Hippo

Applejack stepped up to her microphone and continued the song story. "The mare said 'my name's Jackie, and I don't play with skin, but I'll take yer bet, yer gonna regret, i'm the best that's ever been.'"

The drums kicked up and guitars started their chorus. Applejack would share this chorus with her singing partner.

"Jackie, rosin up your bow and play your fiddle hard
'Cause chaos broke loose in Pon'ville, and Discord deals the cards
And if you win, you get this shiny fiddle made of gold
But if you lose, Discord gets yer love!"

Applejack stepped back and began playing her refrain on her fiddle, ending with a thematic strum of the strings into the next verse.

Zap helped Ambrosia up to her chair to sit at a table while waiting for their mother to get the food. As he sat himself and waited, he leaned close to his baby sister and whispered, "Amby, I think if we are good, Mom will get us ice cream if we ask nicely." He winked, hoping she would understand the right time to do so. All Zap had to do was not break anything.

It was then he spotted the ball pit in the corner of the restaurant. It was for little ponies, Zap thought. Littler ponies than him. He had to be too old for it now. But the more he stared at it, the more he wanted to participate. The slide was short but sweet, and the other two young ponies playing in it seemed to be having fun. He unfolded his wings to take off for it...

"Sorting out, like what?" Flick could lead into asking the typical normal political things, but he decided to have her speak to what is probably at the top of her list of to dos for the city, as as she procludes, herself.

Skybeak raised his glass as Gallus' followed up to his witness of the power of friendship. The focus of the entire tavern was on the space between Gallus and Skybeak. Although, after a moment a voice from the background could be heard. It said, "Last week I finally got that rash under my left wing taken care of that had been there for months! To health!" Evergriff clamored in agreement, but maybe with softer enthusiasm than from the stories before.

Sky Beak continued. "Yes, yes, to health." Sky Beak leaned towards Gallus. "Tell us more about the griffons. What are they like? How did you convince them to come to Equestria to help Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends?"

Silverstream's mouth was full of snacks and she was in entertainment mode. At her father's request, she was actually really excited to hear what Gallus had to say about his rallying of the griffons, as it was something he had never talked to her about.

"Yeah, well, I know my sister's mane a lot more than I care to tell. And even if I didn't know the difference, my spy goggles would probably help me, anyway. Speaking of which, I should examine the hair more closely with the goggles on to see what else I can see, sometimes the goggles can give me more information than I ever thought possible. It might even be able to tell me what Pipp was eating the day that the strand of hair fell out of her mane. I wonder how Izzy engineered the goggles to do that, huh." Zipp pulled out the strand of hair from the trash and put it on the counter. "Let me go get my goggles."

Zipp flew quickly out of the bathroom to get her goggles. Several second passed before Zipp yelled out to Sunny from the downstairs closet. "Sunny! Come quick!" Zipp was searching through the closet frantically when she noticed something was wrong.

Izzy gasped, her looking around Maretime Bay with amusement interrupted by Sunny's suggestion on where she thinks that they should go next. "We should!" Izzy blankly stares at Sunny and then reconfigures an added response. "Like, right now?" Even Izzy wasn't sure if Sunny was implying the immediacy of her suggestion. There were a lot of things going on, and it seemed like there were several tasks that had priority, like cleaning up the city, making sure all the Canterlogic materials were thrown out, and other little things that could be important to a pony like Sunny, like for instance rebuilding the place where she lives. On the other hoof, Izzy admired Sunny's spontenaity, and she figured even with magic back to unicorn horns, the orange earth pony would still be willing to go on more adventures that the average Bridlewood citizen.

"As if." Silverstream rolled her eyes at Gallus' dark humor. He always was the kind to make jokes about his own mortality, but he seemed to do it more around her. Maybe it's because he thinks she likes that. And maybe she does, if for no other reason, but to unleash the explain-y side of her intellect on how silly she thought he was. "You know they don't use open flames, right? Have you ever seen what a sauna looks like? The pictures make it look like a room completely made of wooden walls and wooden benches, with only a metal bin to put hot rocks in to produce water steam. But I think they made an automatic way of doing it now, instead of having someone constantly pouring water on hot rocks." Silverstream rambled on her knowledge of spa practical functions. Though this was her first time here, she remembers all to well the plumbing techniques and architecture needed to keep a place like this operating.

Zipp widened her smirk, leaned over to sunny, and patted her on the head a few times. "Sunny, Sunny, Sunny. You don't have to do this. You might think you're helping, but it only makes it worse if she continues to do this without consequences. She doesn't need you to cover for her." Zipp untangled the wad of hair and held it up and gave it a soft whiff. "This hair doesn't have the scent of your shampoo, it has a hint of coconut and jasmine. The texture of it is more wavey and less frizzy like yours is. And Sunny, since when do you put glitter in your mane?" Zipp rotated the hair slightly to show bits of reflecting glitter particles on the strands. "Besides." Holding the hair sample up to Sunny's mane, she compares the colors. "You don't have this color in your mane at all."

Zipp gathers all the loose hair and throws them in the bathroom waste basket. "I don't know how much she is paying you to take the heat on this one, but Pipp cannot afford to get away from the justice that will be served, and she will get what's coming to her." Zipp pulled herself out of her moment. "You know, if I remember to next time I see her."

"You know it is interesting, we're having to understand things have changed. After the pony unification, everypony has had to learn the new normal. For me personally, I'm so used to seeing your daughters in your tow that it seems strange to consider them not part of your community projects. While the princesses are doing productive things abroad, do you have a core guard that you commune with and share experiences with, or have you gotten closer with other friends or family? I can't imagine you spend all your time alone with Cloudpuff, despite him being a valued member of the family."

Applejack grabbed the fiddle that was provided. She was still regretful that she didn't bring her own personal fiddle, but she didn't have the hindsight that she would need it. The amount of bases that were being covered were far more than she had predicted, but she was all for it. "You got it Missy!."

A few knocks to start from the drums, and Applejack began playing her instrument. It was fast-paced, energetic, and then it faded into silence as her partner's vocals took focus.

"I'm here, Amby." Zap had a foreleg around his little sister as they both tried to wrap their minds around to what was happening. They didn't know much. But from the lack of information and the amount of family and friends that were waiting with them, it began to feel more dire after every passing minute. Zap reminded himself of when Amby was born. This wait felt a lot like that, except the anticipation was filled with somber and dread instead of joy and hope. Having never felt this way before, he hated it.

Zap continued his acrobatic glides through the clouds, kicking them out one by one. Ahead of him, though, he saw a big cloud. He licked his lips and planned to pierce right through it. But when he got to the cloud, he thudded into it like it was a brick wall.

Zap sat up and looked around. He was at HayDonald's and his mother was trying to help him get out of the cart. He reached for her help and he was placed on the grass on all four of his hooves, a gentle dusting from his mother to fix his appearance. Zap was so good at pretending to not like things all day that he momentarily forgot how to react when he got to do something he enjoyed. "Mom! I want a hayburger!" Zap proclaimed more than he had asked. It was as if she didn't already intend for that to be his meal.

Zipp successfully removed the pipes in question and immediately saw the issue. After resolving the issues underneath the sink, she then fastened the pipe back to it's proper operating position, getting minor splashes of drained water on her. "I think I figured it out!" Zipp stood up, turned the faucet on, and the water drained instantly. "Sunny, I figured out the great mystery of why our sink wasn't draining." Zipp pulled out from under the sink a wad of purple hair and set it on the counter. It wasn't pleasant, but it was about as clean of hair as one could find in a clogged pipe. "Now for the next mystery. Who's hair is this?" Zipp slowly turns to Sunny dramatically, before smirking and chuckling.

Silverstream had been to several spa-like environments on Mount Aris, and had also gone through the spa-equivalent in Seaquestria as a seapony. Those experiences, however, were much different than what the Ponyville Spa offers. And from all appearances, Rarity's expertise on pony pedis notwithstanding, pony spas were particularly more pampering than the ones even a royal family hippogriff like herself would have knowledge of. She couldn't speak for Gallus. But actually, she could. It was more likely that Gallus was a super secret griffon agent trying to undermine the Friendship School in Ponyville than it was that a spa experience that he could have gone through in Griffinstone compared to five minutes in a Ponyville massage bench. "No, this is the first time for both of us. Professor Rarity has convinced us, well I mean me, that the sauna helps us relieve stress."

Izzy stared at Sunny a moment. It seemed as though she was thinking about something, but after a while it wasn't obvious that Izzy was doing anything in particular that represented a typical response to the questions she was asked. But before Sunny would check in on her friend, Izzy snap back. "You know, it's only been a short time that I have been able to use my unicorn magic, and it already seems extremely old-timey to talk about the days of cutting down a tree with my horn. I honestly can't remember how much it hurt, but I can promise you this, it doesn't hurt at all now!"

Izzy took the last bite of her pizza and chewed and bopped her head around, and then swallowed. "She taught me to unicycle, sure! And I also showed her how to unicycle. Or... wait, was it the other way around. I think I saw her unicycling, and decided to unicycle myself, and she asked me how I was unicycling, and so I showed her, and then later she would show me the unicycled stuff she made..." Izzy stumped herself. "You know I don't actually remember when the first unicycle happened. It's like the idea of unicycling itself was unicycled." She giggled.

"Welp, I'm done. Is there somewhere else you wanted to go?" Izzy drank her water drink that was given to her and finished it.

The moment Gallus relayed his story-telling opportunity to Silverstream, she finished gulping down a pint of salmon juice, in a fashion that was not necessarily her style. Perhaps she was just trying to read the room. Silverstream half-heartedly bumped knuckles with Gallus' talon. "Oh, are you talking about the time we had that evil student try to take over all of the magic? At the academy, and evil student named Cozy Glow tried to take all the magic by using the power of friendship to defeat all the leaders of the school. But when Gallus, my friends, and I all escaped the room we were locked in, we were able to reverse the spell that kept harnessing magic away from everyone. And the crazy thing is, we didn't even try to cast any crazy spells or anything!" A tray of shrimp poppers arrived between Silverstream and Gallus and she ate one quickly before continuing. "I mean, we tried hard to be friends, and that's what ended up mattering, because our friendship was more powerful than some little menace using spells to manipulate others to be her allies. It was the best example of showing how even in the face of fear," she put a talon on Gallus, "it was our bonds and our dedication to each other that helped us conquer evil." She sat back to her spot and ate another popper. "Is that the one you were talking about, Gallus, or was there another one?"

Skybeak was impressed. Although he wanted to hear it from Gallus, it was good to hear from his daughter a moment of triumph that could make him proud. He had heard this story before during hearings of news from outside of Mount Aris, a task he finds himself in a lot more than the average Hippogriff. But to relive it again at one of his favorite social spaces was never going to be replicated. He leaned down close to Gallus and Silverstream. "That is beautiful, and creatures of all shapes and sizes shall learn from the benefits of your tale." The teary-eyed hippogriff stood back and yelled once more. "TO FRIENDSHIP!" The tavern echoed his shoutout and everygriff took their own swigs of their beverage.

"Oh, mare. I can see it. I remember going to some plays when I was younger and really enjoying them. But I do wonder if the technological side of things would get in the way. That's not to say there isn't a community willing to invest in live theater, it's just that these days it seems that more attention is draw to the things that get the biggest film budget, the biggest headlining actors and actresses, and the longest red carpet ceremonies. But you said something about it being intimate. I think that would be a great thing to pursue. Would you want your daughters involved?"

At the Crystal Brighthouse, the ponies had been having an issue with one of their bathroom sinks not draining properly. Instead of hiring over a plumber to check it out, Zipp took it upon herself to attempt to fix it. With her small bag of tools, she was underneath the sink with the sink cupboard door open, lying on her back looking up at the various parts of the sink. She was only a novice on what to look for or how to fix it, but she enjoyed investigating the issue of the clog. And, she wasn't alone. Sunny had agreed to help in anyway she could, which for the time being was giving Zipp tools she requested. "Hoof me those pliers, I almost got the p-trap off."

After being placed in the cart, Zap resumed an uncomfortable sitting position as the cart moved away. He was mostly fine, but he was still a little off. When he heard his mother mention lunch, he blurted out instinctively, "I don't like cabbage," which was a thing his family already knew about him.

As he slowly gained his marbles back and put them in place, he started looking around from the cart he was riding in. He saw a flock of pegasus ponies flying above them. He laid back in the cart, and started daydreaming as he looked up at the flying ponies. After a moment, he closed his eyes.

And there he was, flying through a storm. The wind was violent, the lightning strikes always near misses. He dodged the storm's rage and traversed through the torrential weather pattern. Eventually, he tied up a dark scary cloud and kicked it into submission. He did it to another and another and another.

Zareb wasn't going to assume anything, other than the fact that a warm kiss from a filly was just tradition. He wasn't complaining about it either. But it was unexpected. After the filly left, Zareb walked into the room with a huge smile. He didn't concern himself with the interaction that seemed to have just ended before he arrived, as he wasn't confident it was his business to begin with. Regardless, he wanted to make the best first impression with his roommate as possible. "Hii ni nzuri! Hello! I'm your roommate. I name is Zareb."

Remington had turned away from the door when he saw Moonlight illustrate her frustration with a kiss to a total stranger. To him, it felt as if she just freely gave them away. So was the kiss he got even all that special? When his roommate entered, he could tell immediately from the accent he was not from Equestria. When the zebra shouted his greeting, Remington could only turn to him in silence, showing him the streaks of tears that had fallen from his eyes.

"I don't know anything about that," Silverstream giggled as the two walked down the road towards the market back road, where the spa was located. She noticed Gallus' wings grazed her a few times, seemingly inadvertently. Silverstream couldn't tell if it was involuntary movement associated with joy or if he was still alarmed from the last time she jump-greeted him. The most likely reason, she figured, was that he was showing nervous energy about his time with her, and for some reason, that level of vulnerability made him seem super cute to her. "But what I do know is that we have the sauna for the remainder of the afternoon. I booked us a private session. Rarity suggested it because she says it gets too crowded during rush hour." She moved closer to him as if she was telling him a secret. "All to ourselves, isn't that great!?"

Before long, the two had reached the spa door and let themselves in. Silverstream walked up to the service counter. "Uh, Silverstream. I have a reservation for sauna."

Roleplay Type:  Generation 5 Cast
Name:  Zephyrina "Zipp" Storm
Gender:  Female
Age:  Young mare
Species:  Pegasus
Eye color:  Light blue
Coat:  White (Pink Hue); wings are white, light blue, purple and pink
Mane/Tail:  Pompadour mane, regular medium-length tail mostly straight, both mane and tail pink with light blue streak.
Physique:  Athletic, agile, strong, average height
Residence:  Originally from Queen Haven's palace, lives in the Crystal Brighthouse with her friends in Maretime Bay.
Cutie Mark:  Pink and blue lightning bolt with a crown.
Unique Traits:  Zipp sees everything through a skeptical lens. She seeks truth in many things, is loyal to what she believes is true, and her conviction is solidified by her personal experience.

History:

Zipp is the first born daughter of Queen Haven, current leader of Zephyr Heights. This makes Zipp a princess, and heir to the throne. She gained a little sister, Pipp Petals, who displays more of a celebrity role in the royal family. Zipp was and is far less in the limelight and aspired to do things beyond the confines of her royal roll in Zephyr Heights. While her and her sister were still young, Zipp enjoyed a relatively normal fillyhood, albeit with the privilege that comes with being a member of a royal family. Despite her personality differences with her sister, she had a bond with Pipp that was stronger than she normally shared in public.

As she got older, Zipp's rebellious youthful phase pushed her to take the contrary path away from the rest of the members of her family. Queen Haven, to her credit, allowed Zipp the space to explore different avenues in order to give her the freedom to explore her true self, something Zipp is still doing to this day. As a result, Zipp's relationship with her mother is distanced at times, but never severed. Her bond with Pipp, while also never failing, has shown more tension as the two live together away from the pegasus capitol. Despite the rift that developed between Zipp and Pipp as a result of the royals being found to be flightless, their residence in Maretime Bay has become proof of the sisters' resilience to uphold the responsibility the have as the future leaders of the pegasus kind.

After pony unification, Zipp and her sister made the choice to live in Maretime Bay, primarily because they wanted to be with their friends they made during the most altering time in their pony lives. Living at the Crystal Brighthouse, Zipp expanded her talents to investigate mysteries, learn about how friendships are made and challenged, and check the health and safety of pegasus ponies living in the bay city that are trying to get used to their new magic. Because of her physical ability and willingness to be flexible, she was able to help champion the training of pegasus ponies learning to hone their skills in flying. The source of magic, the unification crystals and friendship that powers it, is something that has fascinated Zipp ever since moving to Maretime Bay. Whenever something concerning the crystals is going on, she is usually the first one to notice.

Today, Zipp is constantly learning about ponies and what makes them special in the new magical world they live in. She knows her place is in the pegasus city as a Princess and future Queen, but she wonders what more it will entail now that Equestria has unified ponies wielding magic.

Personality:

Zipp is sporty, but not cocky. Though she seems primed for athletic ability, she is not that competitive. She is loyal to those she cares about, but skeptical of new information. She doesn't trust others perspectives very well, and prefers to see things for herself. She can sometimes jump to conclusions and lacks patience to see things through. She enjoys being by herself, but acknowledges the importance of having good close friends she can trust. She would rather have ponies resent her for the truth, than for ponies to respect her for a lie.

Summary:

Princess Zipp Storm is an exciting young mare who is exploring the world living with ponies of different kinds, something the previous generation of pegasus ponies never did. While living with her close friends in Maretime Bay, she learns what it takes to be a representative of the power of friendship, and how to use her thrill-seeking attitude to improve the lives of the ponies around her. And if she gets to play detective while doing so, all the better!

Silverstream pulled Gallus out of the campus after the classes were done for the day and convinced him to go to the Ponyville Day Spa in order to attempt a session in their sauna. Silverstream had never been before, but she was told by Professor Rarity that it helped relieve stress. The gang had just finished their midterms and even studious classmates like Silverstream were needing a chance to unwind from all the crunch. In addition, she felt this would also be an opportunity to get some quality time with Gallus. Ever since their holiday together when he visited Seaquestria and Mount Aris, Silverstream had grown closer to Gallus and was always looking for more ways spend more time with him. On the final day of the holiday, the two had close emotional feelings for one another that had been revealed. She always wondered how deep that feeling was from Gallus, but if she was honest with herself, she was still discovering the level of depth she had on her end. Being in a relaxing spa should loosen up those tight emotions. "Let's go, Gallus. The sooner we get there, the more time we'll have to experience the sauna."

Zareb found the room he was assigned to, it seemed like a charming space. He just hoped his roommate was okay with having a foreign exchange student, despite his own confidence in his ability to make friends. When he found the door, he wanted to knock on it, but before he could it was slammed open with an angry pink unicorn filly running into him. "Je! Nisamehe! I'm sorry." Zareb was under the impression that he would have a male roommate, not that he would mind. If Zareb was honest, he was shocked by her immediate beauty despite the alarming introduction. He would keep it to himself to prevent a faux pas with his first fellow student interaction.

Zap's head was spinning like a top. The cognitive rotation of his mind slowed when his mother came to check on him. She always found a way to be within a few seconds of him, as if she was a unicorn who could teleport to him. One day, he might find it annoying should his baby sister ever find out that it startles him. When Zap was asked questions to test his senses, he looked up and confused. Instead of answering the questions directly, he jumbled them together, attempted to answer them, and then got confused in thought before he could resolve a solution in his head. "Mommy? Am I a zebra?"