A flash of white and purple raced through the sky as a mare laughs with a glimmer of freedom. The pony was preforming loops and barrel rolls for nopony but herself. The white mare with a short red and blue mane was Zipp Storm a pegasus who once dreamed of flying high. Zipp took out her flip smart phone and started and audio message about her flight, “day 3 of flight choreography training” whispered Zipp into her phone. She loved making memos into her phone whether she was practicing her flying or solving mysteries as a detective for the Maretime Police Department.
Zipp prepared to dash off agin till ring ring beep, her sister rang her phone. “Ugg what is it Pipp, I’m trying to practice flying, like every other pegasus who isn’t you” Zipp said with an annoyed tone. Acting shocked Pipp responded “Well i called you to remind you that we are meeting at Izzy’s tree house thing for a special suuuurpriiiiise!” Zipp flinched at Pipps singing. As amazing as her singing voice is Zipp hated when her sister would just start singing the ends of sentences. “Ok ok I’m on my way” Zipp said before hanging up the phone. “On my way to Bridlewood to check out one of Izzys new crazy contraptions” Zipp made a note to her self on her phone before bolting towards Izzys home.
Zipp arrived in Bridlewoods as the evening sun was setting under the tall purple and blue trees of the unicorn populated forest. She landed at the doorstep of Izzys home which was a large tree hollowed in to become a home of the artistic unicorn. “Hey guys, i’m here!” Yelled Zipp as she opened the front door. A purple unicorn with a blue long curly mane slid down the spiral staircase handle. “So, what exactly did you want to show me Izzy” Zipp asked the unicorn. Izzy trotted up to Zipp and smacked her hoof over Zipps mouth. “Follow me, i found something that i unicycled into a little gift for you” Izzy said as she removed her hoof from Zipps mouth and walked back up the stairs she slid down.
Zipp opened her fold phone to make a new note “Izzy recycled or… “unicycled” something into a gift for me, thats also super secret…intriguing!” Zipp soon ran up the spiral stairs trying to catch up to Iizzy. Zipp stopped at the entrance of Izzys oval shaped bedroom to see a small pink pegasus with a short purple mane, her sister sitting a few feet in front of her giving her a deadpan stare. “Well you took your time!” Yelled Pipp in a very high pitched voice, “we’ve been waiting for almost two hours ya know.” Zipp flinched a little at Pipps screaming, even if she was used to it she still did not like when Pipp got upset about anything. “Hey hey no need to get rash” Izzy came up to Pipp putting a hoof over her back. “Sorry Izzy” Pipp apologized “And sorry for snapping at you too sister!” Zipp looked a little confused but confidently said “its all cool.”
“So Izzy, what was this super secret gift you had for us?” Zipp asked with a twinge of curiosity. Izzy trotted away from the sisters then came running back with something in her magic aura. “So i went out in Bridlewood’s crystal farms the other night, and i found this amazing piece of crystal that I thought looked like your cutie mark!” Izzy excitedly screamed, pointing at Zipp’s flank while waving around an object in her magic aura. “This is a watch i made with that crystal for you Zipp…and Pipp if you two wanted to share” Izzy explained while putting the watch on Zipp’s wrist. The watch was hoof crafted with a wooden frame and a lightning bolt crystal that was colored in a rainbow pattern built into the center. “Woah, this is really awesome” Zipp said with a smirk on her face. Pipp glided towards her sisters wrist and her eyes grew as she said “aw its so adorable too!”
“Whats the occasion for the gift though” asked Zipp. “Not that we don’t appreciate the thoughtful gesture!” Rushed in Pipp thinking her sister was being inconsiderate. Zipp just gave Pipp a frowning glare. “Oh there’s no occasion i just thought you two would love this crystal…” Izzy said while blushing. “Thank you so much!” Pipp and Zipp thanked simultaneously in Izzys scrunched up face. Suddenly Pipps phone let out a loud pop ringtone, “Oh excuse me brb!” Pipp squeed. As Pipp glided away to answer her phone Zipp stared at the watch with curiosity and also took out her fold phone to record yet another note “despite this watch being homemade it’s really sleek, stylish and… energetic feeling?”
Pipp glided back to Izzy and Zipp “Hate to be a party pooper but our mom needs us at Zephyr Hights like last week!” Said Pipp with a bit of disappointment in her voice. Izzy frowned but gleefully said “Oh it’s ok, i know how busy you royals can be!” Zipp and Pipp smiled awkwardly and the both hugged Izzy before slowly flying out of her bedroom window. “Thanks again for the awesome watch!” Yelled Zipp from above the forest to an Izzy who was hanging near the window.
Pipp was flying fast high in the clouds, way too fast for Zipp right now. “Can you slow down for five seconds!” Yelled Zipp. Zipp didn’t normally fly so slow but she is never excited to see her mother during some important royal business. Pipp did slow down though and backed up next to Zipp. Pipp started to stare at the makeshift watch on Zipps wrist. “why don’t you let me wear it for a minute” Pipp said as she moved her hoof towards the watch. Zipp pulled her wrist back though “No way, Izzy gave me this watch” Zipp said with an stern attitude. Pipp gasped “Excuse me but Izzy gave that to both of us” Pipp said pointing at both Zipp and herself.
“Ugg, i’ll let you wear it tomorrow ok” said Zipp with a wide eyed glare at Pipp. Pipp suddenly grabbed the watch off of Zipp’s wrist. “Hey! What the heck do you think you’re doing!” Zipp furiously screamed at her sister. “Oh come on let me wear it for at least a minute you hog!” Pipp screamed back even louder. As the two Pegasi pulled on the wrist straps of the watch the rainbow lightning bolt crystal started to glow a billion shades of colors. Then a white flash blinded Zipp and Pipp as they screamed and dropped the watch.
“Dang it Pipp whats wrong with you!” Zipp screamed raising a hoof acting like she was going to smack Pipp across her face. “Sorry! Sorry!” Pipp flinched and covered her eyes. Zipp just hovered there and smacked her hooves on her own face. “Lets…just get to Zehpyr Highs and look for it later! The suns starting too fall” said Zipp as she looked beyond the purple and orange clouds to a setting sun. All Pipp did was nod her head with tears in her eyes and they both started flying agin towards their home
A few hours past as the two pegasi flew through nimbus clowns and over mountains to what they had hoped to be their kingdom of Zephyr Heights. But instead they saw more clouds. Not normal clouds but pony made clouds in the shape of a roman cathedral. “Huh…Zipp did we go the right direction?” Pipp asked with a look of fear. Zipp looked around and shrugged her shoulders as they both landed on a strip of asphalt road. “Where in Equestria are we!” Panicked Pipp. “Couldsdale?” Questioned Zipp with a raised eyebrow and a tilted head. “Oh haha nice joke” Pipp laughed sarcastically. But Zipp placed her hoof under Pipps chin and turned it towards a gigantic sign made of nimbus clouds that read “Welcome to Cloudsdale! Home of the Wonderbolts!” Pipps jaw dropped to the asphalt road and she almost felt like fainting.
“Oh no no no no! We have to be dreaming!” Pipp started to have a breakdown “Oh my goodness what if we’re DEAD!” “Would you calm down, there has to be an explanation for this” said Zipp putting her hoof on her sister’s shoulder trying to calm her down. Zipp took out her fold phone to make a new memo about her current situation when she realized she couldn’t even turn the thing on. “Hey whats wrong with this thing!” Zipp shouted at her phone. Zipp threw the phone behind her right wing and turned to Pipp and said “whatever lets just get moving, find a way out of this place.”
Zipp and Pipp slowly glided around the seemingly abandoned city. They both looked around confused at why the cloud constructed buildings seemed almost brand new but empty. “Ok this is really creepy” Pipp shivered in slight fear “did we really fly into an abandoned city!” Zipp thought the same too, but she also wondered why everything looked so normal. Suddenly a gust of wind blew straight past Zipp and Pipps faces followed by a gigantic explosion. “Ahhh” the sisters screamed.
Just after that explosion a flowing rainbow blasted through the sky above them along with cheering and screaming. “No way!” Said Zipp with shock. She couldn’t believe it was true but she was seeing a sonic rainboom with her very own eyes. “We have to get closer!” Zipp said pulling Pipp by the wrist to a close by building. The building was a colosseum theater and inside was the noises of ponies screaming at the top of their lungs. Zipp and Pipp couldn’t believe what they saw fly into the theater though. A light blue pegasus was flying down with the same rainbow following her. Zipp and Pipp both said in unison looking at each other “Is…is that Rainbow Dash?!”
Zipp and Pipp couldn’t believe what they were seeing with their own eyes. But as they were trying to get a foothold on what was going on, a flock of pegasi young and old flew straight into them. They flew right out of the theater the sisters were standing in front of. Zipp and Pipp shot up right above the crowd and looked at each other with fear. “Where did all these ponies come from?!” Asked Pipp pointing both of her front hooves to a built up crowd.
Zipp scrunched her nose up in frustration. She didn’t want to think what she was thinking but there was no other explanation. “Ok Pipp, this might sound a little out there… but what if we traveled back through time?” Zipp said with hesitation knowing her sister would just call her insane. Pipp gave Zipp a wide eyed crazy look then bursted out into tears. Zipp’s mouth dropped as she couldn’t believe the reaction. “How can you joke like that!” Screamed Pipp “Look at how damaged i am right now!” Zipp flew up to her sister and gave her a hug. “Lets just get out of here sis, then we can figure this all out.”
The sisters flew down to an empty section on the main road of Cloudsdale. The asphalt road and cloud buildings were now full of pegasi flying and trotting around the clouds. Zipp and Pipp tried to recoil themselves as they started to glide away from the crowded street. “Ok Pipp, so we are in Cloudsdale right and we just saw who we can assume to be Rainbow Dash.” Zipp started to monologue the situation to her sister, but her sister was barely paying attention almost as if her mind had disappeared into a black hole. “I can only conclude that we have to be in some time after what the Zephyr Hights historical records call the “Best Young Flyer” competition” Zipp continued monologuing. Pipp smashed her hooves on Zipps face “Will you shut up! i don’t care how we got here, i just wanna get home!” Pipp hyperventilated.
Zipp wiped Pipp’s hooves off of her eyes and whispered to her “Ok, i know you are scared, but we have to first find out how this happened before we do anything drastic.” Pipp finally calmed down a tiny bit and started to smile again. The two sisters started flying trough Cloudsdale trying to find a way to the land below the clouds. They stopped short though when they came across something that freaked them out to the core. “No way!” Zipp and Pipp unanimously said to each other. They were staring at a gigantic multi floor building with smoke stacks and hundreds of pipes full of liquified rainbows. “Is…that the… Rainbow Factory!?” Screamed Pipp with a burst of joy. Zipp could only stare at the magnificent factory with her widened eyes. “Come on Zipp! Lets get a closer look” Said Pipp grabbing her sister’s wrist and dragging her closer to the factory.
Zipp and Pipp could not enter the factory though as the gates, despite being made of clouds, had a magic barrier which kept the factory closed tight. “Hey Zipp” Pipp started to ask “Remember that horror movie about this place where little fillies were murdered in order to be turned into rainbows?” “Oh yeah” Zipp responded “What was the tag line?…”where your fears and horrors come true”…man that movie gave me many sleepless nights!” Zipp and Pipp stared at the factory one last time then decided to continue on to find some exit out of this city.
They finally got back to the runway entrance they started at before the rainboom. Zipp and Pipp landed at the edge of the road peering down to the green and brown land below. “You know Pipp, I’m betting that Ponyville is just south of this city!” Zipp said pointing a hoof downward below the clouds. Pipp scratched behind her ear “How would you know anything about… Ponyville?” Zipp gave a muted stare at Pipp and said “Sunny taught me all bout it, she said its where princess Twilight Sparkle’s castle used to stand”
Pipp sidestepped towards her sister. Zipp gave her a look of confusion as Pipp smiled at her with confidence “Lets good there!” Pipp said wrapping her front leg around Zipps neck. “Whoa, where did this confidence come from” asked Zipp. Pipp gave a sly smile and said “I desperately want to get out of this… place? So if you have a plan, I’m trusting you to lead the way.” Pipp then out of nowhere pushed Zipp straight off of the edge of the road into the sky below. “Piiiiiiiiipp!” Zipp screamed almost falling, until she unfurled her wings remembering she had them. Pipp jumped off the edge too and they both flew down to the land below.
Two hours later they reached the small farm town Ponyville. Ponyville was a town made up of pale and brown stable like homes and shops encircling a three story tower of the same design that enclosed the town hall. There were mostly earth ponies trotting around the town but you could also see some unicorns and even flying pegasi. “Ok, so where would this princess of friendship be?” Pipp asked scanning the town for directions. “Sunny says there should be a crystal castle in the shape of a tree at the edge of this town” Zipp said while also looking around. They could not actually see any kind of castle despite how gigantic it would be compared to the small town. Zipp flew straight up in the air to hover over the town hall in order to get a way better view. Zipp then bolted back down next to her sister startling her in the process. Pipp put her hoof on her chest and asked “Did you find the thing?!” Zipp just shook her head.
Zipp then remembered something Sunny also taught her. “Wait! There might be a library!” Zipp yelled grabbing and shaking her sister by the shoulders. “Library? I thought we were looking for a castle.” Pipp said shoving Zipp off of her. “Sunny told be that before the castle was put up, Ponyville had a library in the shape of a tree!” Zipp exclaimed with hopeful excitement. Zipp then flew straight up into the sky again then almost immediately came right back down. “Follow me” Zipp said to Pipp before trotting away. Pipp rolled her eyes and reluctantly followed.
Not a moment sooner they reached the Library Zipp mentioned. It was a massive tree almost the same size as the town hall. It had green leaves on its roof and was covered head to toe in windows all over its brown trunk. The only entrance was one pink oval door at the bottom. Zipp and Pipp entered at once into a circular wall filled with nothing but bookshelves that touched the roof. Those bookshelves were filled with almost every book written by ponykind. Just as they entered a light purple unicorn mare with a short but straight mane came walking down a stairwell to the left. “Welcome to the golden Oak Library, are you Two new here?” The unicorn asked with a sophisticated voice “My name is Twilight Sparkle, what can i help you two mares with?!” All Zipp and Pipp did was an instinctual bow believing that they have come across the princess of friendship.
