//------------------------------// // A Model Pegasus // Story: Forgotten // by milesprower06 //------------------------------// One week later... "Thanks for doing this on such short notice, Zipp," Sunny told her white flying friend as they made their way down one of CanterLogic's many corridors along with Phyllis Cloverleaf and her new unicorn employee. "A week is short notice? That's news to me. I'm just surprised to have gotten a call for a model before Pipp did," The pegasus responded, fluttering her wings momentarily. "Well, to be fair, this is probably a modeling gig that is a bit too... Shall we say, extreme, for Pipp's likening," Sunny replied. Zipp raised her eyebrow. "Color me intrigued. This place is pretty big, what else do they do here?" "We used to design and mass-produce devices that, um, protected Maretime Bay citizens from hypothetical abductions and attacks from unicorns and pegasi. No, I am no longer proud of it, and we are still going through a massive rebranding as part of the reunification," Phyllis said. "Aren't we all," Zipp agreed, remembering how Zephyr Heights was going through quite some significant changes as well now that the entire populace could fly. The royal guards were getting a crash course in all possible meanings of the words 'air traffic control.' "You haven't told me a whole lot about what this is going to entail, Sunny. What gives?" The pegasus asked as they turned a corner. "I figured I'd try and surprise you. You'll love it, trust me," Sunny told her. They came to a set of large double doors, obviously built that way to move immense devices in and out. The room was largely empty, save for a workspace in the corner, and several devices mounted to frames on the walls, that didn't look entirely out of place in one of Pipp's performances. "Alright, Zipp," Phyllis began. "This is our scanning room. We're going to scan your body so we can produce a mannequin for the museum. Then we'll take those same measurements and use them to make uniforms to put on them." "Uniforms?" Zipp asked, and Sunny nodded. "Mystic Cinnamon and I have decided that we want to make some replicas to show how some things looked back in the Guardians' era. One of the first things we'd like to try is the old Wonderbolts flight uniforms. Not only that, but I also found some images of dress uniforms as well." Zipp's eyes widened with excitement. "Seriously?" "Yep, and you were the first pony that I thought of," Sunny told her. Zipp, unable to keep the corners of her mouth from curling up, jumped forward and brought her earth pony friend into a hug. "You. Are. Awesome! Alright, where do we begin? Where do you want me?" She asked, nearly trotting in place. "We'd like you to hover up there in the middle of the scanners," Phyllis told her pointing up to the laser devices that her unicorn employee was now turning on from the workstation. Zipp glanced at her curiously. "Just... Floating there? Hovering in place? Are you sure that's going to capture the Wonderbolts? From that poster in the Zephyr Heights terminal, they were a serious flying team. Extremely high speeds and thrilling stunts," Zipp objected, albeit politely. "That's true. Everything in that journal about the Wonderbolts confirms that they were an extreme flying stunt team," Sunny told Phyllis. "We can certainly make adjustments for the experts. What did you have in mind?" Phyllis asked, only getting a sly smile from the pegasus in return. Just over an hour later, they had finally gotten started, after turning the scanning room into a hastily-put-together wind tunnel, having brought in three of the largest industrial fans they could find on the other side of the factory. Stacking two on top of each other and setting them in the front of the room, and the third one directly under her facing up. Turning all three on raised the ambient volume of the room considerably. The unicorn had to telekinetically catch a stack of papers that had not been weighed down, but that was the only mishap, aside from the noise. Zipp donned the pair of safety goggles they had supplied her, leapt into the air, and after some mid-air adjustments, got into a comfortable gliding position. "Alright, crank it! And then scan away!" Zipp shouted down to the corner where the three others were standing and watching. Turning the fans to their max level increased the noise to nearly deafening, but not quite, as they heard the pegasus scream out an excited "Whoo!!!", leaning more into the wind as the laser scanners went live. Suddenly, the pegasus' white body looked like the floor at a night club as lasers danced over her hooves, body, and wings as her dimensions were fed into the computer. Above all the noise, Sunny noticed the pegasus' phone vibrate on the metallic desktop, it's screen lighting up and showing a picture of Queen Haven along with the words 'INCOMING CALL'. As it rang, slowly sliding towards the edge of the desk, Sunny grabbed it before it tumbled over to the floor, and trotted out of the double doors into the hallway, where the noise was significantly reduced, before sliding the tip of her hoof over to the green phone icon, and putting it up to her ear. "Queen Haven, your majesty. It's Sunny, Sunny Starscout. Zipp is a little... Preoccupied, at the moment. Can I give her a message?" Sunny greeted, as she heard another scream of exhilaration over the fans. "Oh, that's perfectly alright, dear. I actually called to talk to you, and I don't have your number yet," the Zephyr Heights ruler replied. "Really? What can I do for you?" Sunny asked, intrigued. "The progress on the road to those castle ruins you found is proceeding well. We even managed to bring in a group of unicorns that have become proficient at levitation magic. Over the last two weeks, they've been carefully clearing away the rock slide near the castle just on the other side of the river. There's not much left of the structure underneath all of the rubble, but they did uncover some sort of underground passageway. Since you discovered the area, I'm calling to see if you'd like to come back over here for the first look."