Rebirth of Magic: Zipping It

Chapters

Sound the Alarm, Shatter me like Glass...
I Trot these Lonely Streets
Rhapsody in Gold
I Seek to Dream and Differ from the Hollow Lies...
Said you'd keep me safe, now you're tearing me down
From the Last to the First
Ain't Misbehavin'
Welcome to a New Kind of Tension
Stick to the Status Quo
The Gondola Collective
Is this the Lie that I've Been Sold?
Lost in my Memories
Locked in a Cell, Waging War from a Prison
Heaven, Will you Wait for Me?
I Saw the End of War
Stand your Ground
A Shot in the Darkness
The Unbreakable Bond
Over the Mountains we Go!
Reunion
Fight for the Truth and Freedom
Play the Tunes of Victory
In the Game to Win the Gambler Rolls the Dice
Mare and Machine and Nothing There Inbetween
The Nightmare from the Other Side
Revelations
Rallying the Troops
Sixty to One, Facing the Gun
Rolling Thunder
It's a Long, Long Way to Zephyr Heights

Sound the Alarm, Shatter me like Glass...

It is said that in times of danger, heroes will come together to face the rising tide of evil, and fight back to preserve the light. These heroes can come from the strangest of places.

This is the story of one such hero. Although she appears to be Zipp Storm, you may be surprised to learn her true origins...

Alright, time to stop talking in the third person. The person, or pony, should I say, is me. I'm Zipp Storm. It's a pleasure to meet you, though I have to ask how we're having the conversation.

I guess that's another magical mystery for me to work out. As you can probably guess from the blurb I left above, I wasn't originally a pegasus. No, I wasn't originally a unicorn, as that infamous typo in a YouTube video suggests (seriously, what were Netflix thinking?).

No. To truly understand both my story and the story of the chaos that nearly destroyed Equestria, we must first go back in time to a place far from here. A town in a place called England.

This town was called Nottingham, and it was a pretty nice place to live. Not a very big place, but not that small either. It was the sort of place where you could easily walk a few minutes from heavily built up places and find yourself in fields and nature without too much difficulty. It was a nice place to live.

As you've probably picked up, this was where I lived. This small house on Gregory Street was where I lived all that time ago.

Tom was my name back in those days. I was a graduate of the University of Nottingham, and at that stage of my life was preparing for a sudden shift in my life. I was going away from Britain for a long time, to study in the United States (something I had planned to do before the dreaded disease hit).

That morning had begun like most others. Get up, shower, eat, brush teeth, and then prepare to head out for my business. I had some shopping to do, but I got the heavy stuff into my home via internet ordering. I didn't have space for a proper car in a garage, and instead used a motorbike to get about town. I decided I would collect the few supplies I needed to purchase after going to another place which is close to my heart.

So, I got my gear on, hopped onto the bike, and wheeled it off the drive before stopping on the road. The engine roared into life. "Imagine doing this on a Black Shadow," I said to myself. I would have liked to own one, but they were quite rare, and also pretty expensive. I was also a complete shortarse, so would have struggled to start it without jumping on the levers.

So it's was my faithful Kawasaki it was. I kicked the engine into forward movement, and flew down the road at great speed. So far, my life seemed normal as I blazed down the roads.

I had no way of knowing that many parallel versions of myself had experienced strange things on this street, and it had become a weirdness magnet of sorts for much of the country. And it was about to become the same for me. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Just north of the A52 lies the familiar land of Wollaton Park. It was once a country estate owned by some rich gentleman- I think the person who built it was mates with Queen Elizabeth I- and it had since become a public park which housed a natural history museum and a large industrial collection.

I arrived at the scene to go and park at the bottom of the hill, and then shut the engine off to go and get a ticket. I soon secured it, as parking tickets were mercifully still cheap (the Council, thankfully, hadn't taken the recent economic instability as an excuse to jack prices up). I plopped the ticket on my bike, which I had parked to ensure other motorists had seen it, and set off into the park, leaving my helmet and jacket behind at the bike.

I wasn't heading for the house today. Off to the side of the site is a large lake, and near that lake are several small areas of trees. I'm not sure what you call them- it's been a very long time since I used all those sorts of words.

I'm rambling again, aren't I?

Up ahead along the pathway was one such area. This place was known for strange and unnatural phenomena, such as one story where children were chased out of the forest by gnomes driving little cars. This story sounded both hilarious and horrifying, and I felt merited further investigation. I advanced into the tree line, noticing the barrier that used to exist there had curiously been broken. Who had done this? A gnome, possibly? That's ridiculous, as gnomes don't exist.

I made my way, noticing the tree branches closing overhead as I walked in. It made the place feel spooky and empty. No wonder so many horror stories in European folklore take place in forests. They must have seemed quite scary, empty places full of danger to people before the Industrial Revolution.

I stopped when I was partway under the line of tree branches, and spotted something odd. It looked as though a massacre had happened here. There was a gigantic cloud of feathers on the floor, with them being scattered haphazardly all across the ground. Clearly a bird had been killed here.

Or so I thought. The plumage resembled no bird I had ever seen. The feathers were a confusing mix of blue and purple, with some being mixed blue and purple shades. Had I discovered a new species of bird?

I picked one of the feathers up as a curiosity to show to friends or ornithologists. This was a mistake.

An electrical shock flowed through my very body, and I toppled over backwards into the grass below the trees. I tried to get back up, but my limbs wouldn't cooperate.

"Arise, brave hero!" said a voice. "Take her place!"

As this was set, bluish whirling energies flew about, and something weird began to happen. My entire body shrank in size, before my legs snapped backwards with a series of bangs. I also lost all sensation in my feet as my boots fell off and landed on the floor. Below where they had once been were... hooves?

This couldn't be happening. I tried to bash my head against something in a futile attempt to stop the pain as my chest began to expand. A rather personal area started to tingle, and before I could even curse it was sucked into me. Not only did it seem I was a centaur, I was a female centaur.

Something else was added in that region, as most of my clothing was torn apart by the combination of my shifting frame and uncontrolled movements. My neck snapped backwards, sounding like it was broken. Moments later, my arms snapped into a different shape, and my hands were distorted into hooves.

Two bony structures erupted out of the sides of my back before being covered in flesh, skin, and a layer of fur. Feathers popped out of the back, in shades of dark blue, purple, several sets of ones inbetween, and a small set of light blue feathers.

My mouth and nose merged together as I was still unable to process what was happening. My mouth and nose were crushed together into a muzzle, which then moved forward a few inches in a sequence that would have made John Landis wonder how on Earth it was pulled off.

My eyes turned blue and grew in size as a layer of white fur covered my body. My hair was pulled upwards, and shifted to a mixture of blue and pink. A tail in the same colours popped out of my ass.

At last, the pain faded away, and I tried to drag myself up the bank. I say 'tried'. My limbs wouldn't cooperate. They moved randomly in different directions with no sense of cohesion. I reached the top of the bank, before a voice shouted.

"Mummy, look! It's Zipp Storm!"

I then saw a child pointing at me. No, this couldn't be happening! Zipp is a made up character! What the Hell was going on?

I tried to move forward, but one of my legs slipped and I began to roll down the hill. I gathered speed as a rolling block of flesh and limbs randomly flailing as I approached the water of the nearby lake.

I slammed into it, the water flying high into the air as I drifted over. I continued to flail in a desperate attempt to stay on the surface, but you try swimming with six unfamiliar limbs.

I drifted under, and it seemed as though the sweet release of death would free me from this nightmare.

Life, however, had different plans for me.

Author's Note

Well, it's been a long time since I wrote one of these sorts of stories. Me and Jimmy are kicking off a new series today, in a similar vein to the Legends of Equestria series we wrote as a send-off to Friendship is Magic.

And we kick off proceedings with Zipp Storm, who is my second favourite of the Mane 5. Keep an eye out on both my own and JimmyHook19's pages for updates, but until then keep being awesome!

I Trot these Lonely Streets

The world was foggy and unclear as I began to regain consciousness. I distinctly recall there being plenty of beeping as I slowly regained my senses, and some faint and unclear voices.

What could those noises be? This was a question I thought in my head as my vision continued to clear, although it was still badly fogged. It was as though I was looking at the world through badly fogged up glass, which made things rather confusing to me.

Suddenly, some of the machine became more distinct to my view. From what I could tell most of it was medical equipment sitting around me. This suggested I was in a hospital.

This was a positive development. I could only assume somebody found me and pulled me back up here out of the nightmare or fit I was having to be checked over. That was one wild dream, though. Or whatever it was. Being turned into a horse? That sort of thing only happens in weird stories on the internet. No way it happened down here in real life.

The sounds were getting a little clearer now. A little too clear for my liking.

"Keep monitoring her blood flow."

"Cranial readings are looking good. She took a pretty big knock out there."

"Blood pressure is stable and holding. Nervous system is running as normal."

I assumed the voices I was hearing came from doctors tending to another patient. They normally treat multiple people in a ward, after all.

What was said next confused me.

"Feathers seem a little clipped. Should we investigate?"

What? Who let a bird into a medical ward? I know the NHS is cash strapped but I thought such an obvious breach of the sterile environment policy was beyond even them.

I tried to move my head around to see where I was, and soon realised this ward was much posher than any I had previously been to. The walls were painted a nice colour, and I could only see two other treatment cots. The room also seemed to be air conditioned. Had I been taken to a private hospital?

I tried to say something, but only confused and strange noises came out. I guessed I didn't have enough consciousness yet to actually form coherent sentences, but this was normal, I thought. It may take a while for all the relevant systems to come back online.

Just then, a voice spoke. "Mom! She's waking up!"

I knew that voice from somewhere, but couldn't place it. I tried other parts of my body, and found I wasn't getting a response in either my fingers or toes. Perhaps the anasthesia was still yet to wear off in those bits of my nervous system.

"Where am I..." I said quietly, only to stop. My voice sounded completely wrong. It was still low in pitch, but too high to be my natural register.

Finally, my vision cleared up, and with considerable effort I pulled myself back to see what I was looking at.

It was then I connected the voice to figure. Looking intently at me was Pipp Petals, who remarkably was not on her phone, streaming this. Beside her was Queen Haven, whom I noticed had her crown on. Seriously, who wears jewellery to a hospital visit?

Wait, what? How could Pipp Petals and Queen Haven be looking at me? They're made up characters from a Netflix movie! There's no way any of this could be real!

I moved a limb up to take a look. And was promptly greeted by a hoof and white fur.

No. No no no no no no NO!

This had to be a nightmare. There was no earthly way I was a horse. I started thrashing about wildly whilst still stuck to the bed, screaming all the while.

Pipp backed up, seemingly both confused and frightened at what was going on. She did well to back up, as my movement disconnected several of the sensors on my body. I fell out of the cot and landed on the floor.

"Mom, what's going on?" I heard Pipp say.

"I don't know, but I suggest we let the doctors handle this," Queen Haven replied.

There was very little handling for them to do. Before I knew what was happening I was running for the door. I had to escape this nightmare and get back to the place I was before. Before long, I heard a familiar six-eight beat starting up as I moved along the corridor.

I glanced down and saw my limbs were moving in something resembling a coherent order. OK. So this was how cantering worked. I needed more speed though, and so tried to speed things up. Could I pull off a gallop?

It took a few attempts, but a distinctive beat of four hooves against the floor soon replaced the previous triplet pattern that had echoed through the hospital.

"To all assets! Princess Zephyrina has escaped the Royal Ward! Intercept her immediately and return her for further treatment!"

That I was not prepared to do. I had to get out of here. I was looking for any exit to get out of here. It was then I remembered a bit of trivia surrounding nightmares. If somebody is in a nightmare, a sufficiently heavy impact in the dream is enough to wake the person up, as it's impossible to actually die in a dream.

I appeared to mostly have gotten the hang of galloping, at least for now, but that was about it. I decided to experiment with the other bits. My ears swivelled up and down, which produced some very odd sound effects indeed with the pitch rising and falling seemingly at random. Beyond that, it was anybody's guess what the other features did on my body.

My mouth worked, as I'd already communicated. Despite having a thicker tongue and a differently shaped mouth I had no difficulty forming words and sounds. Muscle memory, maybe? That could explain a lot of things in this strange place.

However, I soon hit upon a problem. I decided to try my wings and see if I could simply fly away. After all, there's magic in this world, right?

I flared them out and flapped downwards. I got about two inches off the ground before crashing back down again.

I tried again to try and gain some air before exiting the building. But this seemed to be utterly futile, as no matter how much force I applied I could not fly anywhere. I could barely even glide, although the lack of a decent running start was probably the cause of that. I was forced to stop and reavaluate the situation.

I was getting a sneaking suspicion of when I was, not so much where I was. An exit nicely presented itself on the side of the corridor. This would be my ticket to freedom. All I needed to do was go find a nice wall to glide into and this nightmare would all be over. Or so I hoped.

I kicked the crash bar and the door flew open, and I dashed through it onto the next area. Once there I spotted something weird. The ground below me was made of glass, which was producing an odd echoing noise. At the end of the section was a large wall, painted gold and decked out in an art deco style.

I slowed down to avoid crashing into it, and looked down to see what was down below.

An incredible vista opened up before my eyes down below. A golden city slowly loomed out of the clouds, with massive skyscrapers that seemed to scrape the heavens themselves with their pointiness. Several golden and glass walkways spread across the landscape, connecting rocky islands in the sky. The sun shone off glass and steel masterpieces, with some structures being faced with marble and inlayed with golden plate.

The result was absolutely beautiful, and took my breath away, even if only for a moment. If this was a nightmare, it was a seriously pretty one.

It was then I recognised this place. It was Zephyr Heights, from the newest generation of My Little Pony! When watching movie I recalled thinking this place would be incredible to visit in real life. And now seemingly I was here, with this place unfolding before me.

Or was I? I still needed to get to the bottom of that.

I raised a hoof and wacked myself across the face with it. The collision produced pain in one of my cheeks, and I winced in pain. Those sensors were much more sensitive than I was expecting, to be honest. And not only that it did not bode well for the future for me, it caused me to have a profound realisation.

Somehow, somewhere, I was Zipp Storm. I was in Zephyr Heights.

As my eyes widened in horror at this realisation, I knew exactly what all of this meant for me.

I was trapped in a nightmare.

A nightmare from which I couldn't wake up.

Author's Note

Chapter 2 is here, and Zipp is discovering the full extent of the strange situation that has happened to her. I took a bit of inspiration from a much older story here for writing Zipp waking up, as well as referring to the movie for describing Zephyr Heights (which appears to be havily inspired visually by art-deco techniques).

Next time: My Head is in Ruins...

Rhapsody in Gold

"Zipp?"

I was so caught up in my thoughts that the voice made me jump. I swung around in surprise and looked closely at the figure standing there.

A certain pink pegasus with fluffy wings and a streaming addiction had caught up to me, it seemed. Not only that, she sounded like Sofia Carson, which gave me a suspicion as to when I was, not so much where I was. I already knew I was in Zephyr Heights. That much was obvious. "Pipp?"

Pipp nodded. "Yes. That's me. I'm glad you seem to be at least physically OK, Zipp. Do you need any help? Is there a problem?"

Oh, if only she knew. I waited for a moment to process all the information. The clues gave me a sneaking suspicion as to what time period this was, so I decided to ask. "Pipp, have you heard anything from Sunny recently?"

Pipp looked confused. "What? Who's Sunny? I don't know a Sunny. Zipp, that bang to the head must have been pretty bad for you to be hallucinating friends of mine!"

I was surprised. This confirmed it all. The strange speech, the inability to fly, Pipp having her movie voice, and now her having no idea who Sunny Starscout is. I was stuck at some point before the movie began, with no clue exactly when. I knew what was coming. The storms that were approaching. The danger we all were in.

And there wasn't a thing I could do about it.

Pipp noticed me seemingly staring off into space, and turned to speak again. "Zipp? Zipp!"

That snapped me out of my thoughts. "Err, sorry, were you saying something? Kinda lost in my own thoughts."

Pipp trotted forward and, to my surprise, gave me a hug. "I'll always be here for you, Zipp," she said. "I know we don't agree on everything, but as long as we have each other that's a good thing, right?"

I nodded. "Thanks, Pipp." The absurdity of the situation could have made me laugh. Here I was, stuck in the body of a fictional character in a fictional place, taking advice from and talking with another fictional character. This was either the wackiest comedy or the harshest tragedy ever made.

I indicated to the view. "Zephyr Heights looks lovely today. No clouds or rain or anything."

"One of the benefits of living above the cloud level," Pipp replied. "There's nothing to interfere with data or WiFi signals either, which makes streaming SOOOOO much easier."

"Excuse me, your royal highnesses?" asked a voice.

We both turned to see a pegasus dressed in a labcoat. "I don't want to interrupt your moment together, but the doctors need to do some last checks on Princess Zephyrina to ensure she's completely fine and ready to be released."

I stayed silent, instead choosing to nod. "OK. Do what you have to do, doc."

As the doctor, Pipp, and me headed back indoors, Pipp spoke up again. "It must be quite bad, then. You didn't object to being called Zephyrina!"

Once inside, the doctors gave me a full update on what had happened out there. Apparently, I had been out looking for something when I had slipped on a banana peel and banged my head on a wall. This, the doctor claimed, explained my apparent confusion earlier and my memory issues, fully expecting my memories would return to normal at some point.

"And so, Your Royal Highness Princess Pipp," he said. "You need to be careful when interacting with her. There are probably going to still be some gaps, so patience is required when interacting with her."

"I can walk normally," I said. Several sets of eyes looked over to me quite suddenly.

"Sorry, I meant trot normally." My lack of understanding of pony movement speeds was rather showing here.

"That's a positive sign," the doctor continued. "Just keep it easy during the next few days and all should be fine." He turned to Queen Haven. "Your Majesty, I would suggest scaling back Princess Zephyrina's duties for the next few days until she is fully recovered. Once she is back to her former self, she may resume them."

Queen Haven nodded. "I understand. It won't be challenge handling a few school openings for a few days." She turned to both of us. "Well, that was quite a fright. But it has given me a rather splendid idea!"

"Oh?" me and Pipp said.

"I suggest we go on a city tour. It will both let us relax a bit after the stressful situation but may also help to jog Zephyrina's memories." She glanced back to the doctor. "Is that safe?"

"Provided she doesn't move too quickly for now she should be fine, Your Majesty," the doctor replied.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Showtime!"

True to Queen Haven's word (it still felt a bit weird calling her mom) we were soon onboard a sky shuttle. Turns out that the city had found all sorts of creative ways around the whole 'inability to fly' thing. Not that the public knew about this, of course. Seeing as the Royal Celebration hadn't happened yet I could only assume they were still in the dark.

But the city was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! The skyscrapers poking out of the clouds, the streets spilling out over the mountaintops, and large boulevards filled with traffic. This must have been what seeing New York for the first time as a boat traveller must have been like in the early years of the 20th Century!

Pegasi everywhere were looking up and either focusing on screens or glancing at huge screens which either were advertising things or were playing news. True to form, they even had that bizarre 'Perfume la Pipp' advert playing on one monitor, complete with stealth insult. I can only assume that was Hasbro making a dig at Chanel after the lawsuit over Coco Pommel. Oh well. The city absolutely bustled with life, and the news was full of things going on.

"And this just in Sky," said one of the newscasters. "It has just been confirmed that Princess Zephryina Storm has recovered from her earlier accident and is now back on her hooves. Three cheers for the Royal Family!"

I turned. "Pipp, did you post something?"

"I did!" Pipp replied. "I got, like, a gazillion PMs asking if you were OK, so I posted something that you were fine."

"I'm pretty certain gazillion isn't a real number," I replied, and went back to looking out of the window. I was so caught up in the moment that the next voice shocked me a bit.

"Erm, Zephyrina, I'm not quite sure how to say this, but perhaps you could step back from the glass a tiny bit?"

It was only then I noticed I had my muzzle squished up against the glass, which was leaving a mark. I pulled back and looked about. "Sorry," I said.

Queen Haven nodded. "That must have been a rather severe bang on the head," she sighed, as she moved over to one side. "Perhaps this runs in the family? I should hope not."

What an odd thing to say. I focused on the view, but still had the suspicion something wasn't right. After a while, we docked at the palace station and trotted in the side entrance. The palace, another art deco masterpiece built to maximise natural light as much as possible, was absolutely stunning to see in the flesh, so to speak, so much so I briefly stopped to take it all in.

I remembered having my breath taken away by Zephyr Heights in the movie. And here it was, for real, unfolding right in front of my eyes!

Pipp then spoke again. "Zipp, what are you doing? We see this view literally every day. It's our house!"

Huh. So Pipp can use literally correctly when she wants to. "You never know when you might lose something," I said cryptically.

Pipp nodded. "I know. Still, I believe we should live out lives to the fullest with the time we have available. Isn't that right, Pippsqueaks?"

So she had been streaming the entire time. "Pipp Pipp Hooray!" called a chorus of voices so loud it could be heard over the clifftops.

I made my way in through the doors and was greeted by a loud fanfare. "Her Majesty, Queen Haven, and Their Royal Highnesses Princesses Pipp Petals and Zephyrina Storm!" called a voice.

This was far too over the top for my taste. After dinner later, which I'd rather not talk about in detail, it was time for bed. I excused myself and found my way to my dorm for the night. It was handy all the doors had names on them.

I opened the door and prepared to go in, when suddenly Pipp spoke. "Zipp, if ever you need anything, just let me know, Kay? Sisters and all that?"

I nodded. "Sure. Thanks Pipp." I went indoors and, after a shower, went off to bed. I needed to be fully rested if I was going to glue my memory back together.

Author's Note

For writing Zephyr Heights in this chapter, I took inspiration from both the movie itself and archive footage of New York in the early years of the 20th Century, as the two cities have a remarkable amount in common.

The fanfare is inspired by the one used for the Entry of the Gladiators in the 1959 film Ben-Hur, itself a remake of an earlier film.

Next time: Archives!

I Seek to Dream and Differ from the Hollow Lies...

The next morning saw me reaching the floor rather faster than I had planned, as I was suddenly awoken by a loud thud.

"What was that?" I asked, as I looked around. I then realised I was on the floor, having fallen out of bed and onto the carpet. Having said that, the carpet was soft, and felt strangely nice against my fur. That was a sentence that I just said.

I slowly pulled myself to my hooves and wandered over to the mirror to check everything was in order. I looked to be in good shape, all things considered. As I went through my things on the table, some thoughts occurred to me. I certainly looked like Zipp, and I also had her voice (and the mannerisms I could best imitate from what I remembered of the movie at that point). But there was one critical things missing. I didn't have her memories or thoughts, and that was a problem.

If I was going to survive out here, I needed to learn the information that would be considered common knowledge among pegasi, and use that in combination with my knowledge of upcoming events in order to influence things for the better.

I adjusted my mane as best as I could. If my guesses were correct, I knew precisely where I had to go and what I must do today. Hopefully I could wrangle some time out of other duties and get a chance to head away from this particular place.

Later at breakfast, I was amazed at how busy the place already was. Something they didn't show you in the series was the massive army of ponies needed to keep Zephyr Heights functioning. There were guards, soldiers, civil servants carrying red boxes, waiting staff, guardsponies, cooks, butlers, and many others. I said guards twice, didn't I? I couldn't help but notice that the guards seemed to divide into two types. I recognised Thunder and Zoom, but the others were new to me, and wearing very different armour to the others.

Enough of that. I suddenly realised I was thinking too much when a voice interrupted me. "Is everything OK, Zephyrina? You've barely touched your food."

I looked down and noticed this, whilst Pipp had gotten stuck in with hers. "Sorry. I was thinking, that's all."

"Well, that's always a healthy mindset to encourage," Queen Haven replied. "Anything in particular?"

This was my chance. I had noticed on the map of the transport yesterday one of the stops was the Museum, and this provided my best chances to get caught up on Equestrian history. "The past, mainly. I was thinking of going to the museum to do some research, if that's OK."

Queen Haven smiled. "Of course. I'll go with you."

"Really?"

"It just so happens there's an exhibit on our music industry I'm interested in seeing, and the current paperwork can easily be handled by the staff. Today's a Parliamentary recess, and the few bills coming through can be easily dealt with later."

So it was sorted. I was off to the museum... with mom in tow. Feels a little easier saying that now.

The journey to the museum was just as incredible as yesterday. The news was afire with information and broadcasts about the pegasi enjoying another year of record economic growth, and the fact peace seemed to be the norm. Pipp apparently had a new single out (how fast does she churn out songs?), and it was nearly 25 years since Queen Haven had taken the throne. Remember that, dear reader. It will be relevant later, I promise.

When the flying machine docked at the museum, the driver looked back. "Thank you for travelling with ZHRT, Your Majesty and Your Royal Highness," he said.

"ZHRT?" I asked.

"Zephyr Heights Rapid Transit," the driver replied politely.

The door slid open, and as we stepped off onto the marble dock and towards the museum, I discovered they'd laid out the red carpet for us.

Literally.

A full military band had assembled, the carpet was flanked by soldiers all standing perfectly still. Cameras were flashing relentlessly on either side, and crowds had assembled to watch the spectacle unfolding.

"Isn't this overdoing it a bit?" I asked.

"We do need to keep up appearances," Queen Haven replied, before glancing over. "Morning, my faithful subjects!"

I looked away in annoyance. If this was going to happen everywhere I went, no wonder Zipp found it all so annoying in the show.

The brass band began to play a tune oddly familiar to me. Clearly they have a pony version of John Bull here, I thought to myself. The melody is the same as the British national anthem.

The words were different, of course, partly as we're in a different place and the monarch is female here. (RIP Queen Elizabeth.) The public's adoration seemed to be genuine, though.

"Smile," Queen Haven told me, before turning to the cameras. "No pictures! OK, maybe one." She then did a pose.

Maybe this was just one massive PR stunt, and I had missed the memo somehow. I simply kept my face up and tried to look vaguely presentable as I made my way into the museum. All this pageantry and ceremony for a museum visit? I dreaded to think what a coronation would look like!

That was probably in the museum as well, if I'm totally honest. After what seemed like an eternity of walking, we were inside, and the silliness stopped.

The inside of the museum was just as wondrous as the rest of the city. The interior was made of marble, and polished to perfection, and light poured into the structure through enormous glass windows up above. Golden trim lit everything up in a glorious golden haze, light spilling over objects and landscape and into the main courtyard.

At the centre was a large rotunda, and in front of that a statue depicting a pegasus diving into battle whilst an earth pony and unicorn look up in shock. The piece was titled Semper Fidelis.

I checked a map to get my bearings. The museum had numerous levels, each devoted to a different aspect of pegasus culture. I was probably looking for history, which was on the ground floor.

Mom said something about coming and finding me, but I wasn't paying much attention. I simply nodded and got on my way into the relevant gallery.

The bombastic nature of the presentation was certainly consistent with everything else in Zephyr Heights. The gallery opened with a short film giving the history of the nation in fast forward mode, which was a handy overview of events. After that, I stepped into the first gallery, which depicted events prior to the founding of Zephyr Heights as the capital of pegasus territory.

The displays started some point after the events of The Last Problem, and told of the breakdown of relations between the three tribes, with the situation eventually becoming so bad they went and lived in different places.

Unfortunately, it was difficult to tell what was legitimate historical fact and what was propaganda, as both seem to have been expertly weaved togther. What I could assess as being the case was that the three tribes were once allies but that the unicorns and earth ponies always wanted pegasus resources. They allied to take technological marvels produced by pegasus engineers and invaded pegasus territory.

The pegasi, naturally, fought back with their superior technology and weapons, soundly defeating both tribes at the Battle of Thunder Bay. This didn't square with what was stated in the film. I'm pretty certain Sprout said the battle was an earth pony victory. I know, Sprout Cloverleaf, that source of scholarly information and facts. But I needed to press on.

The next display stated that the ability to fly was suddenly lost, except for the royal family. I looked at my own wings subconsciously, and moved them a bit. I knew that was a lie, and precisely what it was going to cost us. It was with a heavy heart I turned around and saw a diorama of the Battle of Thunder Bay. It had huge numbers of miniatures on the table, and vehicles rolling across the board. Seems that each group had developed tanks by this point, although pegasus tanks looked to be decades ahead of others, which appeared to be closer to WW1 machines in appearance.

The gallery then continued with the founding of the Pegasus Empire, and the forging of the Pegasus Crystal by Cirrus the Cumulus. A replica sat in a display case nearby. Of course, I knew the film, and knew that the crystal was a lot older.

By this point my notepad was covered in questions, and no answers. I was so caught up in my thoughts that I jumped when a voice spoke.

"Zephyrina?"

I looked over. "Ah! Oh, err, hi mom. Sorry, got a bit carried away."

Queen Haven smiled. "A healthy appetite for knowledge never hurt anypony," she replied. "I was going to ask if you'd like to go for lunch. It is midday, after all."

I quickly glanced from the cabinet with the replica crystal to the crown mom was wearing. "Yeah," I said. "I'd like that."

Author's Note

So, some history. Some of this is derived from stuff stated in the show and some of it is my own headcanon (with a liberal dose of pegasus bias applied here).

The overall design of the museum is inspired by both the British Museum and Science Museum in London. Overall, I've noticed that I tend to give the pegasi a distinctly British flavour in my writing, so to continue that seemed fitting.

Nobody is really sure who wrote God Save the King/Queen. The earliest known reference to the melody and words dates from 1745. The melody was also used for My Country, Tis of Thee in the United States, which served as the unofficial national anthem until 1934.

A friend of mine did actually write lyrics for a Zephyr Heights national anthem, to be sung to the tune of God Save the King/Queen. They can be found here: https://www.deviantart.com/marenlicious/art/Well-I-heard-you-like-tea-time-950195500

Said you'd keep me safe, now you're tearing me down

The cafeteria at the museum was not what I'd call modest. It seemed as though the architect had gotten drunk that day and had used the scale tool in the design software to absolutely ridiculous lengths. The building had a ceiling that was so tall that multiple trolls could have fitted under there with no difficulty, and the windows were each the size of a bus. On the flip side this meant that there was plenty of natural light flooding in.

The tops of the walls had gold relief and plating attached to the walls which caused them to glow. It was a good thing this day wasn't too sunny. On a truly hot day you'd probably need sunglasses to have any chance of seeing where you were going or what you were doing. The centre of the room had a large rotunda, much like the lobby, with there being a space to put your tray and take it to the food serving area. This certainly sped up food serving. The tables were off to the side and this left plenty of room to move through the centre. A very good bit of design, as usually these sorts of eating places are crowd control nightmares with bad flow.

When we arrived, the management of the cafe had rolled out the red carpet and spared no expense- again. Once again, there were people guarding the side and flanking the pathway, and the entire place turned silent as we entered. I could only imagine that people were looking forward to seeing this glimpse of royalty. I got the impression most people didn't get to see royalty on a regular basis, as there were only three of us. Assuming Queen Haven has no brothers or sisters. Or rather, that I have no aunts or uncles. I've only recently become used to that idea. I was an older sibling back in the human world, but the dynamic was a bit different back in those days.

We made our way to the food collection area, where the people we saw were bowing so low their muzzles were scraping the floor. "Most humble greetings, your most royal highness Zephyrina," said the lead cook. "Is all to your liking?"

I glanced at the offerings on display. This looked pretty upmarket for a museum, but then again it's possible somepony informed them of our visit and kicked the menu into overdrive. And my only real point of comparison was London museums, where the food usually ranges from mediocre to surprisingly good. "This looks great! And please, just call me Zipp."

"Of course," the lead cook replied. "If there is anything else you need, just let a member of staff know and we shall make it so." He was then on his way to the side where food preparation was also taking place.

I had no idea what the normal custom was, so I simply slid one or two plates onto the tray and then added what looked like a saucer.

"Would you like some tea?" somebody asked.

"Coffee, please," I replied.

The cup, now fully filled, was placed onto my tray. I then realised carrying it was going to be an interesting challenge. A device then came up, with numbers on it.

"Which table would you like the tray delivering to?" a voice asked.

I glanced to mom, who indicated to table number 25. I punched the number 25 in, and a conveyor belt shipped the tray over to table 25.

After a few moments of trotting, we were both in the right place, and as the second tray rolled into position it was almost time to start. I noticed everypony was looking my way. At least nopony was sneezing.

Mom peered over my tray in mild surprise. "Coffee at mid day?" she asked. "You must be tired. Or perhaps the medication is still affecting you. Normally you don't touch the stuff after 10."

I nodded. "I, uh, fancied trying something different!"

"Well, it's considered a bit odd in Royal circles to take caffeine after the mid morning unless you happen to be outdoors. It would hardly be proper for a Queen to be bouncing all over the place like a tennis ball, would it?"

What a strange expression. From my experience, tennis balls don't bounce very well at all. "And what if we happen to be outdoors?"

"It can be quite useful if it's cold outdoors," Mom explained. "These are all things that you will need to understand when you succeed me to the throne."

Oh no, here we go. This discussion, already? I thought I'd get a break on this until the events of Make your Mark! I tried to shift the topic. "Uh, cheers?"

Unfortunately, somepony in the room overheard me, and raised her glass. "A toast to her excellent Imperial Majesty, Queen Haven, and Her Royal Highness Zephyrina Storm! Long may they live!"

Oh dear. Before long, the room was thronged with ponies, who held glasses aloft and proclaimed, in one voice: "LONG LIVE THE QUEEN!" They then downed the glasses in one go, which was quite impressive.

"That was not what I'd expected," I said. This must have been what Medieval banquets were like.

"Patriotism is through the roof today," Mom replied, who based on the noises coming from the phone screen seemed to be watching a 24-gun salute. "Given my Silver Jubilee is coming up it's hardly surprising."

That gave me an idea. "Mom, we're in danger. Something bad's coming, and we need to be ready."

Mom scoffed. "In danger? In Zephyr Heights! Don't be ridiculous, Zephryina! Zephyr Heights is effectively impenetrable! A natural fortress! Not to mention the army is there to keep the citizens safe. There is nothing to fear."

"And earth pony and unicorn will arrive, and-"

"I highly doubt it. Earth ponies have very small brains, and unicorns couldn't find their way up here even if they tried! There is nothing to fear."

I was clearly getting nowhere, so I chose to shift the topic. "So, uh, about this Silver Jubilee, huh?"

"I know! The first formal milestone!" Mom replied. "It only feels like the coronation was yesterday. Funny how time skates by, isn't it? One moment the crown is being placed onto my head, the next 25 years have passed and you two have entered my life." She sighed. "Of course, we'll be having a grand party at the palace to which the entire citizenry is invited. And Pipp will be performing too! Won't it be wonderful?"

"Hopefully it won't be your last day on the throne," I thought to myself. If I could minimise the chaos that would be a big boon.

Once I returned to the palace I engaged ultra sneaky mode. I had to find Zipp's workshop, which from memory was underneath a grate. I wandered through the lower levels and passed the detention cells. It could be worth remembering where those were. They'd come in handy later.

A few moments later, I found a golden floor panel, and slid it out of place before dropping through onto a basket. This was rigged up to an improvised pulley system, creating a crude gondola of sorts. It skidded down, feeling like I was in the middle of a spy movie. It would not surprise me if Zipp was a fan of Mission Impossible, or whatever equivalent they had here. I mean, if they had pony versions of the Transformers and Terminator franchises, it stood to reason some version of Mission Impossible or James Bond existed.

At the bottom, I hopped out and looked about. I was in the abandoned cableway station that Zipp, Sunny, and Izzy visit in the film. The stained glass window was there, as were the abandoned posters and damaged winding gear. The place was caked in dust, but most notable of all was a large turbine, presumably left over from a ventilation system that had long since ceased to work. There was also a lemon squeezer in it for some reason. Not quite sure what was going in there, but OK.

I soon consulted the large blackboard sitting to one side. Numbers and figures were casually sprawled across it like soldiers on a battle, the author clearly waging a battle against science itself. Zipp must have been trying to figure out how flight worked without magic. Poorly, I suspected; planes are pointy because this shape reduces air resistance. Pegasi have a large flat area at the front which produces a lot of drag, which would make us about as airworthy as a Reliant Robin.

I decided to try and complete the calculations, but let's just say that math was never my strongest subject. I was finding this pretty hard to follow, and I focused hard on trying to get this finished that I had no idea what time it was by the time it had finished.

And as I looked on at my calculations in triumph, a voice made me jump.

"Zipp? What are you doing down here?"

I swung around in surprise. Standing there was Pipp, with a rather quizzical look on her face.

Author's Note

More inspiration for this chapter came from the same places as mentioned before, with some extra influence coming from the art deco dining rooms of French railway stations. The conversation between Zipp and Haven is meant to partially allude to the one they have shortly before the Royal Celebration.

The lemon squeezer is a reference to British TV show Thunderbirds. One of the objects that can be spotted in the background of one of the launch hangers is a large lemon squeezer, being used to represent a gas exchanger.

But what is this? How does Pipp know where Zipp's workshop is? Find out when we return to these characters in the near future!

From the Last to the First

There was deadly silence in that room. I had turned to see Pipp there, looking at me, and I simply stared right back in utter confusion, trying to process what was going on. This place, the workshop, was supposed to be a secret that only I knew about. And yet somehow Pipp was down here, with me, and was asking me what was going on. I had no idea how to react to this, so I simply looked on in confusion and a bit of fear as well. What if she told mom- sorry, that still felt weird even a few days in- about what was down here? That would throw a real spanner in the works.

"Pipp? What are you doing down here? How do you know where my workshop is?" was my initial reaction.

Pipp stepped forward. "I have a secret to tell..."

So she was trailing me. Fantastic. "H- how do you know what's down here?" I stammered in surprise, still trying to process this confrontation. "This place is meant to be a secret!"

"I might have followed you through the corridors whilst you were sneaking about," Pipp replied. "You really don't need to sneak about like you're a spy in a Tom Hooves movie, Zipp. This is literally our house!"

"I suppose it is in the middle of the street," I answered, trying for some light relief. I often did this when things were tense- a small joke can often relieve the tension in a situation.

Unfortunately, it didn't seem to work. This only seemed to make Pipp even more intent. "Now I know something's truly going on. You're quoting Madness? That's a really obscure reference for most peo- ponies."

I caught onto the slip of the tongue almost immediately. I decided to probe about it later. In the meantime I had to ensure no news of this place got out. "Pipp," I pleaded, "please don't tell mom. This place contains so much stuff vital to bringing the magic back, and if it were to be destroyed we may never be able to fly again. Keep this a secret, please?"

"Err, I kinda know this place is important, Zipp," Pipp replied. "Besides, where else would you have a place to write numbers on a chalkboard? Nowhere, that's where."

"That's true," I replied. "It beats being stuck in a boring princess lesson. Now, do I have your promise or not?"

Pipp nodded. "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

That was the last piece of evidence I needed to confirm my theory. Pipp had just quoted Pinkie Pie, knowledge she shouldn't logically have had considering the setting (most ponies don't even know Pinkie even existed- the only one who seemingly did was yet to turn up assuming things around here were happening as they did in the film). "Thanks. Now, can I ask you something?"

"Sure!" Pipp replied, quickly moving her wings about. "Sorry, had some wing cramp there. Helps to keep them moving about a bit."

I then decided to drop the million dollar question. "This is going to sound odd, but this is the million dollar-"

"Pound."

"Excuse me?"

Pipp showed what look like a note. "Zephyr Heights uses pounds and pennies, not dollars and cents. Seems each of the three tribes have their own currency."

Seems there was more to that one throwaway line in Portrait of a Princess than I'd realised. I nodded. "Well, let's rephrase that then. This is going to sound odd, but this is the million pound question is- where are you originally from, and who were you?"

Pipp paused, trying to establish if I was asking a trick question. "If you're asking what I think you're asking then I'm not from around here. I'm originally from another world, and wasn't originally a pegasus. Hopefully that doesn't sound too crazy."

Somepony else in the same predicament as me? That was a source of relief for my mind. I took a closer look and saw that, although it was indeed the body of Pipp, something about the body language was subtly different. "Looks like I need to tell the truth as well. I'm in the same boat myself. I'm from a long way from here in a different body that wasn't originally my own."

"Genderswap?" Pipp asked. "Yeah, I can tell you that's not fun."

I winced, remembering the agony of the original transformation that had gotten me in this mess in the first place. "Well, at least that cleans some stuff up. But I have to ask you something else?"

"You're asking a lot of questions today. This is busier than one of my 'ask me anything' streams!"

"If you're not from here, and originally a human as I suspect, how then were you able to blend in so well? Why didn't you arouse any suspicions from anypony?"

Pipp smiled. "You'd be amazed how easy it is to go undetected as a younger sibling. Not only that, I learned how to do all the mannerisms and actions pretty well. What can I say? It beats my old life, and having a thorough knowledge of G5 helps me along with the more difficult stuff."

So, another person turned pony who's a fan of the show and in the body of a prominent character? Interesting. Whilst one of us would seemingly be a happy accident, for there to be two of us in the same situation and in close proximity suggested something else. Like some sort of plan or grand design? Perhaps we were fated to be here by some unknown cosmic entity, and that we had a greater purpose.

"Brony or pegasister?"

"Brony then, technically pegasister now," Pipp answered. "Same for you?"

"Yeah," I replied. "Can get kinda awkward at times. When exactly did you enter the world?"

"Before you, I think," Pipp replied. "I was at a concert when I found this." She indicated to her coronet. "I then fell into this place, did some stuff in my bedroom, then a whole bunch of stuff you'd find boring happened. But you slipped on a banana peel and hurt your head! That was when I think you and the original Zipp switched places, as when you woke up you were totes freaking out!"

Memories of that hospital flooded back into my mind, and the same terror I had felt that day flooded back in as well. I tried to push it down as this new revelation brought new concerns. Pipp had been acting this entire time? She should try drama if she's this good. She's probably already in a drama group knowing her preferences.

But the swapping bodies bit disturbed me a bit. Did that mean Zipp had ended up in my world, in my former body? I can't imagine how nightmarish that would be. I tried to force the thought down and focus on the task at hand. "So, you said you know G5, right?"

"Yep! I take it you do too!"

"Mostly, though there are some bits of lore that aren't there, probably because the show hasn't talked about them." I paused. "That means we need to be on guard. The Royal Celebration is next week, and the program for the Jubilee is already underway. We need to be ready for Sunny and Izzy's arrival next week, or else things could be thrown into chaos which we really don't need right now."

"Great idea!" Pipp said. "I'll prepare a wel-"

"No!" I said. "Mom mustn't know what we know. If she hears what's going on and that we have information we shouldn't, she'll have us thrown in the loony bin!"

"Were you British or something?" Pipp asked. "And yeah, I can see the problem with that. Act normally, and pretend nothing odd is going on. No different to normal, then."

With all that cleared up, we left the chamber and went back to the surface, before taking a turn down the corridor and heading back towards the throne room. "So, wanna grab a quick bite to eat?"

"Certainly not!" Pipp replied. "I've checked my calorie intake for the day, and I only have enough space for dinner now. I can't afford to overeat. What sort of message would that send to the Pippsqueaks?"

"Exercise?" I ventured.

"As we established previously, I have shorter legs than you. The easiest way to avoid fat is to never put it on in the first place."

As we entered the throne room, an organ began to play. The court organist was practicing for later this week, it seemed, as it seemed organ music signalled the entrances and exits of the Royal Family.

A guard was waiting there, fully kitted up in ceremonial armour. "Good afternoon, Your Royal Highnesses," he said. "I bring an urgent communique from the State. The parade is beginning soon, and Her Majesty the Queen requires your presence on this day. Please proceed outdoors to the courtyard for more information. Good day, and Faust save the Queen!"

Well, this got strange. With the new knowledge we had, we could see how well we could act in front of mom. We headed out through the front door and into the piercing sunlight of another day in Zephyr Heights.

Author's Note

Another chapter here, and Zipp has her first confirmation that there are other former humans in Equestria? But what could this mean for the future of the land? Who else could be a human too?

Much of the conversation is modelled on, and partially parodies, conversations common in this sort of work. There are also a couple of lore nods; a throwaway line in Portrait of a Princess implies pegasus territory has a separate currency to earth pony lands, which makes sense seeing as each bit of G5 Equestria appears to be a sovreign nation rather than a single country.

Next time: who's ready for a parade?

Ain't Misbehavin'

Pipp and I made our way across the courtyard to where mom was. And I immediately twigged that something wasn't quite right. Not only was she squinting a lot, she was also looking at the palace in seeming confusion. I noticed she her eyes focused on the storage section entrance in front of her. This implied she had previously been there, which raised the rather obvious question. What had she been doing in the storage rooms? Nopony goes in there except the household staff to collect important items for state events.

I glanced over to Pipp. "Make this as normal as possible," I said. "We don't want to give her a nasty shock, do we?"

"Nope!" Pipp replied.

So, with perfect timing, we both spoke to her. "Mom!"

She glanced to us as one of the guards looked over, and trotted over. He was an older stallion with a greying mane. "Your Majesty," he said. "Is everything fine?"

Sorry, what on Earth was that accent? It sounded like a blend of a stereotypical British character you'd find in a colonial period drama and Tom Hanks' attempt at a Dutch accent in Elvis. Truly strange.

"I'm fine," Mom replied. "Just a moment of light-headedness, that's all."

After Zoom was instructed to give her sunglasses, it was time to head to the parade. Things continued to be a bit strange, with mom seemingly not knowing what that was despite it apparently being in the calender for months, and a few slightly odd jokes.

I got my biggest clue when I noticed her trying to sit like a human. That wasn't normal at all, and the way her body seemed to flop against the seat was mildly funny- for a bit. As the orchestra played a hornpipe down below to keep the crowd occupied (thankfully without the blowing of bus horns), I checked over to Pipp. She'd seemingly noted some of the oddnes, as she was recording something on her phone's notes section. I glanced about as the National Anthem began to be played for the second time that day. Being the kid of the subject of the words will never cease to be weird. Thought at least, in a moment of consistency, Faust seems to be the deity around here.

The next few days seem to fly by in a blur, as relatively little of interest happened. True, we were both a bit surprised when mom offered to take us both to a water park, which seemed a little out of character. Having said that, we certainly all seemed to have good fun out there, with me doing my best impression of a steamship.

Dodging one of the cannonballs was pretty fun too. It was when we came together for a group selfie I noticed something unusual in mom's face. I assumed that, as a monarch, she had to wear an awful lot of different faces during her day.

And yet I noticed she looked... happy. Happier than before during my time here.

Some time after that, mom was off on business. Something about a new vehicle factory that needed to be inspected. That left Pipp and me back at the palace, and with an obvious obstacle I decided it was time to do some sleuthing about.

Truth be told, it wasn't hard to find the Palace Guard. They were busy drilling on the parade ground behind the palace. Based on the music the band was playing they were rehearsing a march for festivities later on. It was a very slow one though, so it was probably for travelling short distances.

"SLOW IT DOWN, PRIVATE GAZE! YOU'RE HALF A BEAT TOO FAST!"

"YES COLONEL!" a voice replied.

I made my way down there and spoke to a soldier nearby. "Could I talk with the Colonel quickly?"

"Yes, Your Highness," the soldier replied, and trotted over to the parade area.

This seemed to work, and there was a barked command. "CAPTAIN BRISTOL! TAKE CONTROL OF THE PARADE!"

"YES SIR!"

The Colonel then made his way over to me, and saluted as he came to a stop. "Your Royal Highness," he said. "How may I assist you today?"

"Please, just call me Zipp," I replied. "I was wondering if we could go over security arrangements for next week?"

"Of course," he replied. "I've increased troop deployments around the palace and- could we hold the music for a moment, please?"

"Yes, Colonel Opwinden!" called the bandmaster.

So Opwinden was his name? Interesting. "As you're probably aware security is a bit of a big deal at the moment."

"I understand entirely, Your Roy- Zipp," he said, quickly stopping and correcting himself. "I don't think there's anything to worry about, though. These festivities constitute the largest peacetime deployment in quite a while! It will certainly be good to showcase all the drill we've worked on."

I nodded, noticing they were still going even though there was no music. "Carry on, Colonel."

The Colonel saluted me back. "Good day, Your Highness."

So, heavy security and a large scale peacetime deployment? They didn't show us any of this in the movie, but then again the timeframe was restricted to the exact day of the Royal Celebration. It's possible all the deployment stuff was the week before, and the soldiers returned to their barracks before the event shown in the movie. This would explain why we only see palace guards in the film.

I made my way back indoors, and soon found myself heading back for the research facility I called home for a bit. Once down there, I checked the various strange artefacts and found a mysterious glowing thing amonst them. I looked closely at the object and was amazed.

Had I found a prisbeam object in this place? This was interesting, but it could wait until later. I had to test a theory of aerodynamics, so I fired up the fan and hopped onto it, experimenting with glide angles and positions.

I was retiring to my room for the night when I suddenly heard something odd coming from mom's room. I stopped and pricked my ears to listen closer. It was then I realised what I was hearing.

Was she in pain? Trouble?

I decided to investigate. I pushed the doors open and stepped inside. I knew that entering without knocking was technically a breach of Royal Protocol, but in the circumstances I didn't really care.

The room seemed mostly normal. Mom was next to her desk, seemingly shaking. I figured out fairly quickly what the sound was. She was sobbing.

I made my way over to her, being careful not to tread on things as I went through the room. As I looked at the scattered items on her desk, I spotted newspapers, old information cuttings, photographs- and a stack of letters.

I figured out what this meant almost immediately. Were these things relating to dad? I mean, Zipp's dad. I'd only really just gotten used to the idea of a fictional character being my mother. This would take a little extra processing.

Tears stained some of the paperwork on the table, turning some of them to a yellowy hue. I spoke up. "Mom, what's wrong?"

She turned to me. Her eyes were red, and the fur around her eyes and cheeks were wet. Wet with tears. Over her shoulder I saw letters filled with information about us. She had continued to write to him even after he'd seemingly died.

Mom then said the first words that she'd said the entire time we'd been standing there. "I miss him, Zephyrina."

I took her into a hug as she collapsed into a fresh wave of tears. "Hey, take it easy," I said. "We all do. We're all hurting." I continued to stay there as she continued to sob into my coat.

"There, easy. Just let it all out."

A few minutes passed, and mom stopped to seemingly compose herself. "Forgive me," she said. "That was most improper."

"Grief is completely natural," I replied. "Especially for somepony so close to you."

She sighed. "I... I just don't like it when you see me this way. It's weakness, and the people can't see that. I have to stay strong for them! Whatever would they think?"

I chose some words I had heard a wise man back in the old world say a long time ago. "Mom, ponies don't cry because they're weak. They cry because they've had to be strong for too long. We're only pegasi. The people can see that. And they miss him too."

Mom seemed legitimately touched by those words. "Thank you, Zephyrina," she said. "I guess I needed that." She glanced at a clock. "I'd best get these put away and off to bed. There's a full schedule tomorrow."

I nodded. "I'm gonna turn in too. Take care."

"You too."

Well, that was interesting. Turns out Queen Haven does have a heart after all. She was maintaining that image the entire time for their sake, not just her own.

Author's Note

Well, that's another chapter down, and it would appear Queen Haven is in on things as well.

The chapter contains a number of references to different things, namely the popular fantheory that Faust is the deity of the MLP world (hence, for the national anthem swap 'God' for 'Faust' and 'King' to 'Queen' and you'll have the words).

Opwinden, for those who are interested, is a Dutch word that literally translates as upwind. The commentary on his accent is a nod to the 2022 film Elvis, which memorably starred Tom Hanks as Tom Parker (doing an accent which can only be charitably described as strange).

The idea of Haven wearing a mask for the sake of the public is derived from this story, which delves quite deeply into her mental state:

EThe Queenly Mask

Fairweather Haven is many things. A Queen, a celebrity, a shining beacon of hope for a flightless people. A fraud, a widow, a mother who struggles to connect with her eldest daughter.

spookyalice · 4.3k words · 73 2 · 1.5k views

It was a theme that also resonated with me; as an autistic person, I find myself having to wear masks and faces an awful lot to blend in with society.

Next time: Raise the alarm!

Welcome to a New Kind of Tension

When the alarms go off in the middle of the night, it's rarely good news. I certainly knew this one well, given my historical propensity to be jolted awake by noise (thunderstorms were horrible in that regard). So for an alarm to suddenly jolt me awake was pretty bad for my mind, to be honest.

As I woke up, I glanced at the clock in confusion and saw the time. It was only three in the morning! Brilliant. This just had to happen during Tirek's hour, didn't it?

In case you're not aware, pegasi have this curious supersticion that the time of 3 AM to 3:59 AM are spooky, and are somehow owned by Tirek. Curiously, few of them seem to have any awareness of who Tirek was, suggesting that the historical figure has somewhat faded away into legend and become a myth of sorts. I sometimes wonder if the other races are still out there, simply waiting to be discovered by us once again.

Anyway, the alarm continued to sound loudly. There was even a voice. "INTRUDER ALERT. INTRUDER ALERT. ALL ASSETS MOVE TO CAPTURE AND DETAIN INTRUDER. INTRUDER ALERT. INTRUDER ALERT. ALL ASSETS MOVE TO CAPTURE AND DETAIN INTRUDER."

This was pretty bad. I pushed open my doors after rolling out of bed, and then found Pipp stumbling out of bed, looking pretty exhausted. "Whatsh's going on?" she asked, yawning as she did so.

I glanced back. "Something about an intruder. We should probably go and look."

"Why did they have to intrude at three in the morning?" Pipp grumbled, but we got on our way regardless. The place was already chock full of soldiers standing on duty and heading about. I could hear some shouting from nearby, but it was hard to make out. My brain hadn't completely switched on yet, and as a result not everything was being processed correctly. We made our way around a bend, noticing most of the commotion was coming from the cable room.

Well, I did. Pipp seemed confused. "Who would steal something in the cable room?"

"Perhaps the intruder is there?" I suggested, as we stepped into the room. And sure enough, our intruder was there, suspended from wires.

Colonel Opwinden seemed to be annoyed with them. "You, miss, are in a lot of trouble tonight," he said. "Haul her in."

As whomever they were was hauled in, I spotted mom retreiving the crown from a bag on the thief's back. "Mine," she said. "We shall deal with you in the morning. In the meantime, place her in the cells. Colonel Opwinden, see to it that this is done."

As the Colonel led the prisoner away and the guards returned to their posts, we both made our way back to our rooms as per mom's orders. As was usually the case, my mind was buzzing with questions. How had we been broken into? What was the identity of the thief? And what did they want with the crown? It was all quite perplexing.

The next morning, I attended the court, as mom had instructed me to. I was fully expecting it to be boring, but the interrogation of the prisoner would allow me to put some of my fears to rest. The musicians were already playing as we 'flew' in. Unlike what I'd seen previously, the court was not in its full regalia (thank Faust. That stuff is seriously hot and uncomfortable).

The first order of business was, of course, the prisoner, and mom wasted absolutely no time in getting to the main portion of the discussion. "Guards, we have the prisoner to attend to. Remove her goggles so we can get a better look at her."

I wasn't entirely sure how she'd deduced she was female from looking at her, but presumably she had some knowledge I lacked. I hadn't heard the prisoner speak, after all.

Sure enough, the guard removed her helmet, and the entire court gasped in surprise- including myself, albeit not for reasons you may expect. The prisoner was Misty! What was she doing here so far ahead of schedule?

"What is wrong with her face?" asked a noble. "She has something on her forehead!"

She's a unicorn, you dolt, I thought to myself as the interrogation went on. It was as if many of them had never seen a unicorn in the flesh before. I mean, I technically hadn't, but let's not split hairs here.

"A unicorn? Here? In the Palace?" mom asked, seemingly legitimately concerned about where this was leading. "How did she get in? How did she bypass security?"

"My team are still trying to establish how she bypassed security, Your Majesty. Please accept my apology for this most severe of slip-ups."

Mom attempted to ask Misty questions, but the guards weren't exactly helping. This was degrading into a farce pretty quickly. I was soon brought back to attention by another command.

"Zephyrina, ensure that the equipment in the cells is in order. Pipp, I want you to monitor communications. No news of this must get out, understand?"

I pretty quickly figured out that this was our cue to leave, and with a heavy heart I made my way to the cells. Truth be told, I'd love to talk to Misty myself, but probably not in the way they were imagining. I suspect it was the bright lights and dark room type of interrogation.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered the interrogation room and adjoining prison cells were absolutely luxurious. It looked more like a spa than a prison. I checked through all the equipment, which consisted of kit like movie players, a vibrating chair, and even some fruit. The window could be bigger, but that was out of my control. Having completed my investigation and ensuring all was in order, I took this as a chance to sneak out. I mean, if they were busy with Misty, I could check out the outer areas of the city and enjoy what sites it had to offer.

Time to see what pegasus biology can do, Enough theoreticals, practical testing. I hopped onto a rock, and leaped forward. I locked my wings into position, and quickly gained speed on the dive. The wind roared past my face and brushed through my fur. The adrenaline was pumping through my body as the ground rocketed closer. As it approached, I pulled up as best I could and touched down. Well, the confirms one of my theories. We could glide, just not very efficiently. I trotted forward and leaped down a canyon before flipping in the air and touching down on the ground.

Suddenly, I heard two voices talking in the canyon, and I dived into an alcove to avoid being spotted. My eyes widened when I saw them passing. I thought I knew who they were, and hid in there to try and confirm who they were.

One of them called a stop and began to speak to the other. I tried to get closer to listen to their conversation, but that only seemed to make them more concerned. It didn't help a rockfall started, which would panic most ponies.

I wanted to escape the rockfall as well, so I leaped forward, bounding between rocks and walls to try and get as much speed as I could to avoid it. I have to admit it was pretty exciting to be dodging all of this rubble. If this was what we could do without magic, imagine what pegasi could achieve with magic returned? And if these two were who I thought they were, that moment was closer than ever before.

I noticed both of them pulling themselves over. Clearly they weren't from here if it took them that much exertion to pull themselves up that small cliff. I leaped up it, my hooves and mouth effortlessly gripping the rockface, then launched myself up into the air, flaring my wings out as I flew into position in front of the sun.

The two figures screamed as I touched down and leaped forward between several rocks, executing rolls and jumps as I touched down, and finally got a proper look at the two.

Sunny Starscout and Izzy Moonbow stood before me, and I was secretly happy. Things were going to plan after all.

"An actual pegasus," Sunny said. Seemingly she wasn't familiar with me yet. I can work with that.

"Sunny and Izzy?" I said. "Huh. They're right on schedule."

Just then, I heard two guards clanking around the corner, and made my way to the cliff edge. "I'll see you two in the throne room," I said to the pair. "Just don't tell them you saw me."

Izzy said something else as I plunged down into the cavern system. I made my way back around another route, knowing another way into the palace from around here. I had a very important mission. Firstly, I had to inform Pipp of what was going on.

And second, I had to put the second stage of my plan into motion. No matter how long it took.

Author's Note

Well, quite the bumper chapter, this! Three entire storylines intersecting as the story moves forward! For those wondering, Misty, Sunny, and Izzy are from these stories:

TRebirth of Magic: In the Mists

The life and times of a pony caught between conscience and duty.

JimmyHook19 · 37k words · 24 8 · 824 views

TRebirth of Magic: The Misfit

The life and times of an Earth Pony determined to be herself.

The Blue EM2 · 40k words · 32 1 · 1.2k views

TRebirth of Magic: Izzytastic!

The life and times of a unicorn who thought outside the box.

JimmyHook19 · 44k words · 35 8 · 1.1k views

The heist response and interrogation are from the first, whilst the latter two have only just arrived. What sort of shenanigans will happen with all of these figures?

Tirek's Hour is a reference to the idea that 3AM is the Devil's hour, when spooky things happen. This is used as the basis for an entire subgenre of YouTube videos which depict strange things going on at that time (usually stuffed toys coming to life). I have been awake at 3AM several times, and I can confirm nothing spooky has happened... yet.

Next time: Time to talk!

Stick to the Status Quo

It wasn't long until I returned to the palace. I entered the structure through a secret entrance that nopony else knew about. I won't tell you where it is either to reduce the risk of others learning where it is and sealing it off. I made my way through the structure and eventually found my way back onto the main level of the building, where I knew I had to look for Pipp. I made my way down several corridors and looked about for her. "Pipp? Pipp?"

After continuing through the building as best I could, it wasn't long until I spotted her. I looked out through a window and spotted her on a sun lounger, presumably trying to get a tan. I shook my head and headed outdoors before stopping in front of her. "Hey! Pipp?"

Pipp glanced up and adjusted a set of star shaped sunglasses. "Zipp, what's got you all worked up? I think a spa day would do you good."

"No. Way," I firmly replied. "And how are you supposed to get a tan? Isn't there fur in the way?"

"I am not trying to get a tan!" she said defensively. "I simply like being out in the sun for a bit! Why is that such an issue?"

I blinked. "Oh. Sorry. But I've got some news for you."

"Huh? What news?"

"Sunny and Izzy are here."

Pipp cheered up immediately, and hopped off fthe sun lounger. "Yay! I always like making new friends, and we can add three to the roster!"

I took me a few seconds to figure out who the third pony was. "Ohh. You mean Misty. Right. Well, I've not been able to establish if Sunny and Izzy are former humans yes- I only had one interaction with them that was less than a minute long- and I'll need more time to speak with them. In the meantime, we need to stick to the script."

Pipp pouted. "Zipp! I can't remember the dialogue exactly! I can't just watch a copy of the movie to refresh my memory! Seeing as we're kinda living in the movie!"

Thanks for the reminder of how absurd our situation had forgotten. I nodded. "Well, you don't need to have it 100% off. Just try and recall the gist of it. That's what I've been doing."

"Thanks for the tip," Pipp replied, just as a message began playing over the palace loudspeakers.

"Could Princesses Pipp Petals and Zephyrina Storm report to the Royal Chambers immediately. Repeat, could Princesses Pipp Petals and Zephyrina Storm report to the Royal Chambers immediately!"

I glanced up. "Well, that's our cue. Break a leg- not literally."

Pipp followed me along. "I wonder if this would be a good opportunity to test a new filter?"

Up in the cable room, mom briefed us. "Colonel Opwinden requested our precense in the trone room about some security issue," she said, as technicians finished fitting the harnesses and cables to our bodies. "I'm not sure exactly what he means, but I hardly imagine it's anything serious."

I tried to suppress my mirth at the irony of the words.

"However, I want both of you on your best behaviour. That means no pouting, Zephyrina, and no random musical interludes, Pipp. Understood?"

"Yes mom," we both said at once.

"Good." Mom trotted over to a control panel and switched on the intercom. "We are ready for launch."

"Copy that, Your Majesty. You should feel the winding gear taking up the slack now."

We were lowered into the throne room to the fanfare of blaring trumpets and the beating of drums, as had become standard procedure in this part of the world. I glanced forward to see Sunny and Izzy being held in a secure formation. Surely that level of security was a bit excessive? They're not that dangerous.

Mom started proceedings without any pomp or circumstance. "Guards, state your business," she said. It seemed her sunglasses hadn't been set properly as she was constantly adjusting them. "Pipp needs to rehearse, Cloudpuff here needs his bubble bath, and I need to practice my laugh." I internally cringed at how unnatural that laugh sounded. "Still needs some work."

After some confusion over titles, the guards then revealed Sunny and Izzy. I'm not sure how mom didn't spot or hear them earlier, seeing as Izzy addressed me only a few seconds earlier, but the second she spotted them she took what was posssibly the sharpest intake of breath in the known universe.

"What in Faust's name?" she asked. Seems the idea of Faust being a deity carried over from Generation 4, even though Faust had no involvement in G5's development. "A unicorn, and an earth pony, in Zephyr Heights? Why are you here? Who sent you?"

"We've got them both under control, Your Majesty," Thunder said. "We fitted the shield, and this Earth Pony won't think to attack. Their capacity for logical thought is exceedingly limited."

I internally cringed to hear these characters casually throwing racist ideas around. I guess that's what happens when such ideals and thoughts become ingrained in a society, that otherwise seemingly nice ponies can be bigoted.

Mom continued with her concerned speech, but something sounded a bit strange. "Is this some sort of prelude to war? Or an invitation to dialogue? Nopony must know we have them here!"

And then Pipp intervened at the worst possible moment. "Check it out, guys!" she said, turning her phone towards Sunny and Izzy. "Something that hasn't been seen in millenia! It's a unicorn and Earth Pony!"

Oh no. When I said 'stick to the script' I didn't mean 'rigidly recreate moments from the movie'. Seems Pipp may be taking my instruction perhaps a little too literally.

This provoked a predictable response. Mom took the phone from her (albeit holding it upside down) and spoke into the monitor. "There's nothing to fear," she said. "They are under the custody of the army. We will protect you." The glare she shot at Pipp could melt a glacier. "Shut it off."

Pipp pushed some buttons, before mom casually tossed the phone back to her and resumed her position near her throne.

Sunny's voice then suddenly cut through the awkwardness of the moment. "Your Majesty, I have a few questions-"

Mom's interruption silenced any doubt. "I'll be the one asking questions, not you. Process them to the holding cells until Military Intelligence can question them. And confiscate the book!"

A guard took the book whilst the signal was given to take us back up into the cable room. As we were lifted away, I saw Sunny look dejected at having the book taken from her. Poor thing. I had to find a way to get it back to her.

"Well, that was rather a shock to the system," Mom said, as a technician detached her harness. "Fancy that! First one unicorn, then several ponies! It seems the other races are like buses- they all turn up at once!"

We laughed even though it wasn't particularly funny. It was then I had an idea. "Mom, I could interrogate the prisoners for you. Being questioned by a soldier isn't always something that makes a pony open up, but a civilian like myself might be able to get some info out of them."

Mom turned. "Well, if you're sure," she said. "But I'll have soldiers on standby round the corner to ensure you are safe. If they give you trouble, call for them. Understand?"

I nodded. "Crystal." I then headed off, but not before sending Pipp a quick text, reminding her of the importance of sticking to the script.

I passed by the collection room for confiscated items and picked up the book before heading to the main holding cells. Sure enough, Sunny and Izzy were there trying out all the equipment in the cell. What surprised me more was that they'd put them in the same cell as Misty. Having said that, the three seemed to be getting along. I cleared my throat to indicate my arrival. "You three, we need to talk."

Izzy then said something that made no sense whatsoever, so I simply asked her to call me Zipp rather than have to unscramble strange sentences. "Where are you two from?" I asked. "And not in the Equestrian sense."

Izzy's eyes widened in amazement, which I'll admit was actually pretty adorable. "Wait," she said. "Are you saying that you used to be a human too?"

I simply nodded, which seemed to excite Izzy. "Welcome to the club, Zipp! Seems like we're all in that boat in here. Well, maybe not Misty-"

"Yeah, actually," Misty said. "That's why I didn't react to the mayonnaise." Huh. That actually explains an awful lot, you know. Such as her being here ages before Make your Mark begins.

After they argued for a bit about mayonnaise, I decided to I could address my concerns to them on a fair and even keel. "So, I can speak more frankly with you guys. But we need to talk about magic, and specifically about this." I showed Sunny the journal.

The look on Sunny's face was akin to one a colt would get if he received all of his Wishentide presents for the next ten years in one go. "My journal!" she exclaimed. "What was it that interested you?"

So, no obvious chance to fit in the sneaky conversation. Bother. Oh well. I pointed to the front of the book. "See the symbol in the book? That's Twilight Sparkle's cutie mark. I've seen it all over the castle, and-"

Just then, a familiar fanfare played over two phones, and I glanced sideways. Pipp had arrived, and the two guards were playing the fanfare on phone speakers rather than playing trumpets. They then rolled a red carpet down the corridor. Pipp then walked down this. Well, she wouldn't want to get her hooves dirty, would she? Unlike the rest of us who actually work for a living.

"Zipp!" Pipp hissed at me, perfectly reproducing the tone of voice from the film. "What are you doing here? Mom told you to stay away!"

Of course, she hadn't, but I could only assume Pipp had forgotten this. "Right, right. Then what are you doing here?"

Pipp rolled her eyes. "For the content!" She then turned so that the other ponies were in the background and began taking pictures.

"Princess, why is nopony flying?" Sunny asked.

Pipp turned to her. "It's common knowledge that only we Royals can fly." She bounced into the air and flapped her wings innefectually in a display that would have fooled nopony. "And if we could teach it to the populace of the Empire, you know we would in a wingbeat! Right, Zipp?"

"Yeah," I said, flatly.

We were both suddenly interrupted by a loud buzzing, which turned out to be Pipp's phone. "Oh! Look at the time!" she said. "Dress rehearsal, gotta go!" She then glared at me. "So should you." She then did her vocal exercises and trotted off down the corridor, speaking to herself.

I offered to get the others out of prison, and I sped off for the chambers as fast as I could.

I soon found Mom's chambers again and knocked on the door.

"Enter!"

I stepped through the door, and found her working on a speech. "On this suspicious day- doesn't sound right."

I glanced up. "Auspicious?"

Mom smiled. "Thank you, dear. How did the interrogation go?"

"Smoothly," I said. "They're not armed, and not a danger to us. I think an act of kindness towards them would help them to open up. As you know, the other races don't exactly like us, and accuse us of thinking we're better than them. Melting the ice could work wonders."

Mom nodded. "That seems like a reasonable proposition," she said. "But on the one condition this never becomes public knowledge. The publicist told me Pipp's broadcast nearly caused mass hysteria, and I'd rather not repeat that."

I nodded. "That's fine by me."

Author's Note

Another chapter down, and the story moves forward once more. The incorporation of many elements of things I like was great fun, and the nature of the tale means we'll soon be seeing similar events from the perspectives of several different characters.

There are a few nods to later events in here; the sunglasses Pipp is wearing are the same ones from Portrait of a Princess, and Haven's tech illiteracy is also reflected here. The chapter title is a nod to a song from High School Musical, the project for which Sunny's VA Vanessa Hudgens is perhaps best known for. Haven's bungled speech is a reference to a common issue in English called a malaprop. This is when a person uses two words that sound similar but have very different meanings, which can have humorous results. It was a favoured comedy device of writer David Croft, the creator of classic sitcoms like Dad's Army and Hi-de-Hi.

Next time: Be our Guest!

The Gondola Collective

Turns out mom had a rather interesting interpretation of what I meant when I suggested an act of kindness. I was certainly quite amazed when instructed to report to makeup and styling at five in the afternoon to have my mane and tail done, and to prepare for regalia fitting.

Pipp was there too, and pretty confused as well. "Any clue what's going on?" she asked.

"Nope," I replied, as the staff moved different things around. "Only thing I do know is I don't like this at all. Seriously, why do our tails need doing? Nopony's going to see them!"

"We should always aim to look our best," Pipp replied. "Besides, that should be easy for you. Your mane's entirely on top, and therefore easy to wash. Mine flops all over the place. Do you have any clue how long this takes to get presentable in the morning?"

"No," I replied. "But I suspect it takes a while, based on mom's mane and tail."

They then brought out the regalia, and I was both concerned and a little embarrassed. Seems that whatever this event was, we were dressing up. Mom then arrived, looking like she was off on a state visit to another country rather than something inside the palace, having been fitted into a rather posh gown. "Ah! You two are looking excellent!" she said. "Remember to thank the stylists."

"What's going on? And why are we being decked out in... well, all that?" I indicated to her clothing.

"You suggested an act of kindness towards them, yes? I've organised a special banquet for them, which will allow us to break the ice and introduce them to pegasus customs. Not to mention it allows us to showcase how splendid the palace can be!"

I kept my objections to myself. When mom was off on one of her ideas, there was no stopping her. Trying to get her to slow down was like trying to stop a freight train with no brakes.

Well, it could've been worse. I've never been one for dressing up or posh meals. I'd probably have ordered in McWings and had a casual Ogres and Oubliettes session in one of the drawing rooms. But everything had to be done properly, it seems.

Although adapting to multiple courses and eating with this stuff on proved to be difficult (seriously, you try eating with both a restrictive gown impairing your movement and large amounts of metal on your chest) and wasn't easy, I did it eventually. The others eventually began speaking to us, and mom was convinced they were safe too. So they could now wander the palace as they saw fit, provided they didn't leave.

This was perfect for me. With the Royal Celebration in a week's time, I could finally move the plot forward and get us closer to reuniting! But I had to be careful. Too much fast movement and the cover could be blown. I began to plan out my idea in my mind as the music continued to flow and the conversation rattled back and forth.

This was mostly my memory of the movie talking, but I felt I could trust them, and that they would be vital for securing that crystal that currently sat in the crown.

Shame Misty's theft had thrown a spanner in the works. Thanks to that incident, mom was refusing to take the crown off. She was even sleeping and showering with the thing on! I could only imagine that quickly got very unhygenic, but I pushed that to one side. We had to secure the crown and the crystal, or else this would all have been for nothing.

Eventually, the meal came to an end, and we retired to another room for cheese and other things. I wasn't sure if I was in Zephyr Heights or an Edwardian period drama for a moment.

A week passed, and after a visit to the station I outlined my plan to my friends. Izzy stated that she needed a replacement crown for the plan, and requested a box of macaroni, a tube of glue, fourteen gooey bunnies, and three jelly beans. And a lot of glitter. That was oddly specific, but I guess she needed them all for something in order to assemble the fake. I popped into town on the Wednesday before the Royal Celebration and looked in several of the shops for the resources I needed. It was a good thing I'd identified on Canternet that several stores had the things in stock. Such a random assortment of items bought at one shop would surely raise eyebrows.

I collected the items and stuffed them into a single bag, and then made my way back to the palace before dropping them off in Izzy's room. I then went and did other things whilst waiting for her to finish her work.

Had I known what I know now, I wouldn't have asked for it. But I didn't know what I know now then, so I left her to it. I kept to myself for a bit, keen to ensure nopony realised what was going on in actuality.

Have to say the crown was pretty good when I saw it for the first time. Izzy's quite skilled as a junk modeller. All we had to do was wait until the night of the event.

The night of the event came, and my stage of the plan went into action. As with every single event the entrance to the Palace was swarmed with papparazzi. Hopefully there wouldn't be any chases or accidents. As per the agreement I would be making my way into the palace via the front entrance, which would distract the ponies taking pictures. That allowed Sunny and Izzy to sneak into the palace via the side entrance and access the backstage area around the back (one of the places they weren't allowed into, as it harboured our dark secret).

As the cameras blared and became blinding (I'm glad I brought sunglasses to protect my eyes from the glare), I briefly spotted the duo using a side entrance. Good. They're in. I continued on my way into the building and saw huge amounts of preparations currently underway. Things were being pushed around, light controls were being brought in, and other display items were being placed to make the concert easier. Naturally this included light controls to hide cables and wires. I found my way to the access steps and made my way up to the makeup and harness room. Not for vanity's sake, you understand. It was needed so I didn't look odd under stage lighting.

After quite a bit of that, I was then sent over to the cable room for cable fitting in preparation for the big event. Here's hoping things went to plan in other bits of the palace.

We were in the cable room before the show when I decided to give it one last shot. Mom was there, ensuring her stage makeup was applied correctly. "Pipp told me you've been with the others a lot," she said.

"She told you that?" I asked.

"She tells me everything. I wish you would speak with me more." There was a pause, and then a sigh. "I won't be here forever, Zephyrina. We need to make the most of the time we have available, and one day you will need to understand your duties. This crown is a lot heavier than it looks."

That made me feel depressed. "There is something I wanted to talk about."

"See? That's a good start."

"The other races don't have magic. We all lack it. We have to do something or else me may well find oursel-"

"Zephyrina!"

I shifted back. I knew the tone well. The tone was code for 'shut up'.

"I don't know what ideas that Earth Pony or those Unicorns have been putting in your head, but you cannot trust a word they say. They could be spies, for all we know. Besides, you have a comfortable life here in Zephyr Heights. Why would you want to risk that?"

"Because it's a lie!" I said. "The populace should know the truth about what's going on."

Mom sighed again. "It keeps the people safe and happy. Sometimes living a happy lie is better than enduring a horrible truth."

I shook my head. "Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth, mom. Sooner or later that debt is repaid."

Mom snorted. "Don't concern yourself with things that will never happen, Zephyrina."

I rolled my eyes. "Don't concern yourself with things that will never happen. They should put that on our pound notes."

Just then, Pipp was wheeled in, already rigged up to the cable system. "Ah, there she is!" mom beamed. "Your sister understands the importance of maintaining the status quo."

Pipp launched off into her vocal exercises, as mom hit a button on the control panel next to her. "Showtime!"

Well, that was that. No turning back now. As the winding gear engaged, a distinct feeling of dread crossed my heart.

Author's Note

The story can now move forward, with everything in place for our protagonists.

The feast, or banquet to use the posh term, is a staple of royal operations in many monarchies. The British historically used it as a way to improve relations, as it is often said food is a quick way to getting a person onside. Not so sure Zipp enjoyed the dressing up (and considering how restrictive some of the gowns in G4 were I don't blame her).

The concluding section is a combination of Zipp and Haven's confrontation in the cable room in the film and a remarkably similar scene in HBO's Chernobyl. Although one is a PG rated family film and the other is a brutal social drama/cosmic horror story, both have the same basic narrative theme; the destructive consequences of lies and propaganda. I had previously attempted to adapt Chernobyl as an explanation for the separation of the pony races, but the results were lacklustre to say the least.

And we shall now switch to another group of characters for their perspective on events. Stay safe, folks!

Is this the Lie that I've Been Sold?

The three of us were slowly dropped down into the throne room, the rumbling of the motors of the winding gear imperceptible over the roar of the crowd. The lights moved onto us, and I adjusted my eyes to avoid being temporarily blinded by them.

Mom didn't seem too concerned, though. Nor did Pipp. Despite knowing where this might be going, she was positively lapping up all the attention she was getting. The lights and cameras all blared our way and the room sounded to the pounding noise of speakers and generic pop music. If I didn't think fast this would pretty quickly leave me with sensory overload.

Thankfully, mom's voice brought me back to reality. "Remember to smile!" she said, beaming at the crowd below. I have no clue how she manages to do it all so effectively. Partly a reason why the thought of becoming Queen fills me with such dread, apart from the other reasons you can probably think of.

We finally made contact with our thrones, and I took a sitting position as the cables were remotely detached. They retracted into the roof and we looked onwards as Pipp kicked off her routine. I knew the song- anypony who's seen the film would have known this fact- and I tried to blot it out as best I could and maintain a vaguely agreeable face without it looking forced. Mom would have noticed that and been all over me like a ton of bricks for that.

I looked about me for clues of the others, and then heard a promising sound. Two voices were speaking behind mom's throne, and as I watched I saw Sunny's head briefly pop up over the top of the throne. In her hoof was the fake crown Izzy had made. With a cursory glance anypony would be fooled by it. With a quick movement she pulled the real one off mom's head and placed the fake in its place. She smiled at me and nodded, so I did the same in return before turning my head forward.

I heard mom mumbling something about her scalp being a bit itchy, but I tried to act as normally as I could. I watched Pipp weaving and diving around. Then it occurred to me. When she'd spoken to me earlier she'd mentioned that back in the other world she hadn't had the best of lives, but here she was now, a princess in another kingdom (and a thoroughly pampered one at that), living a life most beings can only dream of.

And here I was, in the same sort of position, only the palace was more like a guilded cage. Hopefully this plan would work and I could sneak away before anypony could notice. Or invoke full name ultimatum. That would suck.

The crowd were enthralled, and the room was filled with brilliant camera flashes as the performance continued. I relaxed. This was going well. Almost too easy. I relaxed a bit. Clearly my new friends had this one in the bag.

A few moments later, I suddenly spotted something that was out of place. Cloudpuff wasn't at mom's side.

I soon saw where he was. He was running towards her with the crown in his mouth!

"Oh, crap," I said, under my breath. I charged forward to block mom's view of the dog and grabbed the crown with my hooves. "Give... it... to... me!"

Cloudpuff simply pulled harder. For a tiny dog he has a lot of strength, which surprised me. There was suddenly a bang, and I was suddenly launched backwards and landed on my haunches. I looked at the crown. Only the metalwork was in my hooves. The crystal had detached, and Cloudpuff was running off with it into the crowd.

I looked even closer at the metal, and noticed something. The metalwork was of a lower grade than mom's crown. It then dawned on me. Mom had been wearing a fake crown the entire time!

"Shit," I said to myself, and quickly deposited the metalwork under my wing before charging into the crowd after Cloudpuff. I switched on my radio to speak to the others. "Guys, we got a problem."

"Care to name which one?" Sunny replied.

"There's more than one?" I asked.

"I'm currently being chased by a sheriff and trying to dodge a crazed dog at the same time. What's the other problem?"

Brilliant. It seemed that Hitch has decided to crash the party. Talk about bad timing. "The crown you swapped for your fake? It's also a fake. Mom anticipated the theft and wore a reproduction tonight. We've swapped a fake for a fake!"

"Well, where's the real one?" Sunny asked, sounding a bit out of breath.

I suddenly saw Izzy and dashed over to her. Izzy was currently in front of Cloudpuff, trying to placate him. "Good doggy..."

I saw something shiny in Izzy's bag. "Izzy, what's that in your bag?"

Izzy turned to me as I positioned myself between Cloudpuff and her. "Oh, that's a crown I found in one of the dressing rooms."

Perfect. This might be the real thing. If Cloudpuff returned my fake to mom, we could take that one and get on our way to Bridlewood. "Izzy, I'm going to pass you at speed. Be ready to catch the object under my wing."

"Gotcha!" Izzy replied, and tilted her horn.

I sprinted past at speed, and at the right moment dropped the crown with my right wing and grabbed Izzy's one with my hooves. I glanced back and saw Izzy pass the fake to Cloudpuff, who seemed to be happy. I then hid at one side and stopped next to Sunny.

"Got the crown Izzy found!" I said, and picked it up. My face fell as I looked at it. "Oh no..."

Sunny looked at me, concerned. "What's the problem?"

I held it up to the light. "Sunny, it's another fake. I'm not sure how this happened, but there are two fakes in circulation on top of the fake we made earlier today!"

"Did somepony anticipate our theft?" Sunny asked.

"Sure looks that way." I had a good idea who it was, but I chose not to raise my concerns until later. "I'll go look for the real one."

Sunny glanced around. "Good idea. I'll try and- oh shit, here he comes! RUN!"

She suddenly sped off as Hitch chased her down, with Izzy soon running in the same direction. Both seemed to he heading for the cable control room, so I snuck round the back. There was an alternate escape route to the higher levels of the palace in case the cable units broke down. The elevator was in the up position, though, and using it would make too much noise and almost certainly blow my cover.

So the backup passage it was. I popped it open and began to crawl my way up, squeezing my way through the tight space until I reached the top, and emerged in one of the corridors.

The corridor was oddly empty. The complete lack of security was a bit surprising. Normally at least a few guards would be up here if only as a safety precaution. I made my way down the corridor, finding a trail of muddy hoofprints to follow. The trail led all the way to mom's stateroom, which again was unguarded (very odd). The doors were also open, so I pushed my way in and looked inside.

To my shock, I saw the intruder. Misty was sitting next to the safe and working her way through the combinations, clearly trying to break in. The door swung open, and I saw the crown inside. Misty was trying to steal the crown!

"The game's up, Misty!" I said. "Back away from the safe and put your hooves where I can see them."

Misty swung round and flopped on the ground. "Take what you want! Just don't hurt me!"

I trotted past her and took a look inside, before spotting something oddly shaped in Misty's bag. I opened the bag and took the object out.

Surprise, surprise, it was yet another crown. How many crowns were there in the palace this evening?

"So, you were planning on swapping this crown for the real one and then sneaking off before anypony noticed, huh?" I asked.

"Opaline made me do it!" Misty protested.

I blinked. Suddenly so much about Misty's behaviour made so much more sense. Purely out of interest, I took a look at the crown in the safe and spotted another pattern on it. I knew where I'd seen that pattern before. The museum had had a replica of the crown in it, that had been donated to the exhibit by Crystal Wonder, Jewellers Royal. Their trademark is a slight discolouration of the metal. And this crown and all the others had the same pattern.

This was yet another fake.

I shrugged my shoulders. "Fake crowns, plots upon plots on top of each other, farce galore. When did this turn into an 'Allo, 'Allo episode?"

Author's Note

Welcome back to the ongoing adventures of Zipp Storm, who now finds herself in the midst of the heist sequence from the film. This is the moment the story has been building up to, and where the plan goes into effect.

If you've been following the story so far, you'll have been able to follow the trail of evidence from each story. A number of other jokes relating to media have been left in.

As noted in previous A/Ns, I am a fan of the work of comedy writer David Croft, creator of classic sitcoms such as Dad's Army and Are you Being Served? However, for many his comedy masterpiece is 'Allo, 'Allo, a farcical comedy set in Occupied France built around ridiculous layers of scheming, objects changing hands, and absurd situations. In the eyes of many, it defined farce as a genre. Given the farcical nature of the heist sequence in the original film, it only felt fitting to pay tribute to this classic show.

And with the sheer number of fake crowns floating about, where could the real one be?

Lost in my Memories

Suddenly, there was a massive amount of noise coming from down below. I looked to one of the monitors and switched it on to try and find out what was going on. One of the features of the information suite in here was that it I could access ZBS to find out what was happening on the ground.

And what I saw was shocking. The cameras which had been broadcasting Pipp's performance showed her upside down, and the room was swarming with soldiers. None of what they were saying could be made it out, but it seemed that something bad was going on. Clearly the world had discovered we couldn't fly.

I looked to Misty. "What happened in the past doesn't matter now. All that matters is we find that crown and get the buck out of here."

Misty nodded. I could see the terror in her eyes. I could only imagine what it would be like here as a unicorn in an openly xenophobic society. "OK. Let's get out of here."

I tore out of the room and charged down the corridor, hearing the alarms blaring as I went along. There was also a voice shouting over the loudspeaker.

"All units! The capture of the Princesses is our primary objective! Ensure they are brought to justice for their actions! Death to the enemies of the Pegasus Revolution!"

This was so much worse than the situation in the film. I had to try and get out of here. I could only hope Pipp and mom were OK.

Misty was doing her best to keep up, but she seemed to be struggling with the pathway. I slowed my pace slightly and suddenly crashed into something on the side of the path. It was a box. My hoof had pulled it open somehow, and something glimmering seemed to be inside it.

I stopped, and took a look inside. To my amazement, it was a crown. And the real one, this time! With the real crystal! The metalwork was devoid of the patterning of the jewellers, confirming this was the original. "Mission accomplished!" I said, before starting up my radio. "Crown secured. Proceeding to extraction point!"

"You'd better hurry!" Sunny radioed back. "The city's being locked down! There's tanks and soldiers everywhere I look!"

This was pretty bad. I charged along when suddenly I heard Misty scream. "Get off me!"

I turned to see two guards had cornered her, and one had placed her in a chokehold. One glanced to the other. "A unicorn, all alone," she smiled. "Fancy some fun?"

It was clear they planned to beat her. "Hey! Get away from her, you monsters!"

The guards turned to look. "It's the princess!" the other said. "Remember, the General didn't say she had to be conscious."

Guards began flooding in. I kicked them off and tried to fight them off, but I must have been tasered at some point as I collapsed, convulsing, as rifle butts were slammed into my body and face. Soon joined by kicking.

I saw Misty in the crowd on the other side. I slid the crown under the crowd. "Misty... run... save yourself..."

I saw Misty scamper away as the beating continued. Then a boot came down on my face, and everything went black.

The world was oddly blurry and poorly focused as my eyes began to process where I was. "Urghhhh..."

This was very similar to when I'd first woken up in Zephyr Heights after being turned into Zipp. I internally cursed the day that happened now. Now that I was in this mess. A revolution? Some sort of beating?

Something whirled above me as I slowly stirred. A ceiling fan. And the walls were nicely maintained as well. As my vision slowly returned I recognised where I was.

I was in the prison cells in the palace. Funny how life can be so ironic, huh?

"Where... what?"

"ON YOUR FEET!"

I heard a voice bellowing at me, and I turned to one side. As I was now more aware, I had a sense of my position. Something metal was chained around my left front hoof, and as I looked around I was in some sort of orange jumpsuit. A number was written on the front.

"I SAID ON YOUR FEET, MAGGOT!"

Suddenly, an electric shock caused me to convulse, and to make the pain stop I got up. "What is this? What do you want with me?"

There was a guard looking there, with a cruel smile on his face. "That always wakes them up," he smiled. "Greetings, prisoner 03272023. Hopefully you had a nice nap."

"My name is Zipp. Zipp Storm," I replied.

The guard bared his teeth. "Your name is whatever I decide it is," he said. "You have no name, just a number. It's what ponies like you deserve, especially that bitch over there."

I looked over and saw mom, also chained in place and clad in a similar jumpsuit to my own. She looked a mess as well, covered in dirt and bruises. Her mane was also a mess, and all of her regalia had been removed.

"What makes you think you can speak to her like that?" I asked.

The guard unholstered his weapon. "I have a gun and you don't. That's reason enough. Besides, this is more than you deserve after the millenia of lies you've hoisted on us."

Mom was oddly silent, not saying a word despite the insults being thrown about.

"But none of that matters now. The New Pegasus Empire will lead us into a new and glorious age, one governed by military power and might. General Gulfstream has liberated us from the likes of despots like you, and we can step forward into a better and brighter future- one where pegasi show their superiority over the other races- rather like those friends of yours. This regime takes especially unkindly to race traitors like you." With that rant over, the guard suddenly left. "Enjoy the time you have left."

Once the guard was gone, I turned to mom, who had walked as close to me as her chains let her. "Mom, I'm so, so sorry-"

Mom reached forward to try and touch my hoof (the chains weren't long enough to let us hug or anything like that. "Zephyrina, this isn't your fault. I failed to see what Gulfstream was up to. We're all paying for my negligence now."

"They wouldn't know we can't fly if hadn't done what I did. I should have listened to you."

There was a silence. "It would probably have been found out eventually. But I have another confession to make."

It seems a lot of things were being revealed today. I looked to her. "Yes?"

She took a deep breath. "I'm a fraud. I'm not really your mother. I'm just a person who ended up as her. I'm not from Equestria, or from this world- I'm from another reality entirely."

Wait, what? Mom was in the same position as me? This was a pretty big bombshell. "Hey, welcome to the club."

Mom blinked. "You're not from here either?"

"Nope. Northern England, weird feather, woke up in a hospital bed. You?"

"A jewel, oddly enough, in London." Mom paused. "I worry about Pipp. I noticed she's not in any of the cells, which can only mean she's out there in the wilds! However will she survive? She's lived here all the time and doesn't have wilderness skills! I hope she doesn't starve!"

"Update on that; Pipp's not from here either. She's yet another human turned pony."

"Talk about a small world," mom said calmly, before glancing to the window. "At least during the confession I told her to run and save herself."

"Hauled before state TV like in the film," I mused to myself. "Why did you confess?"

Mom looked back, suddenly agitated. "They threatened to kill you if I didn't!"

Suddenly, words mom had said weeks ago flashed back into my mind.

"But there's always a final line of defence."

"What?"

"Me. What sort of mother would I be if I was unable to protect you two from the world out there? There's nothing to fear, because I'll be here for you. Always. That's a promise."

"Your promise," I whispered. "You did it to protect us!"

Mom nodded. "There's nothing more powerful than a mother's love. And even though I'm technically not your mother, and you're technically not my daughter, I still feel the familial bonds nontheless. I have for a while. Even for your father." She stopped, and wiped her eyes as best she could. "We're lost in the memories and feelings of these characters- where do our former selves stop and the characters we are begin?"

I tried to get closer again, or as close as I could without this blasted chain in the way. "There's always hope for a brighter tomorrow," I said. "And as long as there are ponies out there willing to fight for it our work won't be in vain."

Another voice spoke. "Sir, you may interrogate the prisoners."

Author's Note

Well, this is quite a turn! Quite a topic of discussion amongst the fanbase after the film came out was the Pegasus Revolution which marks the turning point of the film's plot. A lot of these discussions hinged on the fact it turned out to be what is termed a Velvet Revolution, a term originally coined in reference to the peaceful transfer of power from Communist to Republican government in Czechoslovakia in 1989 (compared to the Romanian Revolution at the same time, which was violent). A key idea of fanfic fuel was what if the Zephyr Heights revolution turned violent, and it was this idea I am exploring in these chapters.

If you look carefully in the chapter, Zipp's prisoner number should have significance. If you spot it, let me know in the comments. On that topic, having Zipp be captured and imprisoned throws a significant spanner in the works for the plans to bring the magic back.

We shall return to the prison tomorrow, with whomever wishes to interrogate the former Queen and Crown Princess...

Locked in a Cell, Waging War from a Prison

We both looked up and across as the figure marched into view before us. It was Colonel Opwinden. Had he thrown his lot in with Gulfstream and his goons?

He looked to the soldiers. "You are relieved of duty," he said. "Proceed to the barracks and await further orders."

"Yes sir!" the guards said, saluting as they did so. They marched down the corridor, cheerfully whistling as they did so.

We both looked to the Colonel, who glanced down the corridor again to check nopony was there. "Good, they're gone. We have the place to ourselves."

Mom looked shocked. "How could you?" she asked.

The Colonel, to our surprise, then bowed. "Your Majesty, and Your Royal Highness," he said.

We were both a bit confused. "What's going on?" I asked.

Opwinden looked to me and smiled. "What is right and just. That fool has no idea what's coming."

Mom blinked. "Look, just cut the crap and tell us what's going on."

The Colonel nodded. "Yes, Your Majesty. I come here with important news. The struggle is not over, and the war is not lost."

"Sure doesn't look that way," I said, indicating to my chains. "I guess these guards really do enjoy their power."

"Sorry about that," Opwinden said. "I've arranged to have them reassigned to an ordnance depot on the outer fringes of our territory. But our situation, although it might look dire, is better than it might seem."

"Our situation?" Mom asked. "Whose side are you on?"

"The side of justice and democracy," Opwinden explained. "I'm a double agent."

"That's a relief," I said, groaning. The metal was really beginning to chafe on my skin despite the fur protecting it.

"The revolution is not a revolution at all," the Colonel continued. "It is a coup, nothing more and nothing less, an illegal power grab by a General who fancies himself King. Well, not to me. I swore an oath of loyalty to the Pegasus Empire and to the Royal Family when I signed up, and I will not be betraying that oath."

"But you're pretending to serve them," I asked. "How does that square with any of this at all?"

"It means I can pass insider information to the rest of the world, and expose what he's really doing," Opwinden said, focusing still on us, and periodically checking the corridors for any unwanted intruders coming towards our current position. "Make no mistake; Gulfstream is insane, and has been for a while. He's been building his army and his power base and waiting for a moment to strike. The incident at the Party at the Palace was just a convenient excuse to launch his coup and take over the government. Not only is he insane, he is racist to the point of paranoia, convinced that unicorns and earth ponies have been poisining our water supply to make stallions less fertile."

"Sounds pretty crazy to me," I said.

"I won't stand for this," Mom said. "He'll destroy us all if he isn't stopped."

"Luckily, most of the population agrees with you," Opwinden said.

"They do?" I asked, amazed at this news. In the film the citizenry had turned on their leadership pretty fast.

"Indeed," Opwinden smiled. "Of course, they aren't hugely happy about the whole 'unable to fly' thing. But the truth is that they don't trust the General's regime. They see him as a madman and a threat to their security. Already ponies are protesting the conscription he's introduced, and the populace is deeply worried about being sent to war to fight against the other races- public opinion of unicorns and earth ponies is pretty low, but the prospect of war is more unpopular, given we are all nuclear equipped."

He paused. "Low level resistance is in place, aiming to restore you to your rightful places, but low level resistance is not enough. This is where we come in." He showed us something on his FlyPad (these are popular devices for doing work and analysing documents on). "Already resistance movements have formed across the country, and we have been secretly arming them to fight back against our oppressors. We have allies everywhere, and eyes and ears reporting on Gulfstream's troops. We just need a bit more time to prepare for the counter revolution."

"Time is something we may not have," I said. "Given revolutions have a bad habit of killing monarchs and nobility."

"Zephyrina!" Mom snapped. She looked to Opwinden. "How much time are we talking, Colonel?"

"Twenty four hours at the most," Opwinden replied. "Gulfstream has already executed those he suspects of being opposed to his revolution, and he's also filled the jails and prisons with Royalist supporters. We plan to break them out as well, and this is what we need the time for. Breaking into large numbers of jails at once needs a lot of equipment. I can already confirm Thunder and Zoom are on our side as well."

"That's a relief," I said.

"Know you have my full support, even though I can't do very much at the moment," Mom said. "The best of luck."

"Colonel, I have a message from the General!" a voice called down the corridor. "He wants to speak to you immediately."

The Colonel nodded. "I'll be along shortly." He glanced to us. "Apologies in advance," he whispered, before switching to a louder voice. "STAY IN LINE MAGGOTS! This'll teach you to stand against us!"

It hurt being called that, but we both knew he was only doing it to deceive our enemies and buy us some more time. As we waited, he turned and walked away. "A special signal will let you know when we are ready."

As he vanished down the corridor, I considered my options. It seemed as though we could escape- though how they were planning on cutting through our chains I didn't know- and it may be best to stay put for now and wait.

Just then, our attention was drawn to a troop buildup at the other end.

"MAKE WAY FOR HIS EXCELLENCY, GENERAL GULFSTREAM, SAVIOUR OF PEGASUS KIND AND THE HAMMER OF THE FALSE QUEEN!" bellowed a voice.

A line of soldiers in heavy armour and gas masks marched into position, flanking the General, a king in all but name. His uniform, green in colour, was absolutely covered in medals, many of which was brightly coloured and shone. I recognised quite a few of them- I'd worn them during the dinner about a week ago. How quickly things change.

He adjusted his hat, flanked by his soldiers who were pointing bayonets at us. "Greetings, Prisoners 03272023 and 05082023. I have to say, those jumpsuits suit you far better than the metal and fabric you plundered from the populace."

"Look who's talking," I replied, pointing at him. "Those are my medals."

Gulfstream looked over. "Single shock, 90 volts."

A single electrical blast shot through me, and I collapsed on the ground writing in agony.

"That'll teach you to speak when you aren't spoken to," Gulfstream smiled.

I got back up. "Oh, really? If you're so tough, why are you surrounded by soldiers? We're chained down. We aren't a threat."

"You mean the Stormtroopers?" Gulfstream replied. "Brilliant, aren't they. Powerful, loyal, and brave. Selectric from the purest of pegasus genetic stock to enforce the superiority of our species. Not like some of the half breeds you find out there. We'll soon weed them out."

"What you are doing is monstrous," mom said. "History will judge you for this."

"Says the monarch who lied about being able to fly," Gulfstream snorted. "All I did was overthrow an unjust government. The populace won't stand for ponies like you, and with the ranks of our armies swelling we shall soon be able to finish the work that King Thundercloud started all those centuries ago."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"This state of cold war has made us complacent," Gulfstream said, a maniacal grin on his face. "What is the point of all this military equipment if you have no war to fight? Solders should be used for fighting, even if it means having to pull a few strings."

I didn't like what he was implying. I looked at mom, who had a look of intense worry on her face. It seemed she shared my opinion on this as well.

She spoke next. "You're insane. You'll condemn us all to death! They may be our enemies, but a world war helps nopony!"

The General laughs. "You foalish fool. War helps plenty of ponies. It weeds out the weak from the strong, the wheat from the chaff, the undesirable from the very best. Race war will allow us to exterminate the earth ponies and unicorns and establish a perfect pegasus utopia, the way it has always been! Faust is on our side, and will ensure our victory in this crusade!"

He looked closer, the mad glint in his eyes clear. "Never you two fear. I have a plan. The final solution to the unicorn and earth pony problem."

Author's Note

The title of this chapter is taken from the Sabaton song Inmate 4859, a song about a resistance leader in Poland who suffered through the horrors of Nazi occupation.

On the topic of resistance, the parallels in this chapter are, presumably, obvious; Gulfstream is peddling racist rhetoric to justify going to war against 'lesser' nations, and the Resistance combines elements of the French and German resistance movements to fascism.

As A New Generation more than made clear, extremism can come from anywhere at any time. And given that these sorts of attitudes appear to be fundamentally baked into the societies that have formed, it's only a matter of time until a nutcase prepared to do the unthinkable gets into a position of power (as Sprout did).

Next time: War?

Heaven, Will you Wait for Me?

Mom's jaw fell open. "Y- you can't mean!"

"Yes," the General smiled, his psychotic face looking even worse than before. "First and second strike capability. Massive retaliation. Fire from Celestial bodies. Faust's wrath. Whatever you call it, the process is the same. Our enemies cannot resist us if they have been wiped off the map and we have obliterated their mechanism of striking back." He leaned closer. "You know full well what I mean. What is the point of our nuclear weapons if we don't use them?"

"They are there to deter our enemies from using them!" I said, suddenly. "If we have them, they know we can obliterate them as well. The entire point is that they don't get used because of the threat they might be used."

"But they know we wouldn't."

"They know we would that we wouldn't."

"What?"

Mom looked at me in surprise, so I simply made a face that suggested 'I'll tell you later'.

Mom then spoke to him. "If you are implying what I think you are, you're not having them."

Gulfstream laughed, a low, hollow laugh. "Oh, foolish mare. You have no idea how far my power extends. The fact that they are encoded to your hoofprints is simply a minor setback. I already have the first two, so all I need are the last ones. It's simple, you old fool. I want the launch codes."

Mom looked at him, determined. "No."

Gulfstream had the look of a person who had just been told no for the first time in his life. "You may want to reconsider your course of action."

"No, I don't think I do," she said bravely. "If I give them to you, we all die. Including you. We fire the weapons, they fire as well. We all die in the resulting exchange. It's very simple. Did they teach you nothing at military school?"

"If they don't know we fired then they don't retaliate, especially if we've knocked out their first and second strike capability."

"What if they have a weapon we don't know about?"

"What's the point of Mutually Assured Destruction if we don't know about it?"

"They may not have told us yet!"

I glanced over. "Mom has a point there."

Gulfstream slammed his hoof on the floor. "ENOUGH! Prisoners 03272023 and 05082023, you will listen to my words and you will obey my orders. As Supreme Ruler of the New Pegasus Empire, I have total authority, and nothing you do can stop me!"

I stepped back a bit. This guy was seriously unstable. I know mom can get a bit hot under the collar when me and Pipp are being annoying, but this was pure, unhinged rage. How did this guy pass screening?

"You leave me no choice. Guards, bring Prisoner 05082023 with me to the interrogation rooms. We shall get what we need there."

"I won't talk," mom replied, as they disconnected her chains and dragged her off.

Gulfstrem smiled darkly. "That's what they all say, prisoner... right before the screaming starts."

The prison clock on the facing wall revealed that only half an hour had passed, but it honestly felt like days had gone by in my mind. I was so on edge with all that was going on. I tried to shift over to the window but the world was kept so far away by these blasted chains, such that it was an effort to move about in there, that I couldn't really see much. What I could see, though, was shocking.

The screens outside had lost their adverts and consumer advertising displays, and were now playing more or less nonstop propaganda. Footage of military parades, displays of speeches from noted leaders, nonstop praise of the General, and perhaps worst of all constant, nonstop racist rhetoric about the other races.

I knew exactly what was going on. Gulfstream was getting the population pumped up for war. History has shown that when violent rhetoric is used against groups by authority figures, violence against them is more likely to happen. With conscription being unpopular as Opwinden suggested, it seemed he was using other means to get the population onside with his war plans.

I hung my head. This was all my fault. My attempts to make the world better quicker had only made things worse.

Now we were all going to perish in a nuclear exchange.#

And I only had myself to blame.

I remained in that position for who knows how else long, until suddenly the door reopened. I turned and saw the guards roughly shoving mom back in. "Back where you belong!" one of the guards laughed.

"When we return to power, I shall see to it that those perpetrating these abuses are brought to justice!" Mom replied.

"None of what we're doing is illegal under the New Laws," the guard replied. "The Old Laws have been abolished, as they were written by Counter-Revolutionaries and the Running Dogs of the other tribes. A new, better order is in place." They slammed the door after securing mom's chains again, and then walked off.

"Did you tell them anything?" I asked.

"Not a word," mom replied, coughing as she did so. "No matter how many times they hit me. They did seem oddly preoccupied with my hooves, though."

I had no clue why that could be. I shrugged my shoulders. "At least they can't follow their plan."

"What if he tries a conventional invasion?" mom asked, suddenly worried. "It'd be a massacre!"

"Given the amount of firepower we have, it'd end badly for the other races. We'd probably also suffer heavy casualties as well to be honest."

Mom waved her hoof as an indication for me to stop talking. "Listen. Conversation."

I focused my ears to overhear a conversation. "What's this about conscience rounds, eh?" said a guard.

"We're having them issued for tomorrow morning," said another. "Haven't you heard? The General wants the Royal Family shot on national television tomorrow morning. Should be an interesting job."

We looked at each other in a panic. "He wants us dead!" I said, my voice going uncharacteristically high in pitch.

"We're doomed!" mom said, and tried to hug me, but the chains kept us apart. "Curse these chains!"

I charged over to a wall and saw what I thought would be a weak point. I dug and clawed at it with my hooves as best as I could, but struggled to shift any of the the plaster. "Damnit! This is one case where hands would be so useful!"

"Zipp, we need to stay calm!" Mom called. "We need to think our way out of this."

I was too frantic to think straight. Wouldn't you be if you just heard somepony wanted to execute you? I swung round and bucked the wall as hard as I could. All I got for my trouble was pain in my back legs. I collapsed on the ground, then tried to drag myself back to my hooves as best as I could. We were trapped like rats in a cage. Never had I considered the possibility that I'd be a victim of state terror. And yet it seemed this was our fate.

I was collapsed on the floor, a blubbering mess. I was unable to form coherent sentences from the horror of this situation. But all of it was underpinned by a singular emotion.

I didn't want to die.

Suddenly, there were a series of bangs and explosions down the corridor, which caught my attention. Gunfire soon joined it, followed by a lot of shouting. I got up and tried to look down the corridor.

Suddenly more soldiers flooded into the corridor and overpowered more guards, before coming to a stop in front of our cell. The Colonel was leading them. "As promised, Your Majesty, I have returned," he said.

"That was quick," mom replied.

"When we heard of the plans to execute you we had to move the revolution up a bit," he said, as he punched the access keypad. The cells were opened, and at last we were free.

"Staff Sergeant Zoom! The Queen requires her regalia!"

Zoom stepped forward whilst Thunder and several others scanned the corridors for targets. Within a few minutes, mom was back in her familiar regalia, sans the crown.

"Where did you find it?" I asked.

"Gulfstream stole this stuff from its rightful owner," Zoom replied. "The least I could do is steal it back again."

I looked out of a window as my own chains were removed and I slipped the jumpsuit off. The screens outside had changed. The propaganda was gone, and replaced with a singular message.

HAVEN LIVES.

OK, so they'd somehow pulled a French Resistance and succesfully convinced much of the populace to rise up against Gulfstream. "Where do we need to go?" I asked.

Opwinden glanced to me. "This way, Your Royal Highness, and Your Majesty. We need to get both you as far away from here as possible." He moved his hoof forward. "Move forward, sons of the Revolution! Protect the Queen and Princess Zipp at all costs!"

Finally, somepony got my name right!

Author's Note

The title of this chapter is taken from the Sabaton song The Hammer has Fallen, about a soldier reflecting on his life during his last moments- a fitting sentiment for a chapter about a pegasus staring death in the face.

First and second strike capability is a theory in nuclear warfare that states a nation should be able to remotely initiate a launch in the event conventional launch control is disabled in a first strike. The theory is that the capability to launch automatically is that a first strike would be deterred. Notable second strike systems include the Trident II system used by the Royal Navy (UK) and the Dead Hand system used by the USSR (retained by the Russian Federation).

And finally, the uprising Opwinden promised has begun. Apart from the aforementioned French Revolution influences, I also drew inspiration from the Warsaw Uprising, where the Polish resistance initiated a large scale revolution to overthrow the city's German occupiers.

How will this uprising go? You'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out.

I Saw the End of War

As we were shephered through the corridors (and although I'm not one for fancy clothes I have to say it was nice to be out of that jumpsuit), it wasn't hard to see that something was going on.

The guards loyal to Gulfstream were struggling to contain the uprising. Weapons fire was running through the streets as our allies pushed forward to clear the way.

I noticed that a lot of them were saying the same thing. Haven lives.

So it seemed mom was the rallying point of the revolution! This was interesting. The populace still cared about us, even after what we did.

More assets pushed forwards as we cleared more corridors down below. "Where are we going?" I asked.

"We're heading for the helipad!" the Colonel replied. "We have a chopper ready to go and fly you two out of the city to a safe zone!"

Another guard, seemingly on the side of Gulfstream, was surprised to see us. "What? Trea-"

A hail of weapon fire stopped him in his tracks.

Opwinden shook his head. "The only traitor here is you." We then pushed onwards, hearing the sound of weapons fire echoing all around us. Was this what being in the middle of the Boston Uprising had been like?

As we pushed out of the palace, we got a view of the city below. The rebellion was larger in scale than I'd even imagined. Both regular soldiers and partisans were fighting together against Gulfstream's men, who were pushing against them. Several tanks rolled across a bridge, but each was suddenly and spectacularly blown up by missile fire.

A fighter jet, some sort of ground attack aircraft, flew overhead. "Good work, guys!" the Colonel radioed.

"You too, Colonel. Ensure Her Majesty gets to safety."

That we could do. We moved at speed across the courtyard, briefly overhearing Gulfstream berating his troops.

"WHAT DO I PAY YOU IDIOTS FOR? SHOOT THE REBELS AND THE QUEEN! THEY ARE SURPLUS TO OUR NEEDS!"

I glanced to mom. "Sounds like he just rang the dinner bell for his assets here."

"You have a remarkable knack for inspiring confidence sometimes, Zipp," mom replied, as we weaved around the outer courtyard.

We sprinted round the side of the palace, which was now sitting on its own in the middle of a fight. A fully blown tank battle was raging up and down the plaza, as units from the Household Cavalry were in combat against other armoured units. Unfortunately, it seemed Gulfstream had re-equipped units loyal to him with more advanced vehicles, as the Household Cavalry were struggling to hold ground.

Planes duelled in the sky as the revolution continued. I saw the screens in the distance, and marvelled still at the sight driving our allies forward to victory.

The message HAVEN LIVES was bring broadcast nonstop on the screens.

This resistance was well resourced if they gained control of ZBS and communications networks.

We pushed onwards to the destination, and soon found what we were looking for. A technician looked up. "Haven lives!" he called. "Sorry for the delay, but we haven't finished refuelling the chopper yet."

"Well can you hurry it up?" The Colonel said. "We're on a rather right schedule."

"I'll try sir, but-"

The crack of a rifle sounded, and the technician slumped against the control panel, a single bullet in the back of his head.

"AMBUSH!" Zoom shouted. "Somepony bring that sniper down!"

Ponies dived into cover, and the Colonel pushed mom out of view whilst I dived behind the fuel control point. With the technician dead and such a difficult defensive position to hold, it seemed like we stuck between a rock and a hard place.

I reached over to the controls and moved the fuelling levers. The display updated to show fuel was being added to the tanks, but it would still take a few minutes for refuelling to complete.

"This might take a few minutes!" I shouted.

"We don't have a few minutes!" Thunder shouted back, who was pinned down by sniper fire. There wasn't much I could do to help, being a high value target. And I was a pretty awful shot even when I had hands. How do you even operate a firearm with only hooves? Presumably magnet hands is somehow in affect around here.

I hid as best I could as battle continued to rage all around me. More allies had arrived to help hold off Gulfstream's troops, but there was only so long we could hold until we were overwhelmed.

My head stayed down as the bullets continued to fly. This helipad could do with being less exposed. I glanced up and saw a group of fighters on the move, duelling in the air.

I glanced back to the panel. Fifty Percent. Was there really no way to get this pump to go faster?

Orders were being shouted across the field as the defensive perimeter gradually shrank. Gradually the roar of machine gun fire and the cracks of rifles grew more and more silent as more enemy soldiers swarmed in.

Reinforcements (for us) arrived at the rear as infantry closed in. "Glad to see you guys!" I called.

"Sorry for the delay, Your Highness!" called their leader. "We couldn't risk flying our choppers in with the AAA smokescreen that Gulfstream is putting up!"

"Provide extra firepower!" I called.

Seventy Five Percent. I had no idea how much time had passed since I last checked. Every second was feeling like an hour, especially as I could be killed at any moment.

Suddenly, a loudspeaker started up in the distance. "LISTEN HERE, REBELS!" said the voice. "WE HAVE YOU SURROUNDED! KNOW THAT BY RESCUING THE QUEEN YOU HAVE COMMITTED HIGH TREASON! HAND HER OVER, AND YOUR LIVES WILL NOT BE FORFEIT!"

There was a moment's silence. Then the last voice I expected to hear spoke.

"GO TO TARTARUS!"

Mom?

Suddenly, the fuelling display beeped. This baby was ready to go! "Fuelling complete!" I called.

With that, the perimeter was rebuilt, and the core of the Guard began getting us onboard the chopper. Zoom ran through the startup procedure whilst another soldier manned the chopper gun to slow them down. The defenders continued to fire their weapons on the defenders, and all I could do was watch as devastation continued to rip through the area.

Just then, the whine of aircraft engines emerged again, and several jets roared in before dropping their payload. I covered my face from the heat.

I recognised the smell almost immediately. That was napalm ordnance. We could add that to the long list of war crimes Gulfstream had committed when we dragged his ass in front of the courts.

It was only then we noticed Thunder was absent. "Where's Thunder?" I asked.

Just then a burst of gatling gun fire opened up from a grounded chopper. I briefly glimpsed Thunder at the controls, who was firing away at the enemy troops closing in.

"Thunder, what are you doing?" Zoom radioed.

"Get out of here! I'll hold them off!" Thunder replied. "I may be going to Tartarus, but I'll take as many of them with me as I can!"

Our chopper pulled out of the scene of chaos as the enemy closed in. Fire continued as we flew away, before a missile suddenly streaked through the air and hit the grounded chopper, which exploded.

"THUNDER!"

The chopper pulled away and flew into the skies. The Colonel looked at us, and then handed over some objects. "You'll need these from now on," he said. "Helmets and flack jackets. Given they may be hunting us, expect more combat."

"And you didn't think to give us these earlier?" I asked.

"There wasn't time," the Colonel admitted. "But we should be safe for now. Where were you needing to go?"

"Bridlewood," I replied. "That's where my friends are heading."

The Colonel blinked. "That's deep within unicorn territory. I'm not sure they'd take too kindly to a group of pegasi touching down there."

"We don't really have a choice on that front. That and my mom's your boss."

The Colonel nodded. "Zoom? Set course for Bridlewood!"

"In unicorn lands? Is tha-"

"Just do as you're ordered!"

As we thundered over a mountain range, there was a sudden flash, followed by an explosion. "Shit!"

"What's going on?" Opwinden demanded.

"We got hit! Some sort of SAM! I can't hold the chopper! We're going down!"

The chopper's tail rotor had presumably been badly damaged, as we were spinning erratically as we lost altitude. I tried to hold onto Mom as best I could, who seemed to be in a state of panic. "It's happening again," she repeated over and over again.

I buried my head in her chest. I'd escaped one deadly scenario only to be thrown into another, and this time it seemed death was certain.

"We're not gonna clear the mountains! BRACE FOR IMPACT!"

I braced as best I could as the machine slammed into the rock below us.

There were brief flashes of sparks, the tearing of metal... and then everything went black.

Author's Note

Well, our heroes have escaped, but not for long. What could have attacked them?

The segment at the airstrip is both a reference to the conclusion of Top Gun: Maverick (if you haven't seen it, please do; it's an excellent film) and the battle of Bastogne. In the latter case, the Germans sent a message to the American troops defending the town demanding a surrender. The American commander's reply was one word: NUTS!

The chopper seen in this chapter is based on the Merlin helicopter, specifically the Royal Navy version (pictured above). Although the real aircraft does not count a rotary gun as part of its armament, it could plausibly be fitted. On that note, Zipp is technically incorrect in calling the weapon a gatling gun, but it is common in civilian circles to refer to any weapon with spinning barrels as a gatling gun.

We'll now shift away from Zipp for a bit, and move to somepony else.

Stand your Ground

I slowly came to in wherever it was I had landed, and glanced about me in surprise. "Huh... where am I?" I was groggy and having difficulty focusing, rather like that time I was in the hospital when this whole mess had started.

I looked about me in surprise. Had I been dreaming this entire time and I was just waking up? If so, that had been an incredibly long and intricate dream I'd been having the last few times.

But something felt wrong, off, awkward about the circumstances. My room wasn't these sorts of colours, nor was it so small.

And furthermore, if I was in my room, why could I smell jet fuel?

I suddenly sat up and looked about realising where I was. Or rather, I moved my body up as best as I could, as I realised I was somehow strapped in. The small space around me was the badly crumpled remains of a helicopter, which appeared to have been downed somehow.

I then remembered what had happened. We'd been flying for Bridlewood when the chopper took a hit and crashed with us onboard. It seemed I was still stuck in the wreckage.

I looked about to see if anypony else was still onboard. Most of the other occupants were motionless, and I assumed the worst. I looked around, and saw mom slumped against me. No. Please no. She can't be dead!

I tried to reach down to release the straps, but something wasn't moving. The buckles seemed to be jammed on pretty tightly. I began to panic, bashing at them over and over again to try and get them to release, but it wasn't working.

I looked around, and suddenly I saw a spark from what appeared to be ruined wiring in the cockpit. That was bad news. The tank hadn't been empty when we crashed, and that meant fuel was still loaded onboard the chopper wreckage or potentially spilling all over the ground. And if it was spilling across the ground, and there was a spark, then that meant-

Suddenly, there was a bang from the cockpit, and more electricals began to pop. The cockpit was on fire! My eyes widened in fear. If those sparks got into contact with any of the leaking fuel, this chopper would go up in flames- and that would probably be it.

I went back to trying to rip the straps open, but I seemed to lack the strength to do it. Just then I heard stirring to one side.

"Tha... cold here... dark..."

It was mom! She was stirring! I nudged her pretty forcefully with my foreleg, and she looked over. "Zipp? Where are we?"

"We need to get out of here!" I said, quickly. "I can't get the straps free! Mom, help me, please!"

I didn't care in that moment she technically wasn't my real mom. She was the closest thing I had to a parent figure out here, and as such I pleaded for help from her.

Luckily, she got to work, soon clipping open the straps as if she'd done this before. She then undid her own, sliding out of the seat before we both slipped out of the chopper wreckage, popped our wings open to glide to the ground, and landed outside.

As I've previously noted, pegasi can glide short distances, so getting down there was easy.

We then discovered what had happened to the others. The Colonel appeared to be directing some sort of firefighting effort, and Zoom was using a fire extinguisher on the cabin electricals to try and stop the fire in the cockpit from spreading.

"We're safe now," I said, to announce our presence.

"Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, you're both safe!" the Colonel said, with a look of sincere joy on his face. "Faust be praised, for she smiles upon us this day!"

Zoom had seemingly dealt with the electrical fire, and as such made her way back over. "How bad a hit did we take?" I asked.

"It's not looking good," Zoom replied. "We lost most of the troops onboard the chopper when it crashed. Myself, the Colonel, two others, and the Royal Family are all that's left."

I looked about me. We were stuck on some sort of mountain in the middle of nowhere, and I was unable to get my bearings. "We're not in a good spot right now," I said. "Where exactly are we?"

"According to my maps, we're stuck in the Peaks of Peril," the Colonel replied, consulting his display. "Quite a long way from our destination of Bridlewood."

"How long will this journey take?" mom asked.

"Several days by hoof over difficult terrain," the Colonel explained. "This area is incredibly dense in terms of terrain, and has many changes of elevation between here and there. What little of it has been comprehensively mapped has large amounts of terrain missing. And who knows if there are still Kirin out there. We'll have to keep our watch out there if we're going to make it through this alive."

Peaks of Peril? Of course! That's the place Applejack and Fluttershy visited in Season 8, not to mention where Autumn Blaze is from. It all made sense now! The geography of the world did seem to be lining up with what I remembered of Generation 4.

Before I could say anything, mom spoke up again. "What about the wreckage? Should we dispose of it?"

Opwinden looked surprised. "Your Majesty, I would strongly advise against that," he said. "We only have limited quantities of explosives and ammunition on us- which we might need if we have to do any unexpected tunnelling. I would personally advise we conserve resources for later as we continue out journey."

Mom nodded. "I understand. Seeing as we've not got anything else we need to do here, apparently, shall we be on our way?"

The Colonel nodded. "Yes, Your Majesty. FORM UP AND PREPARE TO MARCH!"

"I don't think we'll be marching over this terrain," said Zoom, glancing about her. "Far too steep and rocky."

The Colonel snorted. "Whatever are you talking about? We are pegasi, we thrive anywhere!"

So, we began our climb into the Peaks of Peril, with only our wits and limited supplies with us. As we gained altitude and saw the mountains all around us, my mind began to drift to my friends. Where were they now? What were they doing? How had they fared against the various myriad and horrible threats out here?

Zoom's words temporarily pulled me out of my thinking. "Heads on the swivel, everypony. The Kirin could be anywhere. There's no guarantee we purged them all from this region."

Well, that got dark quickly. The fact we hadn't seen many of the other races in G5 (a singular dragon, to be precise) had always led me to wonder whether the other races were extinct. But to learn they'd been systematically wiping the Kirin out and were so nonchalant about it...

We had an uphill battle to get over these attitudes, safe to say.

We reached a section of level ground, and we stopped for a moment to rest. Suddenly, one of the soldiers spoke up. "This is just fucked."

"What did you say?" I asked, looking at him.

"We lost a lot of good soldiers back there. Stallions and mares with families, not just in that crash but in Zephyr Heights too. And here we are running like cowards."

"That's enough, private," the Colonel said. "There's nothing we could have done to detect that SAM."

"Don't tell me to calm down!" the private continued. "We've got no idea what the fuck we're even doing here. Blundering across mountains with no idea where we're going."

"We're heading to Bridlewood," I calmly reminded him. "That's our best shot at fixing this mess."

"We're fixing this mess by going straight to where our enemies live?" He shook his head. "That's just crazy. We really are going downhill as a species."

I glared at him. "What makes you think you can speak to a princess that way?"

"Your title means jack shit out here!" the private said. "We're all just survivors of a series of colossal fuckups. And considering you've spent so much time hanging around with smallbrains and mind readers it's no wonder we're in such a mess. At least I'm doing my job. You just sit in your ivory tower waiting for things to unfuck themselves!"

I'd had enough. I punched him, and before I knew what was happening we were brawling in the dirt. I don't reall recall the specifics of the fight, but before I knew what had happened we'd both been pulled back and dumped on the ground.

The Colonel was admonishing the soldier with a target volume of drowning out jet engines, but that's not to say I had it easy either. Mom's face simply spoke of intense disappointment.

"Really?" she said. "Fighting in the dirt like an unruly schoolyard foal? Honestly, what were you thinking?"

I tried to form some words, but I was cut off before I could.

"You're the Crown princess, Zephryina. Act like it."

I hung my head. My pride would never admit it in pony but she was right.

Luckily, it seemed that Opwinden was also done, and we then continued on our way, the tension continuing to boil between all of us.

Author's Note

Well, it's been a few months since we were last here, eh? Since November an awful lot has happened in the world, and we return to Zipp and crew. It's perhaps fitting these chapters are releasing in March- as in March 2023 this project began with Zipp's story in that point in Nottingham, which feels a million miles away now.

The chopper crash is partly flavoured with accounts from the Battle of Mogadishu, a seriously botched target extraction that resulted in US Military forces being pinned down for hours by Somalian insurgents- an incident which dealt a severe blow to American pride globally, as a less technologically advanced foe had defeated them again.

The Peaks of Peril were largely unexplored in FiM, with only one episode really looking at them and the Kirin society. This was, in my opinion, a shame, as their culture had the opportunity to be quite interesting.

The final scene is based on one from the 2012 game Spec Ops: the Line, the same game which inspired several aspects of Sunny's story. Safe to say, if normally professional and well kept figures are acting like this shit has truly hit the fan.

Tomorrow, the journey continues.

A Shot in the Darkness

I suddenly awoke, quite unexpected, from a rather rough sleep. Clearly I'd gotten very used to the soft beds in the palace- my spine was killing me. I looked about me in surprise, determined to figure out what was going on or where I was.

"Hello?" I called, as I stood up. "Is anypony there?"

The dreamscape was full of clouds and stars burning in the distance, and I seemed to be walking on a cloud (although not lonely as one). A free cookie if you recognise the reference, by the way.

Suddenly, a mysterious shape, that looked like a pony, appeared beside me. I couldn't make out her appearance, but she seemed to be an ally from her body language. And I know it was a she from her voice. "Zipp," they said.

I knew that voice. It was the one that spoke when I was first turned into Zipp! "Who are you?" I asked.

"Who I am does not matter now," said the voice. "But what does matter is what I'm about to tell you. I know things are not ideal right now."

"That's the understatement of the decade," I sighed, rubbing my back as best I could. "A coup, us being trapped in the mountains, and now two potential dictators running around the place- sure sounds like a bad situation to me."

"I am aware of your frustrations, Zipp," the voice continued. "But you are here for a special purpose. You were sent here with a very important mission. For you see, the world is under threat from a foe so terrible no one pony can defeat it."

I perked my ears up immediately, even if these things sometimes seemed to have a life of their own. "Opaline?"

"No, not Opaline," said the voice. "It may seem hard to believe, but Opaline actually wants the same thing as you. She wishes to avert the destruction of the world, not destroy it herself."

"Well that sinks that theory," I said to myself.

"But this threat poses grave consequences to this world- one he despises by virtue of it just existing," the voice continued, showing me moments from my past. "I know you've had scrapes, but you and seven others have been chosen- chosen for a very special purpose."

So I wasn't just randomly turned into a pony for shits and giggles. That sentence still sounds absurd no matter what way you slice it. "So why me? Why some guy from a cold northern town?"

"Because of the contents of your heart," the voice said. "You are like her in so many ways."

"Ah. So you're my personal alicorn who'll also turn me into an alicorn! That's how this works, right?"

"Unfortunately, no. That version of the dreamscape ceased to be when Celestia retired."

I breathed a sigh of relief. I had quite enough appendages to manage right now. Speaking of which my wing was cramping badly.

"But keep your eye out for the other seven," the voice continued. "Only with their help can you stand a chance of defeating the One with the Stripes. But I am always with you. I will always be there for you. I may only be observing from a distance, but I will always be there to stand by your side. Best of luck, Zipp."

Just then, the dreamworld went white, and in an instant I woke up at the moutaintop campsite we'd occupied. Nobody else was awake. Just me.

I looked up at the night sky, and stars and the moon glowing up above. I sighed as I tried to settle back down to my sleep, but something continued to bother my mind. What had any of that dream meant?

I trotted over to the cliff edge and looked out into the open void of blackness before me, lit partly by distant fires and the gloom of the moon's light. I had to puzzle this out.

So, there was this spirit that brought me and seven others to this land? That would suggest seven other people who were turned into ponies! But who?

And then it made sense. First Pipp, then Sunny, Izzy, Misty, and then mom. All of them were former humans!

That adds up to six, though, if you include me in the tally. Who were the other two, then?

Hitch seemed like an obvious candidate as he serves a heroic role in the movie, but who then was the seventh pony who would be helping us?

Was it Opaline? It seemed as though she had the same goal as us, even if she probably ultimately was doing it for selfish reasons- you can't rule over a world that's been destroyed, after all.

I decided I needed to rest more. I went back over to the campsite and settled down for sleep, my eyelids drooping as I did nothing in particular.

I'd do most things to get a proper mattress out here.

The next morning arrived, and with it came sunlight. Sunlight cutting through the clouds of my doubt. I had often wondered if I had a purpose in life, and it seemed I had finally found that purpose. True, I wasn't expecting that purpose to be roaming around Equestria as a fictional character (and a flightless princess at that), but there wasn't a lot I could do about that. I was here for the long term.

And truth be told I was starting to get pretty comfortable in this body. It'd been shocking at first, but I realised then I was growing to enjoy this a bit. That explains why Pipp seemed to be having such a great time- if what she told me was true then this new life was a drastic improvement over her old one, even if it came with a tendancy to use connectives incorrectly.

Once we'd packed up, we were back on our way across Equestria, climbing through soaring peaks so high they scraped the very ceiling of the sky. I soaked it all up as closely as I could, and even took some snaps on my FlyPad. The soldier from yesterday had rigged up a charging box from an old generator as a way of apologising for his outburst yesterday. I appreciated the gesture- we all get a bit hot under the collar in stressful situations, and my behaviour wasn't exactly princess of the month material either.

As we continued on our way, we found another odd sight. Sitting before us was the crash site of another chopper!

"Are you sure we're going the right way, Zoom?" the Colonel asked.

"Positive, sir!" Zoom said. "This chopper has different tail markings to the one we were in."

The Colonel peered at the number painted on the rear boom, and his eyes widened. "I recognise that number," he said. "That helicopter has been missing for the best part of a decade. This is where it must have crashed!"

I stepped over to take a look, and studied it closely. It looked to have some sort of message inscriped next to it. I read it aloud. "HRH down. Have sought shelter. Will try to raise contact. Burial sight nearby."

HRH... Of course. This was the chopper carrying mom's husband! Or... my dad, I guess. This was getting too confusing for words as my pony and human lives got ever more blurred together.

I stepped round to one side and found a grave, with an improvised headstone made from metal from the crash site. It had a singular message- In memory of Private Speedwind. Greater love hath no pony, that a pony give his life for his friends.

We took a moment to pay our respects, and then moved on into the hills. Our equipment was heavy and starting to weigh us down- stuff chafing on your back legs is pretty awkward.

Suddenly, an alarm went off overhead, and it seemed as though somepony had set off a tripwire. We held position.

"Assume defensive formation!" the Colonel barked. "Move the Royal Family to the middle!"

The lines rearranged like clockwork, and I looked forward to see what else was going on. A group of pegasi, dressed in battered uniforms, moved around the corner and stopped.

"Weapons down, they're pegasi," said one of them. "Nice to see a friendly face out here."

The Colonel looked in surprise. "Captain Feldsturm? You're alive?"

"It's takes more than a few bumps to slow this old warhorse down, Lieutenant. Though what I want to know is how you got here?"

"Same way you did, sir."

Zoom glanced over. "Sir, you outrank him."

Opwinden glanced back. "I trained under him when I transferred to the Royal Guard. I was lower in rank than him when he went missing, so I'll break it to him gently. Besides, he has combat experience I do not."

Just then, another figure appeared. He was a grey stallion with a faded golden mane and a wild beard, as would befit a pony stuck out in the wastes for so long.

He looked at me in surprise. "Zephyrina? It's been so long."

In an instant I knew who he was.

Author's Note

So, it's now Zipp's turn to take a trip to dreamland and find out what her destiny is. Whilst this figure seems to enjoy talking in riddles, it at least shows the enormity of her mission. Some of the dialogue also jokingly alludes to the Twilicorn controversy that split the fandom in half back in 2013 (personally, I sit somewhere in the middle on the issue- I don't mind Twilight being an alicorn, but I can see why others have a problem with it).

Zipp taking some time in her thoughts is a change I've made based on feedback from one of the readers, who felt that the characters taking time to reflect on what was going on and engage in soul searching would help us connect with them better.

The descriptions of the Peaks of Peril are modelled on descriptions of the Black Mountains, a mountain range in the Warhammer fantasy universe. These mountains sit on the edge of the main continent the story takes place on, and to go beyond them is considered dangerous- as beyond them live the Orcs.

And in our final scene, I think you can figure out who this guy is. But just in case there shall be no spoilers.

The Unbreakable Bond

I looked at the figure before me, albeit still surrounded by somewhat ragged soldiers. Although he had aged a bit and now had a beard attached to his face, this was most certainly the same stallion in the photographs mom had been looking at when I'd accidentally walked in on her crying.

Which meant that one big question that the G5 community had was now answered.

This was my dad.

I had two living parents!

I decided to keep my mouth shut, though. Spilling the beans about who I really was could end badly, after all. I mean, I doubt he'd believe the story. I'm terribly sorry, but your daughter and wife standing before you technically aren't your daughter and wife but two humans who happen to inhabit duplicates of their bodies and got brought here for some unknown reason.

I mean, how ridiculous would that be? Anypony in their right mind would dismiss that theory right out of hoof. So, it was keeping the mouth shut it was.

Mom then noticed him, and her jaw dropped as she seemingly recognised him too. "Oh my hoofness..." she said. "It's him." Well, that nicely lines up with my suspicions about what was going on.

I stepped aside as one of the front soldiers continued to look closely. He hadn't been given an order to move, so stayed in position.

The Colonel glanced over to mom. "Your Majesty, should we let him closer?"

Mom glanced to the Colonel. "Perhaps we should avoid doing this on a rocky ledge where there isn't much clearance. After all, it would be a shame if this reunion were cut short by falling off a mountain."

"Capital idea," the stallion said. Actually, you know what, I think I'll just refer to him as dad from now on. It'll make the rest of this narrative a lot easier to follow. "In fact, I know of just the facility we can use for getting caught up on our respective pasts. I imagine we have a lot to catch up on."

He turned to his captain. "Captain Feldsturm, lead ourselves and the guests into The Nest."

"Yes Sir!" the Captain said, saluting as he did so. He ordered his unit to turn around, and they proceeded into some sort of tunnel.

We followed a few moments later, watching our surroundings carefully to avoid falling off the cliff and making sure we held in a solid formation on our way in. Once we were inside the cave and well past the entrance where falling off might be a possibility, we stopped under some lights, and dad then looked at mom with a happy smile.

"After all these years... I found you again." He looked unbelievably happy... but then again, wouldn't you if just reunited with the one you chose to spend your life with after ten years? "Merry... you're just as beautiful as the day I last saw you, all those years ago."

As they tearfully embraced, I noticed his words revealed something else. Dad had called mom 'Merry', not 'Haven'. This suggests that Haven is a surname, not a given name. Interesting, given that normally the regnal name is the given name and not the surname. Would that make me Queen Storm when I take the throne? Not that I particularly want to think about that day, of course.

We made our way deeper into the facility, looking about at all the lights strung up inside the facility. It seemed oddly organised, and there were deep cuts made into the walls with support structures.

"So, what's this meant to be?" I asked.

Dad looked back. "Based on what I could find out, this is an old aircraft base. It was built to enable the rapid launch of fighter aircraft without anypony noticing or being able to track the pilots. The equipment would suggest it was built during the War of the Seven Mountains, and much of the technology suggests pegasus build. The only build you'd want, of course- you'd never see the unicorns building anything of this quality."

Mom shared a look of discomfort with me. It seems that we had a bit of work to do to bring dad up to the status quo. I mean, after all, he did share the views of the world we'd arrived in, which was hardly surprising given the time period, but in order to complete our mission we'd have to ensure he was onboard.

Anyway, we were now much deeper into the former hanger, and a launch facility was in front of us. Several jets sat in old parking bays, clearly not having flown in decades. Computer screens were off, and a large amount of old equipment was simply left in place by the previous occupants. It was pretty much abandoned.

"How'd you make this place livable?" I asked.

"Sargeant Stormfly was able to get a generator up and running using parts from the crashed helicopter's engine, and they had a lot of long life food in the base that we could use. Astonishingly much of it was still in life. But that's not all. If we ran out, we could always just hunt the local wildlife and eat that. Water wasn't a problem as there was a water purification plant that was still working."

He hung his head. "Mind you, getting here wasn't easy. When we crashed the site was swarmed with kirin, whom we had to fight off. We lost one soldier that day- his grave is outside the crash site. But enough about us. How are you two here?"

We exchanged looks, before mom spoke. "Golden, there's been a coup in Zephyr Heights. Rogue portions of the military overthrew the government, and their leader is planning on bringing about the end of the world. I've been able to find allies to help up, so we were heading there when we got shot down."

"History truly does work in cycles," Golden mused.

Mom looked at him, intently. "I'm not asking you this next question as a ruler, but as your wife. Please... will you help us?"

Golden nodded. "Restoring order to our homeland and removing those who hurt you? Say no more. We're in."

The conversation went on well into the night and included many things that I'd been wondering about but hadn't really discussed. But I'll save that for later, as I doubt you want to her minutiae about how the Colonel used to serve under the Captain. What I learned about mom and dad was surprising though. Turns out dad was a commoner whom mom met at university. Caused quite the scuffle in the Royal Family as they were expecting her to marry a noblestallion!

Guess things aren't too different to the old world, huh?

That night, it was restless sleeping for me once more, as so much had changed yet again in the world around me. A totally different family dynamic had emerged, and with a figure I both knew and barely recognised. Thanks to the unusual circumstances of my arrival here I hadn't really gotten caught up on everything. But I reckon it was harder on mom. After all, she had to be able to run this place and hit the ground running, so to speak.

I shrugged my shoulders and decided to go and get some air outside. Recirculated air is well and good, but it can be very stuffy, after all. And stuffy air gets, well, stuffy, after a while, so I fancied a change.

I got up and headed outdoors, dropping past the soldier standing guard and made my way towards the outdoor sky, which was brilliantly lit with stars- something you don't really get to see in Zephyr Heights thanks to all the light pollution. I stepped out of the outer hanger area when suddenly I heard voices.

I stepped round another corner and stopped. Mom and dad were sharing a moment under the moonlight, snogging. I mean, full on mouth stuff.

Well, that's an interesting mental image. They broke from the kiss, and then started to talk romantically.

I backed up, deciding they deserved their time alone. After all, they hadn't seen each other for a decade, so it made sense they'd want to have some time together.

I trotted back to the other entrance, reflecting on what this meant. Obviously, mom looked very happy, but what did this mean for us?

If that means what I think it does, the personalities are merged very closely- otherwise how would mom be having these emotional reactions with a pony she hadn't known before ending up in this world?

How much of me was left? How much of this was Zipp now? Could I truly be considered the individual I once was, all that time ago?

Right, enough navel gazing. Time for bed. I headed back further and slipped into a sleeping bag, closing my eyes as best I could.

After all, if they'd found happiness in each other, there was hope for me, right?

Author's Note

Well, the big moment that was first hinted at all the way back in Chapter 7 (chapter 5 of Royal Approval) has arrived- Pipp and Zipp's father is back in the picture! As I'd planned the plotline long before Mare Family, Mare Problem and the Jinxie Games aired, this will mean later stuff will need some rejigging. For those wondering why Golden Skies is a prince and not a king- if the figure in the line of succession is female, the spouse cannot gain the title of King as they have no claim to the throne. This is why stories where Haven succeeded her husband don't really work- if she'd married into the Royal Family the throne would have passed immediately to Zipp on the King's death as Haven would have no claim to the throne. But maybe I just overthink ponies.

Monarchs usually pick a name or use their actual given one when reigning. Often they'll pick from one of their existing names; King Charles III had Charles, Phillip, Arthur, and George to pick from. Personally I'm rather relived he picked Charles, as this country has had a lot of Georges!

Who royalty could and could not marry was a source of much contention in English (and later British) history, as many marriages were political alliances rather than bonds of love. The idea of royalty mingling with those not of 'royal stock' caused a lot of consternation in the past; Prince Albert Edward, later Edward VII, caused scandal when it emerged he was romantically involved with an actress. His mother, Queen Victoria, promptly married him off to Alexandra of Denmark to avoid further scandal. Even more recently this issue has flared up; Prince Charles (Charles III) was pressured into marrying Diana as she was seen to be of more suitable noble stock than Camilla despite the fact Charles was much happier with the latter. Happily, though, it seems this sort of snobbery is past us if Prince William being permitted to marry Katherine Middleton, who is from a much more normal background than any other figure mentioned so far, is anything to go by.

Over the Mountains we Go!

The next morning we packed up all our equipment and prepared to set off on our journey towards Bridlewood. As I was loading my supplies into a travel sack and pulling it onto my back, I overheard a brief discussion from Feldsturm and Opwinden.

"Sir, you should lead," Opwinden said. "You've been out here for much longer than me, and after all you were my commanding officer when you vanished."

Feldsturm laughed. "I'm but a Captain, sir. I'm the one who should be calling you sir. And from what I can see you're are nothing but the finest of soldiers. Lead the way, Colonel. I shall be happy to give expertise as needed."

As the other soldiers made ready to move, mom and dad still put their supplies together and loaded them onto their backs. "This isn't exactly what you'd call light," mom commented.

"No," dad admitted. "It is quite heavy. But such is the life of living in the mountains. It's a good thing we were able to get the running water working- without it we'd probably smell so awful Kirin would smell us long before we appeared." He paused. "But point the way and I shall gladly guide you there."

Mom nodded. "In which case, we need to head towards the other lands."

Golden nodded in return. "Very well."

As we left the encampment, extinguishing any traces of our time here, the mountains and clouds once again loomed ahead of us like mighty sentinels of time. No matter how many times I saw them I couldn't help but be overwhelmed by an incredible sense of wonder at these towering sentinels that had stood here for centuries, probably millenia. How much had passed by them in the years they had stood strong and tall?

It also reminded me of how small I was. I may have been crown princess, but I was ultimately insignificant compared to these towering peaks. In the long annals of history I didn't matter all that much. If the entire history of the world were to be reduced to one book, ponykind would appear in the final sentence of that book, and of the words in those sentences I would barely occupy one of the last letters.

Wow. That really is rather a lot to think about, I guess.

I continued along, noticing mom and dad talking happily, clearly catching up on what had happened in the intervening years. Given mom had been here for a few weeks at best I have no clue how she was disclosing things from before that point. Hey, at least she didn't end up here before me and Pipp were born. Swapping bodies is bad enough, but having to give birth twice in an alien body far from home? Sounds like nightmare fuel.

Speaking of alien, I had no clue how we were going to break the news to dad that we weren't quite whom he'd once known. Even if we were to break the news at all, to be honest. I sighed, and looked at the clouds below us, noticing we were beginning to lose height. Perhaps our journey was almost over.

After some more walking, we were at the bottom of the mountains, and looking out over a field.

"That was a solid walk," mom said. "Helps to get the breakfast out. I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but the ration pack was rather stodgy." She quickly glanced down and up again. "I do rather like keeping my figure as it is."

"If I may, Your Majesty," Opwinden said, "you have an exercise regime that would knock a soldier half your age flat."

"Well one thing hasn't changed!" dad smiled. "But your point about the food stands. It's partly why we call them MRE- meals rarely edible."

"I shall have to launch an investigation into this once we have returned to power," mom commented. "But we have a mission to complete."

"We have a road sign, sir!" said a soldier. "The border with unicorn territory is this way!"

"Good," mom said. "The that is where we shall go."

Dad looked in shock. "Travel direct into unicorn territory? You can't be serious."

I spoke up. "Dad, this is serious. I've made allies with the other tribes, and they're fighting to help us rebuild the world. If we're gonna stop Gulfstream and restore the world to peace we need all the help we can get- our little band isn't strong enough to pull this off on our own. We need their help, and besides, they're my friends."

"I can vouch for them," mom said. "Their help will be invaluable, and I imagine my presence there will give them some much needed negotiation clout."

Dad nodded. "Alright then. I'll guide you to Bridlewood, but we'll have to be sneaky if we're going to avoid the sentries. The border is fortified."

"Which border isn't around here?" I said, with a wry smile. "Cold war, huh?"

We then set off again into the plains, with the flatter terrain meaning we could build up some speed as we made our way towards the unicorn lands. The sun shone and the clouds were out of the sky, allowing us to get up some speed as we walked along towards our destination with determination in our hearts and strength in our limbs.

At last, we reached the border, and stopped. A gate was down to prohibit access. Large concrete towers loomed over the landscape below, and we suspected they had armed guards inside, trained to intercept intruders. Before them was a layer of barbed wire, and some tank traps nearby.

"Not much chance of us getting in there with that lot trained on us," Feldsturm said. "We'll have to find a gap in the line somewhere and move that way. It's not all concrete towers- there are gaps in it. Somepony must have opened the fence somewhere. Let's go."

So we did, slipping away as far as we could and then moving towards another section of the wall.

Just as we arrived then Opwinden called a halt. "Listen," he said. "Engines."

Sure enough, the rumbling of engines could be heard in the distance, followed by large dust plumes behind something or other. Looming out of the darkness was a formation of six metal boxes. As they got closer, the treads became visible, as did other features such as turrets, barrels, and other features.

They were tanks. But were they loyal to us or supporting Gulfstream?

"If they're hostile, we have no way of engaging," I said quietly. "Unless anypony brought a panzerfaust."

Luckily, the tanks weren't firing on us. They rattled to a stop near our position, and the commander of one tank opened the top hatch and opened it. "As I live and breathe," she said. "Boys, it's the Royal Family!"

She saluted. "My greetings, Your Majesty and Your Royal Highnesses. What brings you here so far from Zephyr Heights."

"It's a story rather too long to get into here, but we're fleeing the General," I said quickly.

"Well, this unit is still loyal to the Crown," the commander replied.

"But why are you here?" Dad asked, looking surprised.

"We were performing a scouting mission," the commander answered. "Just in case the unicorns are planning anything."

"We need transport to Bridlewood," mom said quickly. "Can you get us there?"

"It won't be an easy journey ma'am," said the commander, "but I can get you there. Those flak jackets and helmets will help you though."

Huh. I'd forgotten I was wearing one for a moment.

We hopped on the side plates of the tanks, which sat over the tracks, and with a single order the formation of machines got underway, driving along the border wall at speed. I have to say these were pretty speedy for lumbering weapons of war.

We arrived at a gap in the wall, which seemed to have been abandoned. Maybe this was why the unicorns in Bridlewood seemed to have so little- the cost of upkeep on this wall must have been enormous.

"Moving forward. Hold on." The tank we were on rattled through the wall, with the others following behind it. Once we were through, they formed up in single file and moved off towards our destination.

"Welcome to unicorn territory, boys," one of the tank commanders radioed. "Hope you got your tennis balls ready."

As we rolled through unicorn territory, I couldn't help but notice how similar it looked to the terrain on the other side of the border. The same rolling hills surrounded all of us, and the soil looked the same. I guess a border is a somewhat academic exercise, though at least they weren't just straight lines drawn onto a map.

A forest rolled out of the distance, our vehicles moving to adjust. "Deploy wheel plates. Move slowly. Don't let the unicorns try anything clever."

As the vehicles rolled under the tree canopy, I felt a sense of dread in the pit of my stomach. This would either go well, or horribly.

Author's Note

Our heroes have finally crossed the border into unicorn territory, and have picked up some unlikely allies along the way. The tank operation is based on a common Cold War tactic of patrolling near borders to find weak points- many NATO and Warsaw Pact light armour formtation were fielded for just that.

The border is based loosely on the Berlin Wall. A complex maze of defensive structures and concrete walls, the Berlin Wall served the double purpose of keeping its population in and enemy troops out. Although much of it was demolished with German reunification in 1990, large sections survive in use as street canvasses- and for those particularly interested in the history of the GDR an entire section has been preserved as it was in the 1970s.

The panzerfaust (German for 'tank fist') was a cheaply made fire-and-forget anti-tank weapon used in the dying days of WW2. Devastating at close range, German units would often give these weapons to children, taking advantage of the average person's hesitancy to fire on a child to their advantage. The 2014 film Fury contains a depiction of such an attack, nicely driving home just how brutal the last months of WW2 were.

Colonial era maps have a rather interesting and notable feature- borders between territories rarely, if ever, followed geographical features and were straight lines drawn on maps. A notable example is the border between Egypt and Sudan, which is a series of straight lines drawn on maps. Similar can be seen in the western United States- the borders between Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah have been arbitrarily drawn on a map (this is why the four states meet at right angles). These sorts of borders would end up triggering conflicts in the post-colonial era, with some of the strife during the war with Islamic State partly being caused by Colonial-era British borders.

Reunion

The peaceful sound of the forest was interrupted by the rumbling of vehicle engines as they drove along a path, with us sitting on the sides of the vehicles.

"Watch clearances!" said a voice over the radio. "We're coming up on some low hanging branches."

"Copy, adjust heading to avoid."

The heavy vehicles shifted over to the side and began to turn away from whatever they were trying to avoid. The machines were pretty nimble for something of their size, and made easy work of navigating the terrain, their heavy treads easily moving over the rough ground.

"Not the stealthiest of approaches, this," I said.

"It does the job, Your Highness," the Colonel said. "Over long distances it beats walking. I did this many times during the Valdon Campaign."

Presumably that was another war from back in the history of the world. Presumably a recent one given Opwinden's age.

We continued on our way through the region before we came to a stop in a clearing, the vehicles stopping and forming up. The trees continued on in front of us in an uninviting way, the land and sky continuing to roll away from us. When the latter was visible to us, that is, as the tree canopy is pretty thick in Bridlewood.

"Why have we stopped?" mom asked, looking concerned. We had every reason to be- the area was probably pretty hostile to our presence.

There were a few moments of silence before we made our way out of the area, but then the commander spoke. "My sincerest apologies, Your Majesty. Our vehicles are unable to proceed further- the roadway up ahead is too narrow for our tracks. You'll have to continue on hoof, I'm afraid."

I shrugged. "Well, a bit of walking's not too bad, huh?"

Dad sighed. "Not what was being alluded to Zephyrina."

Mom glanced over. "She prefers Zipp, actually."

Dad nodded. "That's going to take some getting used to. Still, we might as well dismount and get on our way. It beats sitting here and waiting for the plants to change colour. Let's go."

We all slipped off the sides of the tanks and began to make our way down the path into Bridlewood, the tanks providing observation support as far as we could see and walk.

Sure enough, the terrain began to look familiar. I began to spot familiar landmarks any fans of the film would recognise. There were some empty swings where the inexplicable British colt was lying when Hitch said a magic word by mistake. That was Izzy's house we just passed. And a short distance up ahead was the Crystal Tearoom, but what was odd was there were many shouts of bing bong bouncing off the trees and walls.

Huh. Seems we missed the PrancePranceRevolution session. Oh well. That probably meant my friends were close, and we would soon be reunited!

I followed the voices. "This way!" I called, and we took a turn and sped towards some bushes. They parted with ease, and I saw them for the first time in such a long time.

My friends.

Pipp was the first to react! "Zipp!" she cried, and dashed over to me. "I'm so, so glad you're OK!"

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

"I'm not surprised," Pipp replied. "You smell pretty bad."

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

"Walking across mountains?" Hitch said. "I don't remember that from the movie."

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

The speech was interrupted by soldiers bursting through the bushes and stopping. "Hold fire!" the Colonel said. "Zipp, are these your friends?"

"Yes, they are," I replied. "I'd appreciate it if no harm comes to them- I mean, one of them is your other boss."

Just then, the bushes shifted about, and mom rolled out of the bush tail first before landing on the floor. "Ouch! I think that dislodged the tailbrace. Must ask Pipp to check it."

She rolled and saw us, before dashing over. "Thank Faust you're safe, Pipp!" she said, pulling both of us into a hug. "You made it across the country to here on your own!"

"Well, I had a little help from my friends," Pipp answered, with a wry smile. I nodded. Hopefully there had been no getting high with a little help from her friends.

Mom smiled. "I'm just so glad to have my little fillies back. And there's an extra surprise for you too."

As we broke from the physical contact, mom indicated to dad. "Pipp, this is going to be quite hard to believe... but this stallion is your father."

Dad looked over. "Hello, Pipp. It's been a while. Ten years to be precise."

Pipp dashed over, a lot less hesitant than I had been in the same circumstances, and hugged him. "I've missed you so much!" she bawled.

"Me too," dad sighed, holding her close. "You certainly have grown, though."

"It's called puberty, dad," I said, sarcastically.

"I know what puberty is," he said, in response. "But how have things been since I was last here, eh?"

Mom and I quickly exchanged glances of concern. Neither of us had any clue how dad would react to the news his wife and two daughters had been replaced by people from another dimension entirely.

Luckily, Pipp didn't have a chance to say anything before trouble happened. There was the rumbling of engines, and suddenly a pair of tanks emerged from the treeline, followed by two groups of soldiers. Leading them was Alphabittle, who saw the scene in front of him and scowled.

"I knew it," he said. "This was your plan the entire time. Why am I not surprised the pegasi are behind this?"

I turned and looked. "It's not what you think-"

"Hold your tongue."

Zoom looked up. "That's the Crown Princess you're talking to!"

"And that has any bearing on the situation how, precisely?" Alphabittle said. "You'll fill me with bullet holes if I don't say the magic word? I must say Merry, things have gone downhill if you're overseeing theft and foalnapping."

It simply turned out mom had been waiting to kick into high gear and sharpen her tongue. The resulting back and forth between her and Alphabittle was much more vicious than in the movie, but she certainly has a quick sense of debate and superb sense of timing.

Partway through the argument, Pipp's phone suddenly got an emergency message over the Emergency Broadcast System. Who knew those could be picked up in the literal middle of nowhere, huh?

Pipp looked at it in surprise. "Huh? That's weird. I thought I couldn't get a signal out here." She opened the message, and her face lit up in utter surprise. "What? It's some sort of broadcast?"

And sure enough it was, from Gulfstream. The full thing was quite the ramble so I'll tell you the important bits. Basically he complained about the Queen and then showed footage of a burning city that was being bombed.

"This was the city of Staltenberg. It's leadership and mayor stood against us, and against order. So we turned them into an example of what happens to those who stand against us."

Gulfstream leaned into the camera. "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."

OK, this is bad. Really, really bad. That would explain why Bridlewood wasn't attacked- he was busy killing his own citizens! He was even further up the crazy dictator track than I'd thought possible.

Mom summarised the sentiment well. "He's insane."

"Pretty much the usual," a unicorn said unhelpfully.

I couldn't quite recall if he had the launch codes, but his willingness to drop weapons on his own people suggested a complete lack of restraint. What if he was sending a reprisal mission our way right now?

Luckily, mom took up the conversation. "I know our two species don't exactly have the best of relations. But we have to stop General Gulfstream before he gets his hooves on the launch codes!"

Wait a second. I then remembered something the General had said earlier.

"The fact that they are encoded to your hoofprints is simply a minor setback. I already have the first two, so all I need are the last ones. It's simple, you old fool. I want the launch codes."

Launch codes tied to her hooves. The interrogators were interested in her hooves.

They already had the launch codes!

Before I could say anything, Alphabittle interrupted. "And why should we help, given what you've done?"

Mom looked sternly at him. "Because the alternative is nuclear armageddon. If we don't stop him, we all die. What say you?"

Alphabittle grumbled. "Fine. We'll help. I never thought I'd work alongside a pegasus, but if it's that or death I know which I'll pick."

With that, our course was now clear. It was back to Zephyr Heights, as we had ourselves an insane general to overthrow.

Author's Note

Although called Just Prance in official media, the game Alphabittle and Sunny play bares more resemblance to DanceDanceRevolution in terms of gameplay.

Trek is a word English speakers use daily without thinking. It derives from the Afrikaans word for 'travel', and entered vernacular English usage around 1815.

Sharpen your tongue is a phrase associated with American writer and satirist Dorothy Parker, who once quipped that every morning she did this exact procedure- she certainly had quite the biting wit. She also popularised the idea of the double persona- the concept that people have outward thoughts and inner views that don't always line up. Her short story The Waltz is an excellent example, told from the perspective of a woman who is outwardly giving pleasentries but inwardly is highly frustrated at the situation she is in.

The unicorn tanks are modelled on the Soviet T-34:

One of the most succesful tanks of all time, the combination of sloping armour and a decent bore gun made these vehicles a serious threat on the Eastern Front. More than 84,000 were built and saw service in all sorts of conflicts; 130 are still in service as of 2023.

We leave Zipp behind for a bit, but rest assured we shall return to this story.

Fight for the Truth and Freedom

We stood in the planning tent, ready for the coming battle. The tent had been put up the previous night, alongside all the others. That had been a fun challenge in the pouring rain, but life out here wouldn't be easy. We were an army on the move, after all.

Mom and Opwinden poured over the map, with figures representing each army sitting on the map table. The map was set up with a relief of Zephyr Heights and the surrounding area, which was impressive to see but nontheless got me questioning how they even got one in here in the first place. Had they just had one lying about in the spare room and brought it with them?

Opwinden looked concerned. "There's only one road in and out of the city that could handle our armour column," he said, "given that most pegasi fly in or out of the city on planes. This rather limits the armour support that we can receive." He switched to a screen display. "A recon drone was dispatched last night, and revealed the road approach has been turned into a fortress. Pillboxes, machine guns- it'd be suicide mounting a frontal assault with our full force."

"What do you propose?" mom said, looking deeply concerned. I didn't know if she understood all this jargon, but she certainly had the look of somepony who did.

Opwinden glanced to her again. "I am aware that we must liberate the city, but it is my duty to minimise casualties as much as I can- I owe that to my men. As a result, and I am aware this is a risky strategy, but we must divide our forces into seven groups. That way we can hit our targets all at once with the enemy barely able to mobilise their troops against us."

"A bold strategy indeed," mom said. "But nothing ventured, nothing gained. Where do we fit in?"

"That's up to you and your friends, of course, your Majesty," Opwinden replied, pointing at the map. "I feel, though, that having key figures by their side will help with morale."

I spoke up. "I volunteer."

"Zipp? Are you sure?" Mom asked, looking surprised.

"I'm certain," I replied, looking at the map. "This situation is my fault, and the least I can do is work to set it right. I'll join the attack on the airbase."

Mom looked at me, then trotted over and hugged me. "Just be careful out there, my dear," she said. "Watch your footing, and be on your guard."

"I'll come home, mom," I replied. "That's a promise."

Opwinden then addressed us as we broke the embrace. "Your target is the main airbase within the city perimeter. The airbase sits on a plateau to the edge of Zephyr Heights, and is home to large numbers of aircraft. Drone scans revealed Gulfstream has moved the 20th Strategic Bomber Wing there- suggesting he intends to carry out his carpet bombing threat. We must retake the airfield and knock out Gulfstream's air power if we are to succeed. I know the magnitude of this plan, but if we do not succeed Equestria may not see another sunrise."

I nodded. "Yes sir."

Opwinden nodded in return. "Very good. Your gear is waiting for you outside. Sunny and Izzy, your briefing is next."

Once all the briefings were complete, our armies were martialled and we began our advance up the hill. Our forces would initially move as one complete block before splitting off in different directions. This was a surreal experience. I'd never imagined that. as a princess, I'd be leading troops into battle. Still, gotta be prepared for any eventuality.

At least I didn't have seasickness to put up with, although some of the younger soldiers did seem to be struggling somewhat with the pitching movement of the tanks. But we all marched side by side, now clad in helmets and armour of some description to give us protection from the enemy fire. I'd even been given a rifle and ammunition to fight with. Hopefully I knew what to do with it. That was rhetorical, by the way. I understand firearm's safety.

But, at last, our army rolled to a stop. We had reached the first of the branching off points. Ours, namely. We were to take an overland route to leave the area and climb up to the same level as the enemy before assaulting the airbase. Boy was this going to be challenging.

"Goodbye, and good luck!" Pipp called.

"You two, sis!" I called back, as I began my climb. The soldiers had formed into a column marching under complete silence so as not to draw enemt attention.

I took one look back, and as we advanced they slowly turned into hard to spot small blobs in the middle of nowhere. But we had a mission to complete, and complete it we would.

The path was steep, but the soldiers appeared to be taking it in stride as they marched along. The landscape fell away from us and down into the plains below, but the mighty rocks towered to our left as we advanced.

All those years of solid exercise had clearly paid off. I was having no difficulty moving about at these altitudes, which I guess you can partly thank pegasus biology for. The soldiers also maintained a steady pace to conserve their energy. But it was spooky to be advancing in complete silence with no sound apart from the thudding of boots on the ground and the occasional clinking of personal supplies slung on the backs of soldiers.

We marched round a corner, closing in on our destionation, with the soldiers continuing to advance in what seemed like relatively high spirits. Seems that yesterday's meals did them good and got them in the right frame of mind. Reminded me of the story of one British General who meticulously planned his offensive operations to keep casualty levels low- and made sure hot food was being delivered to the front lines to keep morale high. Seriously, people fought to be part of his command!

But soon our objective was in sight. The airport lay before us, the runway stretching out onto a rocky outcrop. Several aircraft sat on the tarmac, ready to be refuelled for battle. This was our first target- taking this place would prevent Gulfstream from bombing our forces as we advanced. And give us the air power we needed to boot.

We advanced into the region, looking about for enemies and sentries that might disrupt out offensive plan. We looked about, determined not to let anypont or anything get in our way.

Clearly, the enemy weren't expecting us to come this way. The approach we were using was basically undefended, which was oops for them and hooray for us. We continued on our path, slipping along to avoid being spotted.

"Sentries sighted," one soldier said. "Wait until they've finished moving."

We took up position behind some rocks and watched the field. The enemy soldiers scanned the terrain for a bit and seemed to engage in a conversation for a while before moving on to somewhere else.

With the coast clear, it was time to advance into the airbase. Our troops began to move out, and one cut the barbed wire surrounding the perimeter what what looked like an enormous pair of plyers. Once we were through, we began to move stealthily, hiding behind buildings and waiting to see if any enemies emerged from buildings. If we were lucky, we could take the airbase without firing a single shot.

We snuck forward, weaving from building to building in an asymetrical pattern. If we adanced in a line we would be easier to spot, and the odd shapes broke up the natural instinct we have to form lines.

I hid behind a wall and briefly looked over before pulling my head down. This was sure quiet. Perhaps they were having a teabreak?

Once the coast was clear once again I leaped over the wall and landed inside what seemed like another walled area. I pulled up to the wall and hid on the other side to avoid being spotted. Most of us were still watching for the enemy. The tension was so thick you could have slowed a bullet with it.

I stuck my head up to take a look- and immediately pulled it back down again when I saw an enemy soldier. He and his fellows had just emerged from a building and were patrolling around a barracks block.

"Targets ahead?" said one soldier. "Switch them off?"

"Negative, hold your fire," said another. "They may leave."

Unfortunately, they began to move our way- and this was where having a rather distinctive coat colour rather gave me away. Perhaps I should have rolled in some mud before we came here.

The sentries we had seen had spotted us, and closed in on our position.

But it's what happened next that I remember the best- partly because of how sudden it was.

Author's Note

Well, the next stage of the story has arrived- and what a day it is too! The day to cause dictators and monsters to quake in their boots- as the liberators have arrived!

The military plan Opwinden cooks up is loosely based on Operation Overlord, the offensive which began to liberation of Europe. This involved assault forces being split into six major offensive groups which assaulted six major beaches at once. The largest amphibious landing in history, the plan mostly went off without a hitch.

Zipp briefly alludes to General Sir John Monash, a British General in WW1 who was a firm subversion of the 'lions led by donkeys' trope so often associated with the conflict. By all accounts, he was an incredibly good commander; he succeeded in taking Hamel in a 92 minutes offensive with astonishingly low casualties.

The airbase raid is based on the Tatsinskaya Raid, a Soviet counter-offensive during the Battle of Stalingrad which took control of the Luftwaffe's main airbase in the region. Despite being cut off and ultimately destroyed, the attack was a great strategic victory as it weakened German air power in the region; a critical factor in the ultimate Soviet victory at Stalingrad.

But what will happen next? Find out tomorrow!

Play the Tunes of Victory

"Guys, it's them!" said one soldier.

"Oh shit," I said to myself. I really did not fancy getting shot this morning.

But what happened instead astonished us. The assembled soldiers began laying down their arms instead, in an act of seeming surrender.

"What's going on?" said one of our soldiers.

I looked up over the wall I was behind to see the soldiers wre surrendering en masse before us. "They seem to be surrendering!"

Then one of them spoke. "It's just as the broadcast said! The Princess has returned to liberate us!"

"Say what now?" I asked.

"Put it this way; most of us don't like Gulfstream," said another soldier who had laid down her arms. "So we were holding onto hope that the Royal Family would return to our lands and free us from him. We lacked the strength to do it on our own, but with all of you by our side we have a fighting chance of restoring freedom and democracy to our land!"

It was in that moment I remembered what Opwinden had said to us in the prison cells.

"Luckily, most of the population agrees with you. The truth is that they don't trust the General's regime. They see him as a madman and a threat to their security. Already ponies are protesting the conscription he's introduced, and the populace is deeply worried about being sent to war to fight against the other races."

They didn't see us as oppressors after all of this. In their eyes, we weren't here to control and oppress them.

We were here to save them from a despot.

Gotta say Opwinden pulled off a miracle back there. He turned our awful reputation after the whole no flying thing into the light of hope for a whole new generation. Guess the revolution went a little better than it seemed, huh?

Many soldiers were now in a position of surrender, waiting to be processed to wherever it was. But it was then I had a much better idea.

"Will you join us?" I asked.

"Join you in what?" another queried.

"Join us in liberating Zephyr Heights. Help us in overthrowing the General, and restoring peace to our land. Then life can return to how it used to be. What say you?"

There a momentary silence. Then the entire ground seemed to move at once. The soldiers grabbed their weapons once more, and turned to face the direction of our offensive.

"Yes, Your Highness!" said one of the soldiers, an officer based on the markings on his uniform. "We will gladly fight by your side."

"For the freedom of all pegasi!" shouted another soldier.

"For a brighter tomorrow!" shouted another.

"FOR THE EMPIRE!" shouted a third.

I and my fellows moved up alongside the fellow soldiers who had come with me, adjusting my kit and forming up on the side of the new unit.

"I'm not really one for speeches, but we have a job to do. Let's clean this place up!"

In that moment, the soldiers cheered. "ADVANCE!"

They began sweeping forward almost like a wave of bodies, heading for their targets. We swept across the airbase at speed, our lines dramatically bolstered by the fellow numbers being dramatically swelled by the new soldiers. Our advance was going swimmingly.

Several aircraft parked on the ground were abandoning attempts to move based on all the soldiers moving across the battlefield. I didn't blame them- the land right now wasn't conducive to attempting to get a heavy aircraft off the ground, especially given how ungainly those bombers looked. But we kept up the speed of our move.

Suddenly, I dived into cover alongside a random soldier, as a loud roar of fire had started up nearby. I adjusted my helmet to check incoming fire, and then quickly looked up.

Most of us were now pinned down by enemy fire. A machine gun was entrenched in a nearby tower, and was firing down on us in suppression fire.

"LAY DOWN SUPRESSING FIRE!" I shouted.

Nearby, one of our own machine guns (one of the units that had surrendered to us had one in their equipment collection) was set up, and began to fire back. The operator was hanging below the wall, and was operating the fire button with one hoof. Sure is handy our hooves stick to things, huh?

We continued to stay down as fire continued.

"SURRENDER NOW, YOU TRAITORS!" a voice blasted over a speaker. Sounds as though there are quite a few Gulfstream loyalists inside that structure.

"You can't betray somepony you're enslaved to!" a soldier replied, clearly in the mood for one liners in response to whatever was going on.

I glanced back and forth along the line, and then had an idea. "Does anypony have a bazooka?" I asked.

"What's a bazooka?" asked another soldier.

"A missile launcher? Anti tank weapon?"

"We have a LAW if that's what you mean," said another, adjusting his weapon to reveal a rocket launcher of some description.

"Perfect!" I said. "Get it loaded and prepare to attack."

The soldier nodded, and flipped the weapon open before putting a rocket inside. "Ready to go."

I looked back along the line. "Get ready."

The soldiers nodded, holding down under the withering fire from the machine guns in the walls.

"FIRE AT WILL!"

In an instant, we popped up and grabbed our weapons, firing on the enemy position. It wasn't meant to destroy the position, just to keep their heads down for a bit to prevent them from firing.

Just so our actual heavy hit could smash them apart. The soldier with the rocket launcher then fired, the rocket's red glare streaking across the battlefield and slamming into the tower. With a series of loud explosions, the tower was demolished and collapsed, the heavy gunfire ceasing as the tower fell into rubble.

We waited with baited breath for what would happen. And then we saw it appearing above the ramparts.

The thing we had hoped we would see.

The white flag of surrender was soon waving over the base.

We had done it. We had retaken the airbase with minimal casualties on our side. True, some of the enemy were dead, but that was to be expected. As the survivors marched out to a holding area, their heads low and hanging in shame, it was time to figure out what to do next.

To this end, I consulted my map and gave it a close look. A few lines drawn on it gave a sense of where we were meant to be going, and this was good news, as where we were going next was a place I wanted to go.

"Listen up!" I said, looking at the map. "As stated in the briefing our next target is the airship hanger not far from here. We're joining the assault on the palace itself, attacking from another direction to try and overwhelm the defenders."

"That sounds bad," said one soldier. "Gulfstream and his closest fanatics are in there. Including his Stormtroopers."

"I have experience with those guys," I said. "We have numbers on our side."

But many of the other soldiers seemed less certain. "Those guys were used for violent reprisals," said one. "Including here in Zephyr Heights. None of us forget the Night of the Broken Glass."

"Then we should take the fight to them," I said. "Show them tyrants will not be permitted here."

That, at least, seemed to get them somewhat riled up, and they formed up into something of an order as we began to leave the airbase. We left a few soldiers behind to guard the base and keep an eye on the prisoners in case they tried anything clever. Or anything silly. The two were basically the same at this point.

As we pushed into the city, we could hear scattered gunfire and see smoke rising in places. This was not great, to be honest. It would have been far better if we'd been able to take the city without firing a single shot, but sadly that option wasn't available to us after all.

But Gulfstream's behaviour had me even more worried. Random violence carried out against civilians was another page out of the dictator playbook. Bombing your own citizens is presumably the next step on from that. It wouldn't surprise me if he was burning books and targeting university staff. After all, one of the first things dictators do is silence the intelligent.

We moved onwards, the explosions continuing to serve as background music to the chaos. As we advanced, the doors of the airship hanger loomed in view, but unfortunately the doors didn't look too good. The stained glass had been shot out of them, and was lying in shards all over the floor.

That would be a mess to clean up. Seems like a microcosm of this whole situation.

We formed up outside the doors, and several soldiers readied smoke and concussion grenades.

Now was the time to strike once more.

Author's Note

Welcome back to another battle with Zipp. This time around, we're back on the airfield. The title of this chapter is taken from the Sabaton song Blood of Bannockburn, which is about the battle of Bannockburn in 1314 (the incident where an army under Robert Bruce succesfully drove back the English besieging Stirling Castle).

This segment of the airfield battle is inspired by the assaults on Kronstadt. One of them was an early strategic bombing mission in 1919 in which the RAF succeeded in sinking several Soviet vessels. The MG segment is inspired by an anecdote from the Soviet assault on Kronstadt, where the attackers were held up for hours by entrenched MG positions.

The missile system seen here is a combination of two different systems. The reference to a LAW is intended as an allusion to the M72, a fire-and-forget system used between 1963 and 1983. The weapon often appears in movies owing to the large numbers of expended examples in existance. The other system is STARSTREAK, the standard missile system in use with the British Army at time of writing.

The Night of the Broken Glass is the common English translation of Kristallnacht, a night of violence against predominantly Jewish shopkeepers and civilians carried out by the SS in November 1938. The incident was, in many ways, an ugly prelude to the Holocaust.

Next time; battle for the hanger!

In the Game to Win the Gambler Rolls the Dice

I stuck my head around the door, and suddenly spotted something odd. The hanger was virtually empty.

"What?" I said to myself. "There's barely anypony in there!"

But the evidence would have suggested that the palace entrances would have been guarded. Why, then, was there next to nopony in that building?

I glanced back over my shoulder at the other soldiers. "The place is virtually empty," I said. "Have they abandoned their posts?"

They looked at me, equally surprised. "Beats me," said a soldier. "Shall we take it anyway? We have to retake the city anyway, so we might as well push forward."

So we entered, the soldiers sweeping the room as they did with careful checks of the terrain and weapons at the ready. The room was soon full of soldiers, and next to nothing else. I noticed, with disdain, that some of my items from down here had been moved. My chalkboard with my flight calculations was nowhere to be seen, and the turbofan was completely gone that I used to simulate flight patterns and try different wing patterns. That sucked.

We the found the single soldier still on his post, but he looked over to acknowledge us. "Rather a lot of soldiers to capture one of us, don't you think?" he said.

"Surrender to us," I said. "We're hear to liberate this land. I can promise you that you will be processed and treated fairly."

The stallion put his hooves up. "Fine," he said. "Gulfstream's regime brought me nothing anyway. I was ordered to stay here by my unit to wait for the rescuers."

"Wait, where are the rest of them?" a soldier asked, confused.

"They defected after they heard the broadcast," the soldier continued. "They're probably assisting with the offensive in the main streets as we speak. Princess Pipp sure knows how to deliver an inspiring speech, eh?"

He moved his phone, which was sitting on a desk, and a speech was playing from a broadcast room.

"You have suffered under tyranny and oppression for long enough! It is time for the light of hope and peace to return! We are here to free you from Gulfstream's terror! So rise up, and help us overthrow him!"

I nodded. "Sure was enough to get us fired up. I somehow doubted that was the full speech, but Pipp had always been way better at public speaking than me."

The soldier brought up a display. "This is good news for you guys. We've mostly defected, as shown on this board. Most units have switched sides, and only Gulfstream's most fanatical followers remain fighting for him. I have no clue what's going on in other parts of Zephyr Heights, but it's probably the same sort of story."

It reminded me of the miracle that Opwinden had pulled off all that time ago. Our very presence was inspiring the ponies of the city to rise up and overthrow a dictator!

And data suggested that the palace was slowly being retaken. "We'll be home by Wishentine at this rate," I said.

Suddenly, a hail of gunfire rang out from an upper balcony. The balcony began to be flooded with troops in dark uniforms, large helmets, and gas masks.

"Suppressing fire! Kill the half breeds!" shouted one.

We dashed for cover as more of these soldiers poured into the hanger. I dragged a soldier into cover as the firefight began to rage.

Brilliant. It wasn't enough to be up against an insane general. He had legions of fanatical followers sweeping towards us. I can see why they left this out of the movie, because we were basically fighting the pony equivalent of the SS.

A hail of explosive machine gun fire echoed from an upper level. Some sort of belt fed weapon was laying down terrifying levels of fire that was ripping through objects. Were they using explosive bullets or something?

"The princess is among them!" shouted one of the soldiers. "Suppressing fire!"

Grenades began to fly through the air as we tried to get some shots off to take them out, but the fire was far more than what we could put down. "Heavy weapons fire on that column!" I shouted.

One soldier nodded, and tossed a grenade forward to hit a column. Unfortunately, the explosion did little but to scorch the paintwork.

More heavy fire was coming from an upper level, which was making movement difficult. I grabbed a weapon from a dead soldier and aimed it before firing. I managed to get one or two, before dropping back down as something slammed into my helmet.

"Target neutralised!"

"Negative! Princess Zipp is still functioning!"

Their commander began barking new orders. "Exterminate them! Flood the Chamber! Typhoon Protocol!"

Typhoon Protocol? What could that mean?

I looked around and suddenly saw canisters dropping from the ceiling and slamming into the floor. Was this what I thought it was?

Without hesitating I pulled the gas mask I'd collected from the supply dump onto my face. It had to be a snug fit or else I'd be inhaling nasty chemicals.

It was on just in time as canisters began to explode. I covered my mouth as best I could even with the gas mask on as the room began to flood with smoke. Other soldiers were not so lucky. Many were coughing, tears streaming from their eyes, rendering them unable to see.

Oh. Tear gas. It could've been worse. The canisters dropping from the ceiling certainly made me think of something far worse.

We then heard another voice. My display buzzed, and a single message played over it.

THE TRAITOR IS DEAD.

Next to it was an image of Gulfstream's dead body. Had he gone the Hitler route and taken his own life or gone down fighting?

It didn't matter. I leaned up. "Your leader is dead!" I shouted. "Surrender now! You have nothing to fight for!"

The fire continued from above and the corridors, so we still had no chance of moving forward. There was no possibility of surrender now.

These guys intended to fight to the death.

"Fix bayonets!"

Suddenly, my radio lit up with confused and garbled messages.

"Zipp, get to co-

"-That insane fool! He actually did it!"

"Where are the -es-ru-- co--s?"

What was that all about?

My display abruptly changed from the normal readings to the new warning.

STRATEGIC LAUNCH DETECTED.

I looked behind me and suddenly saw several long shapes streaking into the sky from hidden locations.

My heart was filled with fear. I knew what was coming next.

Gulfstream had carried out his threat. He'd actually gone and done it.

He'd initiated a nuclear missile launch.

"Zipp?" said a voice over the radio.

"Mom?" I said.

"Zipp, get to the nuclear shelter under the palace now," mom said. "We'll try and get these things disabled!"

"But mom, we-"

"NO ARGUING! Just do as you're told! I cannot bear to lose you again!"

I sighed. "Understood." I then closed the radio as I had an idea.

Fire intensified as soldiers began to pour forward from the defenses. "They're rushing us through the smoke!" shouted one soldier.

As the soldiers charged into our position, bayonets slamming into soldiers, I fired at extremely close range, taking one out. At this range it was basically impossible to miss.

But our depleted numbers from the gas was making it harder to fight. Reinforcements began to arrive from the battlefield, and it was then I had another idea. If I moved quickly, I could catch up to at least some of the missiles and destroy them!

All I needed was something further back.

"I need you guys to cover me!" I shouted. "I need to get back to the airbase and grab an aircraft!"

"Copy that!" shouted another soldier, as our numbers finally began to have some effect on the enemy. Leaving cover wasn't the smart thing to do, huh? Unless they planned to die in battle...

I broke from position as that blasted machine gun opened up once more. I dashed past the soldier with the rocket launcher as he fired on the position, and I dashed out of the doors.

What I saw above me horrified me. The skies were filling with missiles, all streaking across the planet. I didn't know for certain how far apart all the places were, but given a missile typically flies at several times the speed of sound, I probably didn't have long.

No doubt the unicorns and earth ponies have also fired as well. Air raid sirens blared across the city as ponies ran for shelter, to hide from the worst of the projectived blasts.

I had since arrived at the airbase, and hunted through the base for the equipment I needed. Before long, I'd found a flight suit and a helmet, plus the gear needed for flight.

I dashed across the airfield, seeing loyalist fighter squadrons getting ready for takeoff. One of them assumed I was simply a regular soldier, so directed me to a fighter.

I ran up the stairs and dived into the cockpit. No going back now.

Author's Note

We rejoin Zipp in the hangar, with the heroes suddenly finding themselves in contact with Gulfstream's most fanatical supporters. As Zipp notes, the unit they face here is modelled on the SS, the most fanatical followers of Adolf Hitler. As a result of their reputation, the word 'stormtrooper' carries an inherently negative connotation- as a result, George Lucas drew heavily on Nazi imagery and equipment when developing the Galactic Empire in Star Wars.

The battle itself is modelled on the battle for the Reichstag, one of the last major engagements of WW2. The Reichstag was a notable local monument, and as such the USSR wanted to seize it for propaganda reasons; this is where the famous photo of the Hammer and Sickle flying over Berlin was taken.

Today, this building is home to the Bundestag, Germany's main legislature.

To clear it up; the canisters dropping from the ceiling is not intended as a reference to The Final Solution. Chemical weapons were often delivered by canister in both WW2 and the Cold War, with the more familiar image of chemical weapons being sprayed from helicopters being a distinctly Vietnam phenomenon.

And lastly... well, the crazed stallion did it. Can Zipp help save the day?

Mare and Machine and Nothing There Inbetween

Once I was in the cockpit, I slammed the cockpit canopy shut and pulled my helmet on, before slipping the breathing mask over my face and linking it to the helmet plates. Once I had succesfully completed that ask, I plugged the link cable into the oxygen receiver and waited for it to start flowing.

Moments later, I looked over to a member of ground crew, who nodded. I nodded back, indicating 'clear to go'. The figure on the ground nodded, and turned a switch on a device. Moments later, the electrical systems onboard the aircraft began to flicker into life. Switches activated and dials turned, followed by electronic displays firing up and displaying a random assortment of numbers before switching back to zero. Moments after that, I noticed other displays in the cockpit start to light up. This machine was slowly coming to life.

A loud whirring noise confirmed the engine fuel pump was now running. Handily, they'd stored these aircraft fully fuelled, so that at least made my job easier.

Moments later, beeping sounded to inform me that I was cleared to check flaps. I moved the stick back and forth to check the control surfaces were moving properly. Clearly years of playing flight simulators had paid off on that front.

I then glanced to the displays again and saw the fuel pump was finished with priming the engines. I glanced about and found a red box marked ENGINE START. I flipped the switch up, and punched the button underneath.

With a loud roar, both of the jet's engines suddenly roared into life, twin jets forming behind the two aircraft. This felt fantastic. This had always been something I wanted to do, and now I had finally gotten a chance to do it. Admittedly, I jad never thought I'd do it for the first time as a pony, but there you go. Life often turns in weird directions.

I was directed forward by the ground crew, who sent me towards the runway. I nodded, and waited for them to drop back before I pushed the throttle forward. The engines responded almost immediately, and I pushed the aircraft onto the tarmac and turned it to the left, before taking another turn to the right.

"Viper One, this is tower, you are Cleared for Takeoff. Good hunting, over."

"Towe, this is Viper One, understood and confirm. Out." I looked down and pushed the engines to full power. As we thundered down the runway, you can probably guess what was playing in my head as the aircraft throttled up to maximum speed.

Must say, having a runway at such a high altitude was certainly a good idea, as the jet didn't need to do much climbing. As the end of the runway approached, I glanced down. "V1."

I was up to the point of no return, and already the acceleration was making it feel like my eyes were being pushed back. Then again, a military aircraft would probably be able to take off faster than an airliner.

"Rotate."

I pulled the stick back, and with a lurch the jet was off the ground and climbing into the sky. I tried to set a level climb angle to avoid stalling the aircraft, but that was less of an issue as the engines on this thing were pretty powerful.

As I looked around, I realised I had technically achieved my objective from all this time. I was flying.

Admittedly, it wasn't with my own wings, which were neatly tucked behind me, but I was in the air, in a sort of pegasus. After all, a plane is basically a metal pegasus.

Before I could continue reflecting, the cockpit began beeping again, and I got a missile lock tone.

"What the?"

I punched flares and turned the jet as fast as I could just to see another aircraft fly past. "We got bogies!"

I began to climb to try and avoid him, but the aircraft chasing was moving at similar speeds and climbing at a similar rate. My display once again was lit up by a missile lock tone.

"Oh shit. Diving!"

I pushed the stick down and put the aircraft into a dive. I really could have done without this today.

Suddenly, the radio buzzed. "Zipp? You there?"

"Yeah?" I said.

"Break off attack. Let the veterans handle this."

As I looked back, I suddenly saw five aircraft roar past. "Is that you?"

"I got the gang back together," dad replied. "We'll deal with the remaining fighters, you intercept that missile."

Dad had mentioned he was a former fighter pilot. Clearly this was in the blood.

"Understood. Be careful, OK?"

"Of course. It's generally considered bad luck to die for your country twice."

I pulled away from the ongoing furball and climbed into the sky to try and find that missile. Clearly shooting it down would be a tall order, but I had to do it, or else the world would be a worse place.

I punched the engines to maximum power and rolled the aircraft forward to chase down the enemy. I adjusted the angle of approach as I needed to be climbing to land the best attack. If I was lucky the missile was still climbing and was yet to exit the atmosphere.

I continued to climb, higher and higher. I had to wonder what this thing's service ceiling was, but hopefully locking the target wouldn't be too difficult at these speeds.

Just then, it appeared on my display. It was still climbing, and still gaining speed. I formed up underneath it and began to shoot up vertically, my speed beginning to fluctuate at I caught up to the missile.

I was moving in right underneath the engine rocket trail. This was the most vulnerable part of the construct, and if this was damaged the warhead would fall to earth, unable to detonate.

The lock tone engaged, and I flicked switches to ready to fire. I had to get close to ensure the missiles didn't get melted by the engines, so I held my breath.

Then, the flames appeared in front of me. I was getting too close!

I punched both fire switches, and four long range missiles were fired off. I hit the speed brakes and then turned the jet downwards, diving towards the ground.

There was a moment of silence as my senses returned, but then my software confirmed that the missiles had impacted. Explosions above me confirmed the missiles had hit the target, so... I'd actually done it.

I pushed the nose down further to return to a more normal flight level, and then radioed base. "Tower, this is Viper 1. Target is destroyed. Returning to base."

Once I had returned to the palace, it turned out that we had somehow achieved a miracle.

Not only were all of us still alive, but we'd somehow averted global disaster. Mom and her team had succeeded in detonating the missiles that had been launched, and the other tribes had succeeded in cancelling their own missiles, so we had narrowly succeeded in averting the end of the world.

Mom then looked at me with a serious look. "Zipp, why are you in a pilot's uniform?"

Oh snap. I was in trouble now. "Well, uhh, you see now, I-"

Dad then stepped forward. "Zipp answered the call. She, without any prompting, took a fighter jet and shot down one of the missiles. Of course, I did a bit of dogfighting myself, but apart from that it all went pretty well. Bandits splashed, driven off with two turns of a greased watermelon. The blighters snitched a parcel sausage-end and went goose over stump frogside."

I just glanced at mom with a confused look, and she looked back just as confused. I turned my attention to dad. "I don't mean to be rude... but I didn't understand a word of that."

Dad looked stunned. "Really? I thought you all spoke Ponish in here?"

Mom then raised some more concerns to us. "The news isn't all good, I'm afraid. Gulfstream made a right mess of the launch system for the missiles, and as a result we can't access the rest of the arsenal. We're still working on getting that fixed as we speak, but we also found something a bit more worrying."

She led us over to a computer terminal, and showed something. "It shows here that, shortly before we breached the palace, Gulfstream sent out a distress call to somepony or other. But I cannot figure out precisely who based on this. I can only assume he had an ally in this world somewhere against whom we are to fight at this rate."

I looked at the words on the display. Jinkies? That's an odd word, but I-

Wait. Oh Faust no. Not him. No no no no no no NO!

Mom noticed my apparent distress. "What's wrong, Zipp?"

"How can he be here?" I squeaked, my voice cracking under the strain.

Just then, the screens lit up, and the last face I had wanted to see in G5 Equestria appeared upon it.

Author's Note

Well, hello, and welcome to the last chapter in this series for a bit. For this chapter, I decided to take a bit of inspiration from aviation movies, particularly Top Gun (1986). I also inserted references to other media into proceedings for you to spot.

The missile takedown is based on a level in the 2011 game Ace Combat: Assault Horizon, where the player takes out an ICBM in the same manner.

As for the finale... you probably know who has appeared in that screen, but I won't spoil anything.

The Nightmare from the Other Side

I stood there in absolute shock as that face, that horrible face, filled up the monitor. A face which consisted primarily of heterochromic eyes staring out of the screen, a smug smile filling up the bottom half of the display, and a distinct aura of madness that composed his emotions. That, and a rather familiar rugby shirt, meant that I knew all too well who this figure was.

Back in the human world, anypony (or anybody, I guess) who moved at all in internet circles would have been familiar with a person called Chris Chan. He was a person from a place called Virginia in the United States, who was mainly known for his bizarre hijinks on the internet and his frequent run ins with law enforcement, not to mention his incredibly childish nature and complete lack of fashion sense. If the comparison makes sense, imagine Wallace from Wallace & Gromit but with none of the inventing skills or the friendliness.

Oh? What's Wallace & Gromit, I hear you ask? Sorry, I'll explain later. One downside of being formerly British is forgetting what cultural references people may get. As I say, I'll explain later.

Most recently, Chris had been leading a one man crusade against the most recent version of My Little Pony, specifically the world that me and my friends now inhabit. Nopony could truly understand what about it made him so irrationally angry to the point he punched holes in the walls of his bathroom and uploaded angry rants onto the internet. He then got rather abruptly packed off to jail for unrelated charges, so he fell silent for a while (and had indeed still been silent when I'd been transported to Equestria all that time ago).

I looked to one side, and saw a look of recognition in Sunny and Izzy's faces- the lack of surprise in their eyes was telling. Had they run into this guy before? I would have to ask them about it.

Suddenly, the figure on the screen began to speak. And it was not nice to listen to. "Well, hello there, everybody. I'd like to say it's nice to see you. But it isn't."

Urgh! Listening to that voice again with its nasally tones and loud pitch really made my ears bleed. I'd rather listen to nails being dragged down a chalkboard. "What are you doing here, Chris?" I asked.

"Well, that's easy," Chris smirked. His shit eating grin was really starting to irk me. "I arrived here with the help of the Nova Charm that an ally snuck into the prison. Getting things in through letters was absurdly easy- after all, who would send dangerous things to a madman?"

Nova Charm? What was he talking about? I was hopelessly confused. "Sorry, what?"

"I wouldn't be surprised that you don't understand what I'm talking about, given your inferior intellect," Chris said. "But then again, I'm not too surprised the Rainbow Dash copy wouldn't understand anything. Nor any of you demons in disguise, sent on behalf of Babylon to conquer our world."

"You take that back!" Pipp shouted. "Zipp had more talent in one hoof than you have in your whole body!"

"Given your creative process just consists of smashing random properties together and hoping nopony will notice," Hitch added. His look of realisation suggested he also had encountered this guy.

I noticed that Chris' facade seemed to have cracked for a moment, as he launched off into a rant. "MY WORKS ARE PARODIES! PARODIES! THAT MEANS THEY ARE LEGALLY DISTINCT! ROSECHU WEARS A DIFFERENT COLOURED DRESS TO AMY ROSE AND DOESN'T HAVE FOREHEAD SPINES! AND AMY ROSE DOESN'T HAVE A TAIL!"

Dad looked in confusion. "What the Feathers is he blabbering on about?"

"I'll explain later," I said. "Look, what do you want?"

"What did we ever do to you, Chris?" Izzy asked.

"You already know that, Diet Pinkie Pie," Chris said. The flash of anger on Izzy's face suggested this was something of a bezerk button for her. "Your very world existing is an insult and a danger to the entire future of humanity. For it was your world being revealed to us that undermined the Dimensions and brought about the invasion."

I saw Sunny shake her head. "Such a self entitled sack of shit," she said. "Stop talking in riddles and say what you mean!"

"Sure thing," Chris smiled. "Your movie being released was the start of a propaganda move to legitimise the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. This is proven by the license granted in 2021, Brian Goldner's death later that year, and the removal of vodka from grocery store shelves."

I had to stop for a moment to process the sheer amount of stupid I had just heard. "Chris, those are all wholly unrelated things, not to mention the war in Ukraine began seven years before A New Generation came out," I said. "Besides, if Hasbro was colluding with the Russian state, wouldn't America have slapped sanctions on them?"

Chris seemed to be annoyed that I'd dismantled his logic. "You won't be so smart with your mouth once we're done here," he said. "I will be able to sit here whilst you and your idiot friends burn in the blue cleansing flames of Hell."

This seemed to disturb Misty, who stepped backwards to generate more space between her and the screen.

"And don't fear, I intend to deal with Opaline as well," Chris said. "But I really must thank you all for your hard work over the last few days. I've been playing all of you like a fiddle, and merrily you have all danced to my tune."

"Played?" Mom ventured. "Whatever could you be talking about?"

"That general you just killed? I supplied him with the hardware he needed to conduct his little coup, and this distracted you. Once your three tribes were at each others throats, you fired nuclear missiles at one another- and with that out of the way there is nothing to threaten my invasion fleet."

Wait. Chris had used us to do his dirty work?

Before I could speak, Mom spoke again. "You monster. You won't get away with this!"

"Dial it back before you have a heart attack, you old B Dog."

"HOW DARE YOU-!"

"None of you can challenge me. Watch as my power in this world rises, unchallenged!"

Suddenly, there was a blast of light, and Izzy looked scared. "Guys? My sparkle's picking up something bad! It's pretty dark!"

We looked into the sky, and suddenly a vast fleet of saucer shaped craft had appeared in the skies over our world. More and more of them appeared in bright flashes of light as they slowly blotted out the sun.

"The dimensions are a handy place for hiding those forces you want hidden," Chris said. "You see, I was testing your ingenuity, your skill, when I attacked in my walkers and mechs. Not to mention the dreamscape, though that seems not to have worked." He smiled. "Yes, Sunny, I sent those nightmares. Such a shame that the Ancient One kept interrupting them and interfering with my plans. If she just stopped resurrecting the ponies my life would be so much easier!"

He finally stopped pontificating. "Now, your world will be destroyed, scoured of life- and nobody can stop me. I really must thank you for your efforts in helping me do this. NOW GO, MY MINIONS! DROWN THEM IN THE FLAMES, THE CLEANSING BLUE FLAMES!"

The craft we could see suddenly started flying in all sorts of directions, seemingly ordered to go to different places.

"Staltenburg's reporting large numbers of craft overhead!" shouted a soldier.

"Ghastly Gorge is under attack! Fighters have been scrambled!"

Another soldier looked at a display. "It's not just us," he said. "These craft are targeting unicorn and earth pony settlements as well!"

"Uhh, guys, what are we gonna do?" Misty asked.

"How can we fight back?" Sprout asked. "This isn't what I had in mind at all!"

I slumped on my back hooves. I knew I'd been brought here by a special purpose for a special reason- after all, nothing happens for no reason- but surely that purpose can't have been to mess everything up! This was all going so horribly, horribly wrong.

Just then, I heard a message playing in my mind. "Never lose hope, my Little Pony," said a voice. "This may seem dire, but things will be well."

I got up and looked as the fleet continued to move. "We need to fight back," I said.

"How?" Hitch asked. "Where are we going to get the resources from to fight back? We've exhausted our own strength retaking Zephyr Heights!"

"It's better than doing nothing!" I said. "Mom, any thoughts?"

Mom thought for a moment, then had an idea. "We retook Zephyr Heights working together. Therefore, we need to do the same here!"

But it seemed hard. The enemy ships were many, and our numbers few. It truly seemed an insurmountable obstacle.

But then again, so did Nazi Germany in 1940.

Author's Note

Welcome back, and I am proud to showcase the newest chapter of Rebirth of Magic: Zipping It! I am aware this is a bit late, but unfortunately life-related things got a bit in the way.

There are numerous Chris Chan references in this chapter, many of them pertaining to his nonsensical crusade against MLP G5. In one video, it was revealed that there were sizable dents in the wall of his bathroom, which observers quickly speculated were the result of Chris punching it out of anger for G5. This is also suggested in the last video he uploaded before his arrest, in which he is noticably angrier than in videos uploaded earlier in 2021:

Honestly, it is scary to see a man get this angry over a kid's cartoon.

The other major references relate to a video he released in February 2024, after a spate of blocking voice actors involved in MLP G5 (including Vanessa Hudgens, whom he had previously had a crush on- presumably voicing Sunny was too much of a betrayal). In the video, he seriously posits that MLP G5 was the first stage of a media blitz by Russia to legitimise their invasion of Ukraine, drawing connections between wholly unrelated events in a manner not disimilar to a conspirary theorist. This argument, of course, makes no sense whatsoever to anybody who thinks about it for more than two seconds. Chris would also directly state that the MLP G5 characters would be sent directly to Hell. Given that Chris believes that Sunny and her friends actually exist in a parallel reality, this constitutes a death threat.

Others are more subtle. B-Dog is an insult he uses against women he dislikes (notably an administrator at the community college he went to when she tried to stop him breaking college rules), whilst the Rosechu rant was a common one when he was trying to prove that he hadn't simply ripped off Amy Rose when creating the character.

But now the enemy are in their world! How will Zipp and her friends get out of this one?

Revelations

It wasn't hard to feel awful in the circumstances. As I looked out of that window, I felt a strong sense of fear for the unknown. We appeared to be staring down the gullet of a horror too great to comprehend, a threat built solely on spite and hatred.

Chris didn't want our resources, nor was he acting to protect himself or his own lands or people. He was acting purely out of spite. He was doing this entirely because we existed and our existance offended him.

And therein lay the problem. Most normal people would just have ignored media they don't like and just got on with their lives. I know I do. But Chris, oh no, he seems to think every little thing that he doesn't like is a slight against him personally, proof of a grand conspirary to ruin his life and make him unhappy. Good grief. He never really grew out of having the mind of a small child, did he?

I was so stuck in my own thoughts I didn't hear mom approaching from behind, and I nearly jumped when she spoke. "Zipp?"

I turned around quickly. "Oh, err, hey mom!"

Mom looked at me calmly, and with a look that conveyed motherly affection (well, she was my mom, so of course she'd know how to do that). "I can tell something's wrong."

I sighed, figuring it would just be easier to spill the beans than have to have my thoughts pried out of me. "What a mess this is... and I can't help but feel responsible somehow."

"Dear, you couldn't possibly have known about this Chris fellow. I shall see to it this ruffian is brought to justice, not to mention taught to speak proper English."

I sighed again. "I know. But if I'd never launched the raid on the crystal in your crown Gulfstream would never have risen to power, and we wouldn't be in this mess!"

Mom pulled me into a hug. "Zipp, you shouldn't be too hard on yourself," she said. "I failed to spot the red flags myself, and my time here has taught me something important- even if you make mistakes, you still have a chance to learn from them and earn your happy ending. Keep moving forward, and ensure that the world can still be a better place."

I nodded. "Thanks, mom."

"I'll always be here if you need support, dear," mom said, before turning around. "My fellow ponies, it appears that we are on a war footing. As such, things need to change around here. Our first act must be to ensure we all stand together- after all, in the face of enemies many foes become friends."

As we were discussing what to do next, I suddenly noticed something else out of the window and up in the sky. Chris' craft had flown off, and were travelling across the planet. But I spotted one of them had something interesting written on the side.

TWILIGHT SPARKLE IS A TRAITOR TO PONYKIND. FUTURE EPISODE IS FUTURE TENSE PREMATURE.

That's some terrible English, I thought to myself. But before I could comment on it further, I was suddenly pulled into a bright light so intense I had to shield my eyes.

When the light subsided, I was able to lower my foreleg and look around. I suddenly realised that I was back in the dreamscape I had visited once or twice before, with the familiar clouds and stars stretching away into infinity. My jaw dropped at seeing the beauty of it all once more.

"Hello, Zipp."

I turned upon hearing the voice. The voice I had heard in the dreamscape and back in Nottingham all those moons ago. It was comforting, and yet somehow familiar. And I don't mean familiar in the sense that I'd heard it in the dreamscape. Instead, I knew it from somewhere before all of this had happened.

"Who are you?" I asked.

A bright light appeared before me, the same light that had previously heralded this voice. "Look forth, and all shall be revealed," said the voice once more, before the light began to shift.

As it did so, a figure began to emerge from the light, and my jaw dropped.

The figure standing before me was one that any brony would recognise. She was an alicorn who towered over me, and had a lavender coat and enormous purple wings. Her chest had a golden piece of armour on it, and she wore four golden horseshoes. She also had an enormous flowing dark blue mane and tail, both interspersed with purple and pink strands. Her purple eyes were filled with warmth and gentleness, and she smiled at me.

"Hello, Zipp," she said. "I imagine you weren't expecting to see me here."

"Princess Twilight?!" I said, in shock, and as quickly as I could bowed. "I- I am not worthy to be in-"

"Rise, Zipp," Twilight said. "There is no need for such formality here. And you are more than worthy to be here. You have courage and the skills to stand up for your friends, not to mention the bravery you have shown in the face of overwhelming odds. You have more than earned the title of princess, Zipp- and that's partly why I chose you."

I blinked. "Twilight, you're not making a whole lot of sense," I said. "Could you explain?"

Twilight sighed, as a screen came up in front of her. "This was a series of events I anticipated when observing the multiverse," she said sadly. "Every world deserves the fundamental right to exist, but sadly some people don't appreciate that. And one of them was the Chris person you have been running into. He claims to be a brony, but knows little of the ways of Harmony and regards himself as the most important being in existence, considering the G5 World to be a personal slight against him."

"Given he claims to be a deity," I noted. "But how does this connect to us?"

"Chris found a way to travel to the G5 world, and intended to destroy it. But there was a prophecy that when the darkness seemed greatest, eight heroes would rise up and restore the light. Given that ponykind was already divided thanks to their lack of empathy, Chris thought his work would be easy, so he set about eliminating those who posed the greatest threat to him. Including the original Zipp."

The screen then changed again to show a place I hadn't been in a very long time, and in all likelihood will never see again- Wollaton Park, where my adventures began.

Just then, I saw a familiar figure suddenly get dropped into the scene- a Zipp Storm, no less. "Hello? Hello? Is anypony there?" she called. She seemed lost, scared, confused, lost in an alien environment never meant for her.

"You're where nobody can save you," said a voice, which I recognised immediately as Chris. "This is for replacing the greatest TV show of all time, you stupid cow."

Before Zipp could react, Chris charged at her and slammed her into the floor. She flailed and tried to get him off her, but he simply seemed to be too powerful.

"SOMEPONY HELP ME! PLEASE!"

"Nobody is here to save you, Zipp," Chris smiled evilly. "As far as they're concerned, you're a character in a kid's cartoon."

He then drew what appeared to be a knife, and you don't exactly need to guess what he did with it. It was very bloody and messy, and a carcass was left afterwards. Thank Faust no kids could see down there- I could imagine seeing the bloodied remains of a beloved character would be very traumatic.

Chris then picked the body up and dragged it away with him. "Let's dump you in the lake," he said, smiling cruelly. "That way, nobody will ever find you. One down, seven to go."

However, as Chris would walk away, gloating about his victory, something began to happen with the feathers left behind. They started to glow, and were surrounded by an enchanted energy before falling to the floor.

Twilight looked to me. "The original Zipp was gone... but I knew that somebody equally pure of heart was coming. One who loved the G5 World, and as such would be able to fit in with no difficulty. So I enchanted the feathers, and I believe you know the rest."

I stood there, thinking this over as I did so. Twilight had not only been watching us, this was part of a grand plan to save the world? Talk about intense.

And it wasn't random chance that I found those feathers either. I had somehow been fated to become Zipp, it seemed, and I was seemingly the only one left.

"Yeah," I said. "Talk about a big destiny. But what are we going to do? How can we take on Chris?"

"The exact same way we solved problems," Twilight said. "Through friendship and teamwork. Now go, My Little Pony. Adventure awaits!"

Author's Note

Well, that was quite a reveal, wasn't it! Now you know who the voice was in all of those transformations- none other than Princess Twilight herself. Given that a popular plot hook of G4 TF stories was Celestia somehow being involved in the protagonist's journey, I thought it only fitting to reference that convention albeit with Twilight (Celestia being implied to be long dead in G5).

And so, our heroes know their purpose. Onwards to the next chapter!

Rallying the Troops

As the bright light of the dreamscape faded, I found myself standing back in the throne room, looking about me. "Huh? What happened?"

I noticed my fellows all seemed to be equally dazed and confused, and as they regained their composure from their experience we all tried to process what we had just seen.

"Talk about a weight on our shoulders, huh?" Sunny said, the first of us to speak after that moment.

"Speak for yourself," Izzy said. "I feel nothing on mine!"

"Not what the phrase means, Izzy," Sunny replied, before glancing over to me. "Zipp, what did you see?"

"I finally know who brought us here," I said, focusing on my friends and periodically glancing to other ponies in the room. "I met Princess Twilight in there. She told me it was our destiny to stop Chris, and that she brought us here to stop him when he kept killing the originals." I paused, aware of just how crazy that sounded when spoken out loud. "We've been brought here to defeat him, and avenge those he has destroyed."

Sunny scratched the underside of her chin with her hoof. "That suggests Twilight knows how to send emails."

Hitch looked over in confusion. "That's a strange non sequitur."

"I can't see any hedges that need trimming," Misty chimed in, helpfully.

"Latin," Hitch explained. "It means 'it does not follow.' Often used to denote a line of reasoning that doesn't make much sense. In this case, I'm not sure how Sunny got from stopping Chris to Twilight sending emails."

"The inciting incident for me was being sent an email," Sunny explained quickly. "That was after I'd bought the badges you see on the main strap of my bag."

There was a moment of silence, before Misty spoke. "Interesting."

"Anyway," I said, "We need to be ready to fight. There's no way we can take Chris on with just our own strength. We need allies, support, help even."

Pipp looked over. "I got, like, totally the best idea we could have for getting this show rolling. How about we get the other tribes onboard!"

"This was exactly why I tried to get the earth ponies to rearm!" Sprout said. "With their added strength and the combined firepower of all three tribes, we should be able to send Chris packing!"

"I applaud your enthusiasm," mom said, interjecting once again, "but diplomatically this will be very challenging. Our three tribes have rather been locked in a state of cold war for the last thousand years, and undoing all of that cannot be done overnight."

"Mom, we have to try-" I began.

"I never said I wasn't going to. I am just warning you not to expect instant results. Though given that Alphabittle and his cohorts owe us one that should make things a lot easier."

Sunny trotted to the centre of the room and looked back. "Looks like it's our turn to step up to the plate, just as Twilight and her friends did a thousand years ago. Let's go!"

And so, the process began. Owing to the centuries of tension, we rapidly figured out it would probably be best if we each addressed our own tribe- pegasi would hardly react well to a unicorn or an earth pony lecturing them, and I can hardly imagine the unicorns or the earth ponies would react well to a pegasus doing the same to them. Or an earth pony to a unicorn. Or-

You get the idea.

Each of us largely went our separate ways in the ensuing time. Myself, mom, and Pipp remained in Zephyr Heights to rally the troops and get the populace ready, whilst mom was constantly on the phone to the earth pony President and the unicorn General Secretary to try and apply some soft power in the scenario.

Sunny and Hitch headed back to Maretime Bay. We decided it would be best for Sunny to take the crystals with her, given we already knew about how they fitted together and that they could be placed in the lighthouse. This would be done when the time came for them to be put together. But not now, as we didn't want to reveal our plan to Chris just yet. Sprout, it seems, headed for Fillydelphia, but don't quote me on that- my memory of where they said they'd go is a bit hazy.

Izzy and Misty went to Bridlewood, back with Alphabittle. I can only assume he was still unaware that Sprout had the hots for his daughter- boy would I not want to be around when he learned about that one. Their job was to rally the unicorns for the incoming war and get their military back into shape. They had a tough job given they hadn't fought a proper war in a pretty long time.

And so what were me and Pipp doing, I hear you ask? Well, Pipp was mostly occupied with drumming up support over social media. Having a sister who has her hoof on the pulse of the community is quite handy, and let's just say Pipp is pretty skilled at getting ponies to act in certain ways. Though, of course, our cause was altruistic, as we were wanting to save the world rather than go on some jingoistic joyride through somepony else's country. The looming threat made getting ponies onboard easier than expected to say the least.

Which, I guess, brings us on to me. As Heir Apparent I had the important task of trying to rally up patriotism in the face of mom being a bit busy (though she fully planned to address the populace at some point). I guess it was good practice for what was to come in the time when I advance to the throne. Not that I particularly want to think about that, of course."

So, it was a rather wet day when I made my first address to the ponies of the Pegasus Empire. I was in one of the rooms of state where the Wishentine Address was traditionally delivered from, and TV cameras had been set up to record the event and broadcast it to the nation.

"Boy am I nervous," I said, quietly to myself.

Thankfully, Pipp was in the room to give moral support. "Just imagine you're talking to me," she said, with a smile. "I always imagine I'm speaking to somepony I know when I'm delivering an address or talking on social media- as I sorta am!"

"That's actually pretty helpful," I said.

"If it helps, think of speaking to somepony, not at somepony."

I nodded.

"We're live shortly," said a ZBS camera operator.

I breathed in as a short snippet of the ZBS jingle played.

"And now, Her Royal Highness Princess Zephyrina addresses the nation on behalf of Her Majesty Queen Haven."

I took a deep breath. Here we go. Here's hoping these public speaking classes in secondary school pay off.

"My fellow citizens," I said, trying to focus on Pipp. "I address you this morning not as a Princess, not as a member of the Royal Family, but as a fellow pony. As you know, we are facing dark times ahead. The enemy is about us, and his strength may seem great.

"But there were other times we faced similar struggles. A thousand years ago, Twilight Sparkle and her friends faced similar obstacles- but in the face of the impossible they triumphed over the danger that evil faced to their homeland. And as I gaze upon the calender, I notice that we are coming up on the anniversary of the Battle of Thunder Bay, the day we celebrate our Independence and the birth of our nation.

"Once again, we find ourselves fighting for our freedom. We are not only fighting against tyranny, evil, and oppression. We are fighting for the right to live, to love, to stand on our own four hooves. What we are fighting for are not merely abstract concepts. We are fighting for the very right to exist, against those who would deny us those freedoms."

I took a deep breath, knowing where this speech was leading me. "And so, when we emerge victorious over those who would destroy us, I say to you this day will no longer be a pegasus holiday, but a day when all of ponykind- yes, all of us!- stood up and cried out in one voice 'we will not go quietly into the night! We are going to live on! We are going to survive!'"

"We are only as strong as the links that bind us! So help us, and we can truly celebrate our Independence Day!"

As I finished my speech, I noticed Pipp turn her screen round to show the faces of people viewing. There was cheering from the crowd, and the ponies were clearly hyped up by my words.

"Nice job, sis," Pipp smiled. "I think you've rallied them."

I felt relieved. For a first speech, that actually wasn't too bad.

Let's hope we could keep up the fight.

Author's Note

Hello, and welcome to another chapter! Following the revelations of last chapter, we are now moving onwards into the endgame and the moves against Chris and his armada.

The concluding speech will be familiar to anybody familiar with movies; it's heavily inspired by the one from Independence Day (the 1996 film).

Sixty to One, Facing the Gun

Seems my speech worked, as well as the other speeches, as we were seeing results.

Rather than fall into despair and fear, ponykind seemed to rally around despite (or more likely because of) the danger that faced all of us in those trying times. It is often said that in the face of a greater enemy that enemies will become allies and fight together. That is, after all, how Imperial Equestria got started all those millenia ago when Princess Platinum, General Hurricane, and Chancellor Puddinghead set aside their differences to deal with the ongoing Windigo problem. Admittedly that did turn friendship into a survival strategy, but I'm drifting off point I suspect.

Where was I? Ah, I remember now. All three tribes had agreed to set aside their differences and contribute to the war effort, and the results seemed to be paying off. Mom had succesfully mobilised the reserves and gotten the entire pegasus military stuck into the fight, with some early engagements against Chris' armies producing promising results- not bad considering we'd been busy fighting each other before that. Chris' armies curiously seemed to mostly be formed of human soldiers combined with weaponry he got from Celestia knows where, as well as a few robotic auxiliaries. Were the humans that had joined him on the crusade as fanatical as him in their hatred of G5? Given when I arrived here G5 had quite the considerable hatedom it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if he'd recruited from those sorts of places.

We weren't the only ones getting into gear, though. The earth ponies had already had quite the rearmament campaign thanks to Sprout's efforts, and their military was well equipped to fight Chris. They had the benefit of large scale production on their side, and they launched into their part of the war well, succesfully fighting some holding actions. And that was with only a fraction of their forces, as they were yet to fully mobilise their troops.

Which leaves the unicorns. Although geographically isolated and a bit behind everypony else in terms of their technology, they had been able to join the fight to an extent. Although geographically very big, a surprising amount of their territory is empty fields, and as such any ponypower to call upon is probably a bit limited. Whoeverpony thought they'd be able to get moving quickly is a mystery to me.

Anyway, they'd had some success against Chris' ground forces, but the flying saucers he used as command craft were still proving to be a bit of a headache. Not to mention that tracking their movements was hard as they were employing heavy use of signal jammers to mask their movements. Still, the fact we were making progress was proof we would not relinquish our world without a fight. Chris had aimed to destroy us, but in a moment of supreme irony had only succeeded in bringing us back together to fight in our common interest.

Should have used that line in my speech. Bummer.

Things came to a head one evening, not long after the war had started. As was the custom, I was back in Zephyr Heights alongside mom and Pipp. As we were the Royal Family we were considered too valuable to be put anywhere near the front, and although mom and myself had experience of combat it was considered too risky. After all, if any of us died it would be quite the negative blow to morale, not to mention any combination of parent losing a child or child losing a parent or sibling losing a sibling or spouse losing a spouse.

I looked out over the main balcony and down upon the city that had become my home. Funny, that. I found myself reflecting on the fact this view isn't too different to the very first view I had of Zephyr Heights- and I don't mean through watching the film.

Even in those first terrifying moments of realising I was trapped in another world (the world of a kids movie, no less) I came to appreciate just how beautiful this place truly is, and I still held that in my heart. I looked down and saw life had, to a degree, resumed as normal after we deposed Gulfstream. The shops seemed to be reopened and some forms of normal life had come back, which was a sign of confidence.

I pushed onwards and trotted to the side a bit, looking at the sun as it dipped through the skies. Another day here nearly over, and my world was still ever changing.

"It never gets old, does it?"

I turned around to see dad looking out into the skyline. He looked very different now- amongst other things he'd have a manecut and his beard had been completely shaved off. He looked completely unrecognisable had I not seen the photos mom had been looking at.

"Yeah, pretty stunning stuff," I replied, with a weak smile.

Dad didn't seem to notice. "Even though I was born here, lived here, got married here, even had my kids here, I don't think I'll ever get bored of Zephyr Heights. It's a place I will always hold close to my heart. And even if the Pegasus Empire lasts for a further thousand years, ponies shall say this city was our finest achievement."

I must admit constructing a mountaintop city in the clouds was quite the impressive achievement, no matter how many ways you slice it. I sighed. "After all we've been through, it is nice to be back home- without other ponies hating us."

"That must have been awful to live through," dad said, his eyes sad. "But at least we are all here, reunited again, and ready to stand against the darkness. This must be what it was like to be there during the early days of our independence, not knowing who or what might move against us."

I nodded, my only reference point being the rather blatant propaganda I had seen in the city museum- a trip that now felt like it was thousands of years ago. "Hopefully we'll endure, like we did then."

"Your Royal Highnesses?" said a voice. "Your presence is hereby requested in the command centre."

"Well, let's not keep them waiting," dad said, and we set off towards the command centre.

To manage the war effort, part of the landscape underneath the palace had been converted into a series of command rooms and bunkers. The tunnels were cut deep into the rock on which Zephyr Heights stood, and as such were well suited to withstanding direct attack. They'd even been able to reuse the old airship hanger as a storage point for helicopters- I mean, those doors are huge.

We weaved our way through the tightly packed tunnels of the command centre, looking carefully at what was around us. I continued on my way as we weaved our way along, our guards providing security front and back as we marched into position. It was a bit cold and a tad dank, but that was preferable to the prison.

Oh, horseapples. I'm starting to sound like Pipp now.

Eventually, we arrived in one room which was bigger than all the others. The walls had been reinforced and lined with concrete, and all sorts of machinery had been installed. Ponies were manning consoles and running numbers, speaking into microphones to help coordinate other forces.

"Dispatch 23rd Ranger Regiment to reinforce. 47th Cloudsdale Skyjumpers en route now."

I looked around and my eyes were drawn to a central table. Set up in the middle was a circular table with a projections unit set up in the middle of said table. This was a map showing the entire continent, and it showed where pegasus military units were at the moment.

It also allowed us to keep something of an eye on Chris' movements, although the signal jamming he was employing made finding the exact locations of his command craft somewhat difficult.

"Your Royal Highnesses," said a figure, a General based on his uniform. "We are to report to you about the war effort."

"How goes it?" dad asked.

"Not great, not terrible, sir," the General replied. "So far Chris's armies are being held at bay, but that is only a small consolation. Our forces are holding their own, but they cannot hold on their own forever. At some point we will have to strike the killing blow."

"What's that?" I asked, nervously.

"Our plan is to deliver a strike team to Chris' flagship," the general said. "Tracking him down won't be easy, but we think if we can breach the craft, kill Chris, and then destroy it, it will bring his invasion to a stop. It's a risky move, but war is built on calculated gambles."

I nodded. Having played a lot of boardgames in my time I could certainly agree with that sentiment.

So, it seemed the plan was set up. Hopefully my friends would all do their bit as well.

Author's Note

Welcome to another chapter, where the war effort is underway. Some of the commentary in this chapter is based on common criticisms of G4, such as the nature of how the tribes became friends.

I also felt it fitting to bring the story back to the location it began (or as close as I could muster)-after all, many of the great works of fiction are circular narratives.

But what will happen next? Join me tomorrow for the final chapter of this block.

Rolling Thunder

Suddenly, alarms began to blare within the bunker, and the displays started to shift.

"Uh, what's happening?" I asked.

"Sounds as though there's new information being fed into the system," dad explained. "I got used to this happening during my time in the forces."

I nodded, and glanced down at the table to see if something interesting was happening. And it sure was.

"Sir! We have an update from Recon Flight 7. The flagship of Chris Chan has been spotted moving at sublight speed, direction South South East over earth pony territory!"

"Understood, updating system now." The map began to shimmer, and suddenly a huge object appeared on the map. It was large and saucer shaped, and it was moving very, very slowly.

"Estimate speed?"

"Speed estimate based on readings is 20 knots, sir. Currently proceeding alongside an invasion force."

"Calculate estimated stop point."

"Underway." Some more whirring and clicking of machines, and another screen updated with an estimated stop point. "Current projected destination is coastline, a few miles off Maretime Bay. Energy weapon detected, probably Class 9."

"Ponish, for the benefit of the non-military ponies."

"Powerful enough to cut through to the planet's core."

I think my heart skipped a beat when I heard him say 'Maretime Bay'. It looked as though Chris was going for the knockout punch and targeting those I kn-

Wait. Maretime Bay?

WHERE THE CRYSTALS ARE?!

This was really, really bad. Chris' plan no doubt was to destroy the crystals, thereby eliminating our best shot of stopping him, and then he would destroy the world!

"We have to get troops there, fast!" I said.

The General looked up. "Pardon, Ma'am?" he said. Ma'am is the correct address after first using Your Royal Highness, as he had earlier in the conversation.

"The earth ponies have something valuable which I believe could turn the tide of the war," I explained. "It includes the crystal that used to be in mom's- sorry, the Queen's- crown, and Chris is moving to destroy it to ensure we can't stop him. Do we have anything in the area?"

The General looked at his information. "We can scramble paratroopers there in about half an hour, but the fastest way to get anything there is to send fighter jets and have them perform area denial as best they can."

I nodded. "I volunteer to go with them."

"What?" dad said. "Zephyrina, you cannot be serious!"

Seems dad also did the whole 'calling me Zephyrina when surprised or annoyed' thing as well. Oh well. "I know it's risky. But the ponies Chris is threatening are my friends. An attack on one of us is an attack on us all, and seeing as he poses the greatest threat to our world since... well, forever, I think the least I can do is help undo the mess I made."

Dad looked touched by those words. "That's very noble of you, Zipp," he said. "Your mother did a superb job of raising you in my absence. General, can my fighter be prepared and scrambled?"

"Sending the orders now."

Dad looked to me. "I'd best be contacting my squadron mates. This'll be like the skirmish over Oberlon Heights!"

A short time later, we were at the airport, and several fighter aircraft were lined up on the runway, preparing to take off. Their engines hummed and they waited in line, preparing for the go order from the tower.

I was in one of them, and truth be told the heavy helmet, flight suit, and breathing mask weren't as heavy as last time. Clearly the aid of use when it comes to clothes also applies to military equipment. I checked through the final switches and displays and ensured all was good to go.

"Goldhawk Squadron, this is Tower. Sound off, over?"

"Goldhawk Leader, ready for takeoff."

"Goldhawk 2, five by five."

"Goldhawk 3, prepped and ready."

"Goldhawk 4, engines spooled, suited and booted."

"Goldhawk 5, engines primed."

That just left me. I breathed in and spoke into the microphone. "Goldhawk 6, ready for takeoff."

"All Goldhawk callsigns, confirmed prepared for takeoff. You have permission to elephant walk, launch vectors to follow."

"Thank you, tower out." Dad's voice came in over the radio again. "Now for the fun part!"

Suddenly, the engines of the other planes cycled up to full power, and before I knew what was going on the other aircraft were surging down the runway.

I had to keep up, so I punched the engine lever forward and brought the throttle up to full power. Within seconds I was barrelling down the runway at incredible speed. Good thing ours is on a cliff, huh?

"V1."

This was it. The moment of no return. We had to take off now or crash.

"Rotate!"

I pulled back on the stick, and alongside the other planes started to climb into the sky. The wheels had left the ground, and suddenly I was in the sky as the ground peeled away.

Once more, I was flying, just as the pegasi of old had once been able to do. I would be lying if I said it didn't feel amazing to be up in the sky once more, and now that we can fly again I intend to be in the air as much as I can.

Anyway, the radio cut in. "Goldhawk Squadron, form up on me, Dagger formation. Set course for Maretime Bay."

"Yes sir!" said several voices.

I followed their aircraft into position, and we were soon whizzing towards Maretime Bay over the Equestria I hadn't really explored. Vast amounts of empty land peeled away beneath us, and the odd settlement was passed coupled with some military action. Ponykind was really holding its own against our extradimensional enemies.

"Maretime Bay is 35 miles, mark."

35 miles? Wow, time flies. As I glanced down from the cockpit I could have sworn I saw Izzy at some point, but that was probably just my mind playing tricks on me. She wouldn't be able to gallop that fast, would she?

"Contact! We've been bounced!"

Dad came on the radio again. "Shit, I feared this would happen. Break formation- freestyle combat!"

In a perfectly synchronised move, the fighters all suddenly broke formation and started to peel off, each going and chasing their own target. It was like watching dancers split off for the coreography, and would have been thrilling to watch were it not for the fighters chewing up our six.

One had formed up behind me, and was lining up the shot. Well, not today. I pulled back on the throttle, hit the speed brakes, and pulled up. My jet flipped over his and landed behind him before I secured a lock tone. I then hit the fire button, and the missile was launched, crashing into the other fighter and blowing it to pieces.

As the wreckage rained down, I climbed again.

"Your first kill! Nice!"

As we continued to duel in the air, we continued to drift closer to Maretime Bay. It was then dad had an idea. "Follow me into the canyon! We'll have an advantage down there!"

We dived into the canyon, knowing it popped out somewhere near Maretime Bay. I flew down it as fast as I could, dodging weapons fire and missiles being fired at us.

"Drop flares if you have to!"

We continued to fly down the canyon at blistering speed, having to navigate very carefully to ensure we didn't crash. As I'm still alive and telling you the story, you can tell we did not crash, but it was still nerve wracking all the same.

As we whizzed along, the canyon continued to get narrower and narrower. We were trying to fly as well as we could, but even our skills were being tested by this one.

Eventually, it got too narrow. "Goldhawk Squadron, climb out of the canyon!"

We all pulled up to clear the canyon walls, and were soon in the skies-

-joined by a cacophany of lock tones.

"SAMs! Evade! EVADE!"

What followed was several seconds of rolling and dropping flares to keep the missiles of our backs. I can't tell you much of what I did as I was acting entirely on instinct, but I can tell you it was pretty damn scary.

Unfortunately, my luck also ran out around this point- as did my flares.

"Shit! I'm out of flares!"

Suddenly, there was a huge explosion near my aircraft, and I could see smoke trailing from the rear. Not to mention an entire section of the wing looked like it was about to come off.

I reached down and pulled a lever, which blew the cockpit canopy off. I then pulled on the ejector seat handle.

Nothing happened.

Aware I was in a rapidly collapsing aircraft, I undid the straps holding me in and jumped, dropping until I was clear of the wreckage and then opening my wings to glide.

I landed a short distance outside Maretime Bay, and once I had dumped my uniform and helmet I began to follow the sounds of battle. At least the lighthouse still stood, so that was promising.

Author's Note

As you can probably tell from the ending, I am a Top Gun fan.

It's a Long, Long Way to Zephyr Heights

Well, this was interesting.

There we were, travelling across terrain once more, as I imagined I would have been back in the old days, but with a different group to what I had anticipated.

Instead of a small band of friends roughing it in the bush and roaming through empty lands with relics of an ancient past, instead we were on the move as part of an army. And it was quite the unusual army, to say the least.

Of the pegasi, we had our usual band of survivors from the crash- a handful of soldiers, the team dad had brought, my dad, mom, Pipp, and of course myself. Boy was this helmet getting heavy, and I adjusted it to try and fix an itch on my head. That at least brought me some brief relief from the itching.

But the remainder of the formation was rather more unusual. We had our own tanks, but unicorn tanks were on the move alongside ours. They each rattled along, their commanders on the swivel for any threats. Even if they looked a bit older than our models, they could certainly make a mess of most things that came our way. It did sorta make sense as the unicorns were technologically behind on most things. So it stood to reason they were behind on military hardware.

Alongside them were two companies of soldiers, marching in step beside the tanks. They were not riding on the tanks, like we were, but were instead marching. Marching in step with drums blaring and music playing from musicians and musical instruments. I assumed these were their marching songs. Apparently the one currently being played was Defense of Galloping Gorge, when apparently the city was laid siege to by the pegasi, and the unicorns held them off for over a year despite being outnumbered.

I would need to check this one when I got my hooves on a proper history book. A true history book, not a text full of distortions and half truths as fitted the propaganda state.

But still, as we proceeded across the battlefield, tensions seemed to be rather low, even if one of the pegasi complained about the unicorns playing 'disrespectful junk', though I imagined that was because we were focused on bringing down a common enemy who wanted nothing but to crush us under his bootheels.

I looked about, the shaking of the tank being an accompaniment in purpetuality to my situation. It was oddly hypnotic after a while, even if these vehicles were not exactly suited to transporting living things on top of them. What would happen if we came under attack?

I dismissed those thoughts very quickly. We had to focus on our current objective. When I had set off on this trip, I never imagined we'd be coming back here later on, to help save the city where all had seemed so well for me.

I noticed Pipp seemed to be rehearsing a speech of some sort- presumably one she'd deliver to the populace when this war was over and all was well in the world once more.

Never did I imagine becoming a pegasus would involve effectively becoming a soldier and fighting in battles. Still, I guess that's my lot when we're fighting an ancient evil and trying to stop a madpony at the same time.

Even so, it wasn't as if I was trying to overthrow an entire state on my own (which I doubt I could do). Instead, we had many, many soldiers marching by our side in a rather unlikely alliance of soldiers from all three groups. Earth ponies, unicorns, pegasi- all fighting together for the first time in what was probably millenia!

I must admit the musical accompaniment did help to break up the monotony of the journey, so we pushed on with the music and sound as we marched on our way. I looked over to see what the others were doing. Sunny seemed to have her nose buried in her father's book, whilst Izzy was looking at... something. Hopefully she wasn't sniffing glitter again.

Pipp, as I say, was looking at a speech, whilst mom was holding onto something as if she was seasick. Dad was telling her something, though, but I don't know precisely what.

Hitch was checking over some equipment, though unfortunately nopony had thought to bring a gun for the battle, and that just left the odd ones out.

Misty was sitting on another tank, with Sprout by her side. Now then, Misty turning up had been a bit of a shock, but given she's ultimately a good pony at heart it wasn't really an issue to me. She ultimately only wanted the best, and one could only hope Opaline wouldn't abuse the fragile situation.

Which left Sprout, who sat on the tank with no issue. In fact, he seemed very calm and professional, even checking his gear once or twice as we rolled across the terrain. It was all oddly quiet as we went on our way, rolling across fields that once were green but were progressively having large track marks left in them.

Not the nicest of sights, I will confess. But absolutely required.

We continued to roll along, the sheer noise from the vehicles and the blaring of music making for a very off combination as we proceeded along. None of them being tunes I recognised, of course. It was a crash course in the culture of another group of ponies, and an element never really explored in the show as far as I know. A shame. That would have been interesting to see.

The sun continued to move as we rolled across the country, and eventually we once more crossed the border back into pegasus territory, taking advantage of a gap in a wall.

Dad laughed briefly. "Never imagined I'd be going over the border with the invaders!"

One unicorn looked up, his face disapproving. "Not hugely funny, if I do say so myself."

One of the tanks switched on its loud hailer. "Less chit chat, more marching!"

However, as we continued across the land, we suddenly saw an interesting sight, which explained why that section of the border was wasn't properly guarded. There was a small encampment up ahead, well I say small, but there must have been as least a company of soldiers out there. There were tents, soldiers round campfires, armoured personnel carriers parked up in rows, and even a command tent. The central area also had a table distributing food to the soldiers all around.

"Eat up!" ordered the Quartermaster. "Anything we eat the General can't steal!"

Naturally, we pulled in to take a look, and what was going on surprised us. Many soldiers were waiting, at least a company in strength. And it turned out they were in the same boat as us.

Their commanding officer had spoken out against Gulfstream, and as a result the unit had been exiled. An entire company of soldiers exiled because their commanding officer said something the top nutter didn't like? That didn't sound very sensible. If anything, that's a company worth of soldiers who now have a reason to dislike you.

Upon learning we were going to overthrow the General and restore the Queen to the throne, they joined up, packing up their camp and adding their considerable troop complement to our ranks. Not to mention those armoured personnel carriers would really help with the advance.

Several of their musicians were also ready. "What would you have us play?"

"Wareham's March!" called Colonel Opwinden. "That always roused my spirits when I was newly into the ranks."

The sound of bagpipes soon began to sound, combined with more conventional instruments, and before long we were on our way once more, the bizarre sound of music echoing over vehicles from the terrain.

A unicorn looked over in surprise. "I know this one!" he said. "It's Las Pegasus March! Play along, boys!"

It took a bit of work to combine our two sets of music, but it somehow worked quite well. Their version of the tune was slightly different to ours, but we soon got that worked out.

That surprised me, though. If both of them used the same melody but had different names to them, that suggested the tune was one they had both inherited from the old days of Imperial Equestria!

I know there's that bit in Winter Wishday where they all sing a song that's survived from the old days but with different lyrics, as often happens in culture. But it seemed at least another melody had survived from the days when the ponies still lived in harmony.

That's living proof that we still have something in common.

As we continued on our way, our formation had now swelled to a small army, and as the sun set we made camp for the night. Time for some more sleeping in a tent, I guess.

I got a spot in the Royal Tent, so that at least helped. Here's hoping dad's snoring wasn't too bad.

Author's Note

Welcome back to another set of chapters involving Zipp! As we begin our next arc, the focus moves back towards where we have spent so much time- Zephyr Heights. The chapter title is an allusion to the popular WW1 song It's a Long way to Tipperary, often sung by British soldiers when on the march. The real Tipperary, which is in Ireland, humurously references this with a sign outside the town boundaries informing visitors they have come a long way.

There is a long history of melodies surviving in different cultures at once and being used differently by the respective cultures. One very famous example of this is the German carol Stille Nacht, which also exists in English as Silent Night. During Christmasses in WW1, there are verified instances of soldiers on both sides singing together, albeit in different languages.

And with our heroes rested, it will soon be time for the long, hard push towards victory. Join Zipp and her friends for more battle tomorrow!