it was hard to have friends and hide you can't fly." A familiar sadness washed over her. "There was- one friend I did tell. It didn't end well. I didn't try again."

"Oh," Hitch mumbled awkwardly, eyes turning guilty. "Were they- mad at you or-?" He took in Zipp's downcast expression. "You don't have to tell me," he corrected hastily. "Forget I asked."

"No," Zipp shook her head. "It's fine." Maybe talking about it would be good. And Hitch was a neutral third party with no connection to any of it so… "When I was a filly, I had this friend, Comet Chaser. His dad is the captain of the royal guard, so he was at the castle all the time. We were best friends."

Things had been so fun back then. The two of them had had so much in common. They both loved adventuring and discovering and science and the idea of flying. She hadn't been lonely back then.

"We played together every day," Zipp continued wistfully. "We got each other into and out of a lot of trouble. But over time, it got harder and harder to hide I couldn't really fly. Comet loved the idea of flying, borderline obsessed, and he wasn't stupid. I made some really elaborate stunts to keep the illusion alive but at the end of the day I couldn't take off on the spot. It got to the point where I'd have to stop being friends with him to keep the secret. I felt so guilty, and I just couldn't lie anymore. His dad already knew the truth and I trusted Comet but when I told him he got so mad…"

She vividly remembered how Comet's face had fallen when she'd admitted the truth. The betrayal in his eyes.

Zipp forced herself to continue the story. "I'd been lying to him, to the world basically, for years, he had every right to be mad. We argued, he argued with his dad…" That was another huge regret Zipp had about the whole thing. Comet and his dad's relationship had never recovered. "He never told anypony else, but he avoided me after that. When he got older, he left Zephyr Heights completely. I haven't seen him in many moons."

"A lie like that is a horrible burden to put on a foal," Hitch said, way more sympathetic than Zipp deserved. "Has he reached out since magic came back? Maybe now you can fix your friendship."

If only he knew how desperately she wished for exactly that. "Not yet," Zipp admitted. "I asked his dad, but all he really knew was that Comet is out travelling. Comet was at Winsome Falls last he knew. Another thing me and Comet have in common is neither of us like social media so that isn't an option either. It hasn't been that long since magic's returned though, and things have been kind of chaotic. I'm hoping once things settle down more, we'll be able to get in contact." All of Zipp's attempts had failed so far, nopony knew where he was. Regardless of those failures, this was the most hopeful she'd been in a long time.

Hitch nodded. "Well, I hope it all works out. Foalhood friends are something special. We might even be able to invite Comet Chaser to our beach party if we manage to track him down in time."

"Yeah," Zipp sighed. "Maybe." She shook herself. "But there's nothing I can do about it at the moment. For now, we need to get these surveys done. Honestly, the idea of earth pony magic is really interesting to me. I'm excited to see if we make any discoveries."

"I'm glad somepony cares about it," Hitch huffed. "I'm not even sure if I want it to be real or not. But I do want to be prepared." He squinted down at his page. "Do you think we need to ask ponies if their luck at board games has noticeably improved?"

"We probably don't need that one, no."

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Wasted potential seems to be the motto of gen 5. They have interesting characters and setups they can use, but they just don't. Because the princesses should have had a very hard time having friends until the truth was revealed and Pipp using social media because she couldn't interact with ponies in person makes sense. It would be interesting. It would give Pipp a deeper reason why she likes social media so much. Are they ever going to do anything with any of it? I don't think so unfortunately.

And good grief, that Christmas special. Deus ex machina magic lantern. No logic to magic at all. No explanation for the holiday. I could easily buy the ponies stopped celebrating hearts warming, but the writers were too lazy to come up with a good replacement. I hate every part of Winter Wishday. I hate the name, it sounds like ponies are just demanding things from a magic star instead of the family/friend values the holiday should have. I hate that they gave no history for the holiday, I thought they were going to give it at the concert but instead we got the most generic, nothing, Christmas-like songs I've ever heard. I hate that the three races all somehow have the same holiday down to where they have the same songs with a few word changes despite that the holiday must have been invented after the races split. And the unicorns seemed to still have magic somehow when they were celebrating this new holiday, but the holiday must have been created after the split so how does that work. The special had some cute moments, but overall, it was a hollow, poorly thought-out mess. And Sunny just keeps becoming more unlikable the more I see of her. I always liked every member of the main six right from season one so to have Sunny, the main character, be so grating hurts.