It is a bright and beautiful sunny day outside of Zephyr Heights. Both Pipp Petals and Zipp Storm, daughters to Queen Haven and heirs to the throne were enjoying themselves out on a walk in the Breezeway Forest near the capital. They have decided to go on this walk after wanting to spend a bit of time with each other and get away from the more stressful parts of their jobs.
“It’s quite nice that we both can take a break together and not worry about the stresses our lives, right Pipp?” says Zipp.
“Yeah. It’s honestly enjoyable to walk along with nature and not worry with what is around you. This forest was the perfect idea for a nice stroll together Zipp” says Pipp as she agrees with her older sister that privately going on a hike together is very relaxing.
As the two sister trudged through the forest Zipp gets a mischievous idea and a playful smirk dons her face, something which Pipp is quick to notice.
“Zipp? Why are you smirking like that?”
Pipp is caught off guard when Zipp taps her shoulder while yelling “Tag! You’re it!”
Pipp is momentarily stunned before gaining her own playful smile and chasing after Zipp.
“Oh you’re getting away from me sis!”
The two chase each other through the forest, laughing while playing with such vigorous spirit in their hearts. Pipp eventually manages to tag Zipp before running forward, with her big sister right on her tail. Unfortunately Zipp was so concentrated on eyeing Pipp’s backside that she wasn’t aware of her surroundings and trips over a tree root.
“Woah!” cried out Zipp as she stumbles forward and bowls into Pipp. The two tumble across the ground for 5 yards before coming to a stop.
“Oof! My bad Pipp. I didn’t see that tree root in front of me.” says an apologetic Zipp.
Pipp gets out from underneath Zipp before gasping horror.
“No no no!” yells Pipp and she scrambles to the broken remains of her phone. Zipp looks at it as well and feels guilty.
“Oh dear I am so sorry Pipp. I didn’t mean to-“ Zipp however is cut off by her sister, who is practically furious.
“Are you kidding me?! Out of all the times you have to go and be clutz you have to do it now and ruin my phone!”
“Pipp. It was an accident. I didn’t mean to shatter your phone. We can go get a new one if you like.”
Pipp however was not calming down.
“Zipp! This phone was the very first one I received on my tenth birthday from mom! I had so memories with it and you just had to be a dolt and destroy it all!”
“But Pipp, I-“ Pipp cuts her off again.
“No buts! Admit you were in the wrong for breaking my stuff!”
“Sis, you know I would never purposefully destroy your belongings, and how is this exactly my fault? Aren’t you the one who is always openly flaunting that device?”
“Pah! How ignorant of you! I’m surprised that with that clumsiness of yours you haven’t torn down half of Zephyr Heights by now! What say you to that oh great ‘I’m-a-professional-detective?’”
Okay, that is just going too far. Zipp gets increasingly frustrated with her younger sister.
“Are you serious?! You are calling ME selfish?!?”
“Yes I am!” yells Pipp.
“Pipp, I do not appreciate that attitude you are giving me. Stop whining and admit that it wasn’t entirely my fault.”
Pipp however was not calming down.
“Just shut it you arrogant mule!”
“Pipp! That is no way to talk to your big sister!” said Zipp as she gets just as angry.
“Oh please! How is it that somepony like you cannot own up to their mistakes when they can’t acknowledge their own failures?! You might as well just quit while you’re ahead.”
Zipp is both taken aback and horrified by Pipp’s statement. How could she? The next thing Zipp knows is that she is consumed by fury.
“You take that back now” said Zipp in a very menacing tone.
“Make me.” says Pipp with an equally critical voice.
“You think everything is just a playground to you Pipp? Out in the real world you wouldn’t survive without any proper guidance. All you ever do is sit back and talk to your online viewers without a care in the world and never fully understand just how dangerous it can be out there. If you stop and take a moment to think for one second you would actually show some respect.” ranted Zipp.
“Oh like you deserve any respect. Maybe if you’d just quit being such an introverted jerk then you’d actually be able to-“
Pipp however is cut off when Zipp, in both a lapse of judgment and seeing red in her vision, does the unthinkable: she slaps her sister across the cheek. Pipp cries out in both surprise and pain as she is knocked down to the ground.
Zipp snaps out of her angry state and looks on in horror at what she had done. ‘D-did I just…’ thought Zipp in shock before approaching her fallen sister.
“P-Pipp..?”
Pipp looks up at Zipp, her cheek bruised from the slap and tears rolling down her face. Her eyes held a look of complete betrayal and heartbreak.
Pipp’s voice quivers as she speaks, “H-h-h-how c-could you..?”
“Pipp, no! I didn’t mean to-“ Zipp is cut off when Pipp shoves her away.
“GET AWAY FROM ME!! LEAVE ME ALONE!” screams Pipp.
Zipp, absolutely horrified and ashamed of her actions turns around and bolts deep into the forest. Tears fall from her eyes as gallops with looking where she is going. She stops in a clearing before curling up into ball on the ground and sobs her heart out in anguish.
How could she do that to her own little sister? She never meant to slap her across the face, yet she in her rage made the biggest mistake she has ever committed. She was supposed to protect Pipp and look after her, but instead she hurt her in the most shameful way possible, and she has no one but herself to blame.
‘I am sorry Pipp. I did not mean to hurt you. It’s my fault, it’s all my fault.’ thought Zipp as she sobbed on the ground for several minutes.
Snap!
Zipp’s head shoots up as hears what sounded like a twig snapping. She looks around the surrounding area to identify where the noise came from, all the while a sense of dread filled her chest. This part of the forest is very dense and very little light shines through the canopy onto the forest floor. Something does not feel right.
Just when Zipp thinks it was her imagination playing tricks on her her blood runs cold when she hears the low growl of a predator. She swivels her head to the left and is horrified to see a jaguar ambush her from the dense foliage. Zipp screams in terror as she scampers away in panic to get away from the hungry beast, it giving chase to her to not let its prey escape.
Zipp desperately searches for a place to hide from the pursuing jaguar and lose it. She looks all over the forest for a hiding spot, but her concentration is shattered when the jaguar catches up to her and gouges a deep wound into her flank with its sharp claws. Zipp screams out in agony while tumbling onto the ground, just out of the other side of the forest and near the edge of a steep incline.
Zipp shakily stands up and looks at her blood-covered flank. There are three claw marks running from the top of her hindquarters, down her cutie mark and ending at the base of her knee. Her thoughts didn’t last long when she hears the growling jaguar emerge from the canopy and slowly approaching her, ready to make its kill.
“No. No. Please. Don’t hurt me.” pleaded Zipp as the jaguar pounces. Zipp hind hoof slips on the edge of the cliff and she falls down it, narrowly dodging the claws of the big cat near her face.
She tumbles down the steep incline, the sharp rocks exacerbating her wound even further. Zipp then falls down a deep crevice, hitting the wall on the way down before slamming onto the ground. She lets out a bloodcurdling screech as she is impaled through her wing and abdomen from the back by a sharp stalagmite. The pain was absolutely horrible. Zipp almost felt like passing out due to both the pain and the blood loss she is experiencing but the adrenaline flowing through her veins is what is keeping her awake at the moment. She hears the jaguar up on the surface roaring in frustration that its meal managed to get away before walking off to find another target.
Zipp, albeit very painfully manages to sit up. The stalagmite she fell on broke at the base upon impacting it, which makes it slightly easier to move around. She considers wanting to pull the rock formation out but decides against it, having learned from medical classes that pulling impaled objects out of the injured body only exaggerates the bleeding. Looking around the area she can see no way out of this cave. Flying out of the cavern is thrown out the window given her wing is punctured. She tries finding anything around her that can help her escape through the crevice she fell through, but nothing around her can remotely help with her situation.
Zipp sits up against a wall and quietly sobs to herself. She’s going to die down here alone. There was nopony in the surrounding vicinity to hear her cries for help and Pipp is probably already back at Zephyr Heights. What will mom say if she notices she hasn’t returned yet, not knowing her daughter is trapped in a cave and bleeding to death. Her friends Sunny, Izzy and Hitch, they will all be devastated.
Zipp coughs up a few mouthfuls of blood and her vision starts to become hazy. Her time is nearing its end. Her mind flashes back to the memories she made over the nineteen years of living on this world. From the day she was born and held in her mothers hooves, to cradling newborn Pipp in hers when she was three. She remembers the day she discovered the hidden flight station underneath Zephyr Heights and wanting to study more of Equestria’s ancient past while also yearning to learn to fly again. And she can’t forget the day she met Sunny, Izzy and Hitch and joining them along their adventure to restore magic to Equestria again, and how it subsequently fulfilled her dream of flying again afterwards.
As her heartbeat slows down and breathing becomes shallow Zipp’s eyes begin to droop. In her final thoughts Zipp’s mind drifts back to the horrible slap she enacted on her sister and feeling nothing but guilt for what she done.
‘Pipp… I am so sorry… for everything…’ thought Zipp as she lapses into unconsciousness. A tears falls from her eye onto the ground as she awaits Death’s Doors.
Author's Note
Well I hope you all are enjoying this short story I am creating. It’s something I thought up of recently and decided to turn it into a fanfic.
I apologise if any characters here are a bit OOC, but overall I thank you for taking your time to read this.
Constructive criticism and feedback is appreciated.
Pipp could not believe what had just happened earlier. What was initially to be an ordinary day where she and Zipp were supposed to have fun turned ugly when the latter accidentally broke her phone and it devolved into a heated argument between the two sisters. It hurt that Zipp broke the precious gift she held since it was given to her on her tenth birthday from mom, but it did not hurt as much as the slap that Zipp inflicted on her during the argument.
How could she? How could her own big sister go so far as to slap across the face just because she doesn’t want to admit it was her own fault?! Pipp, who is slowly trotting through the forest with look of devastation on her face quickly turns angry again. She screams out in pure frustration.
“Agh! Are you happy now sis!? This is all your fault! If you had just admitted that you were in the wrong none of this would’ve happened, but no! You just had to go and be the stubborn ox in the middle of it all and not own up to your mistakes! I wonder why I even waste my time with you!?” yelled the pink pegasus pop star to the empty forest where nopony is able to hear her grievances.
Pipp grunts with annoyance. This is all one giant mess and just wants to have Zipp apologise to her so this can all be swept under the rug.
“Well, maybe when we get back to mom she can make you apologise, then we’ll see who is really in the right! Let’s see how you deal with that Zipp!” yelled Pipp in the air and stomping a hoof on the ground, but her ranting is silenced when she feels something wet squish underneath her leg.
She looks down at the ground and the colours drain from her face. Laying on the dirt was fresh blood, some of it was still warm. She looks ahead and sees a trail of it leading out the other side of the forest and near a cliff edge. Pipp’s curiosity gets the better of her and she follows the blood trail to the edge of the cliff. She sees a bunch of indents on the dusty inclined slope leading straight down a crevice at the bottom.
Pipp spreads her wings and glides down the crevice and lands at the bottom of a cave. She looks around the empty chamber before her eyes land a sight that chills her body to its core. It’s Zipp. She’s laying unconscious in a puddle of her own blood and is severely wounded.
“No. No. No no no no no! NO!”
Pipp, out of instinct rushes to her unconscious and wounded sister and tries to desperately shake her awake, the sight of her gouged flank and impaled abdomen filling the younger sister with dreadful anxiety and nausea.
“Zipp! Zipp! Wake up! Wake up! It’s me! Pipp!” she yells with pure panic in her voice, but to no avail.
“No! Please! You’re not dead! YOU’RE NOT DEAD! ZIPP!” screams Pipp as tears flow from her eyes. She grabs Zipp’s foreleg and places her ear on it to hear for a pulse. There is one but it is faint.
Wasting no time Pipp picks up her older sister in her arms and flies out of the cave through the open crevice. She flies the fastest her wings have ever carried her as she spears towards Zephyr Heights Gale Wind Hospital. She barges through the double doors and into the main medical ward, startling many personnel.
“Please! Help me! It’s Zipp! S-she’s-“ Pipp chokes through her tears as she struggles to get the proper words formed.
Seeing the eldest daughter of Queen Haven in such a severe condition the doctors and nurses wasted no effort in scrambling to get to work. Zipp is placed on a stretcher and immediately hauled to an intensive care unit for where an urgent blood transfusion is required.
Pipp watches as her sister is taken into ICU and the doors close to hide Zipp from her view. As soon as Zipp is out her vision Pipp burst into heartbreaking sobs. How could this have happened? One moment they were arguing over her broken phone and now Zipp is nearing Death’s embrace.
“P-please... n-n-not Zipp… anypony b-b-but Z-Zipp… Don’t leave me big sis… don’t l-leave me…” cried Pipp as she imagines the worst case scenario. She doesn’t want to lose her big sister. Not like this.
A lone nurse who stayed behind approaches Pipp and hugs the younger princess to comfort her. Pipp accepts it and buries her face into the nurse’s chest to hide her emotions from the view of any passer’s by. She desperately prays to any deity that will listen to her to save and heal her big sister. She doesn’t want to lose her.
An hour later Queen Haven bursts through the hospital’s double doors and rushes to the ICU, a look of pure dread on her face. One of her advisors informed her of her eldest daughter’s severe condition earlier after they received a call from one of the nurses and she wasted no time racing to the hospital see if her little filly is alright.
She bumps into the lead doctor of the operation on the way and shakes him with panicked fervour.
“Is Zephyrina alright?! Is my little princess alright!? Please tell me she is alive!” she yells with desperate concern.
“Your Majesty, please calm down. We are doing everything we can to stabilise your daughters condition.” said the doctor, named Asclepius Remedy as he attempts to calm his sovereign down.
Haven slightly calms down but asks Asclepius if she can see her daughter. He nods and leads her into the ICU, but says she won’t like what she sees. Haven’s eyes land on Zipp and gasps in horror. Her daughter is hooked up to various medical equipment to constantly monitor her condition. Her wing, flank and abdomen were wrapped up in bloody bandages and an oxygen mask is fastened to her face to administer breathable air into her lungs.
Haven almost felt like passing out at the sight of her sickly daughter but keeps herself composed. She turns back to Asclepius and asks, “Is she going to be alright?”
“We have managed to stem much of the bleeding as we can and administered an emergency blood transfusion. She may be able to live through this.” says Asclepius as Haven lets out a sigh of relief that her Zephyrina will survive, but how long will it take until she will wake up is the question plaguing her mind.
“What happened to her that put her in such a awful state?” asks the worried mother.
“Judging by her wounds it was likely two separate incidents. There were claw marks on the right side of her flank, suggesting a wild animal attacked her by seeing the princess as easy prey. The second incident was more traumatic.”
Asclepius reaches at the operating table and shows Haven the bloodied and broken stalagmite, which made the queen’s blood run cold at the sight of it. It had to be at least 3 inches wide and 6 inches tall.
“Judging by the blood on this stalagmite it suggests that Zephyrina was impaled by it. It punctured through her first into her wing and then the right side of her abdomen. Had your youngest daughter not brought her here sooner she may not have made it.”
Haven nodded as the revelation of what happened to Zipp sunk in. She’s glad Pipp saved her sister in time, otherwise it would’ve been completely devastating if Zipp was lost. She lands her eyes on her eldest daughter again, her tears flowing faster as she silently prays that she will wake up again. Asclepius looked at Haven with sympathy for her daughter’s dire situation.
Asclepius sighs sadly and says, “I’ll leave you so you can spend some time with your daughter your majesty.”
He exits out of the ICU and closes the doors so Haven can be alone for a bit. Haven approaches the side of Zipp’s bed and put’s her hoof on her daughter’s. It felt like ice when she touched it. Her little princess was so full of life and happiness and enjoyed spending so much time having fun with her friends, but now she is near the edge of eternity.
Haven places her head on Zipp’s chest quietly sobs, praying to the highest deity of the alicorn pantheon, Faust to save her daughter.
Her moment of silence is broken when she hears the doors to the ICU open and peeks her around to see who it is. It’s Pipp.
“Pipp?” she asks.
Pipp spots her mother and rushes over to her, hugging Haven in the process while sobbing softly on her shoulder.
“Mom. I am so sorry. I-I-I-I didn’t m-mean t-to hurt Zipp. We w-were arguing and s-she s-slapped me and- “
“Shh shh shh. It’s alright Pipp sweetheart. Zephyrina will be alright. She’ll come back to us, I promise.” says Haven as she tries to stay positive while comforting her younger daughter.
Pipp sniffles as she looks at Zipp’s frail body. She so desperately wants quickly wake her up but knows it will only make things worse.
“I just want Zipp back. I don’t want her to leave me now, not yet.” Pipp says as she buries her face onto her mother chest.
Haven looks at Zipp’s body again. She hopes that she will come back soon because Zephyr Heights will not be the same if Zipp passed on so suddenly. She can only hope that the recovery will be swift, but for now she must remain strong and endure the pain.
“Please come back soon Zephyrina. We all miss you.” whispers Haven as she leads Pipp out of the ICU.
Author's Note
Poor Haven and Pipp. Seeing Zipp in such a condition shellshocked them to their cores. They can only hope she will come back soon because Zephyr Heights would be devastated at the loss of their beloved princess.
Hope you all enjoy this second chapter. I had fun writing out the complex negative emotions the characters were experiencing during this sequence.
