Finding Your Place With the Outcasts

by TikiBat

Chapter 3: Finding Purpose

Zipper carefully walked up towards the lake, with a few slices of bread held under a wing. It had been a few days since he had been chased away by the geese, and he was determined to solve this problem any way possible, especially given the story of Silver’s very aggressive outburst towards the geese that had been making its rounds among the weather team. The welfare of a bunch of big dumb birds usually wouldn’t be much of a concern for Zipper… but every attempt to fly back towards the lake resulted in him being chased off by the vengeful creatures. Whether he snuck around them or flew towards them full force, they were evidently smarter than they looked, which led Zipper towards his current plan. It was simple, and truthfully not much of an actual plan, but it was something at least. He’d start with the diplomatic approach first and go from there, and if it didn’t work out? Then well… who knew. Zipper wasn’t about to lose his favorite hangout, especially not to some dumb geese.

As he neared the creatures, they began to hiss at him again, causing him to pause and address the wild fowl, “Give me a break and just calm down for five minutes, will ya? I brought you something good, and hopefully, we can bury the hatchet, okay?”

They continued to hiss, and a few of the stockier birds stood up and spread their wings in a show of intimidation, but Zipper scowled at them and held his ground, slowly reaching for the bread. With slow and precise movements, he tore off a few pieces and held them out as a peace offering, “Look, I don’t want to hurt you; I brought you guys a treat.”

The group didn’t seem to care, though one of the geese slowly waded forward, giving Zipper a curious sounding honk. The creature slowly craned its ugly head towards the pegasus’ outstretched wing and snatched up the tasty morsel with a peck of its bill that almost threatened to take a few feathers with it.

Zipper flinched at the sudden motion, but much to his own relief, the bird hadn’t made off with anything more than the bread.

“There you go, see? I just want to be your friend,” He calmly said as the goose took another quick peck at the bread.

Honk, the goose enthusiastically replied, almost as if it appreciated Zipper’s meager offering.

Zipper’s ears perked up as he listened to the goose honk. A strange sense of understanding began to well up inside him, “Do… do you like that?”

Honk

He stared at the goose for a second, slowly nodding as he stepped closer to it, “You… you do, right? You were just hungry and afraid that I was going to come after you like Silver did….”

Honk

Zipper sat back for a moment in surprise. It was hard to tell, but for a moment, it was almost as if he was able to understand this goose in a weird way.

As weird as it was to say, this wasn’t the first time that Zipper had sworn he understood an animal before. It wasn’t actual words he was hearing, but something inside of him caught onto the animal’s mood. He often got this kind of vibe from his pet parrot, though he usually assumed that it was simply his familiarity with the old bird and its tastes.

He cautiously leaned in closer, eyeing the goose with curiosity, “You’re not really all that mean, are you?”

Honk

“You just want to keep your friends safe, right? Make sure they have a nice place to live where ponies won’t hurt them?”

The goose replied with an affirmative honk.

“Right…” Zipper blinked a few times. Am I really entertaining this? I mean, it’s just a goose; it can’t really understand me, right? he thought to himself, “Can… Can you understand me?”

The goose gave another loud honk.

“Alright, well, I’ll make sure I can figure something out, I promise you.” He said with uncertainty, not even sure whether the goose could actually understand him or not.

The goose simply replied with another affirmative honk.

Zipper’s eyes widened in surprise. Is… Is this what I’ve been missing? Can I actually understand them? He thought to himself again. As if to answer his question, the goose began to honk again and waddled up next to Zipper. The evil creature sat down beside him and rested its head against his side as if Zipper was somehow its mother.

The pegasus laughed and gently patted the goose with one of his feathered wings, shaking his head. “I already have one pet bird, and he’s enough of a handful. We can still be friends, though, as long as you’ll pass along a good word to your friends.”

The goose looked back towards his menagerie and honked a few times, and much to Zipper’s brief horror, the gaggle of geese had stormed towards him and quickly surrounded him. Loud honks rang out, and Zipper closed his eyes while bracing himself with his hooves and his wings… yet instead of the painful pecks and jabs, all he felt was the feathery embrace of two dozen geese snuggling up next to him.

“Made some friends, I see,” came the cool voice of Silver Eclipse, who had been watching Zipper’s attempts at a peace negotiation from his home a short distance away.

“I uhh…” Zipper looked around at his court of geese and chuckled. “I guess so.”

“That’s good. I have to ask, how on earth did you manage to sweet talk them, though? I’ve been sitting at home watching you get chased off for days, and I was about ready to call animal control… but it seems like you figured something out.”

Zipper shrugged. “I’m gonna be real boss; I have no idea what I did. I have a couple of guesses, though.”

“Lay em on me then, because this is kind of a miracle,” Silver laughed. “I thought it was gonna get ugly real quick.”

“This is gonna sound really really weird, but I think I can talk to animals, Silver.”

“You think?” He asked curiously, raising an eyebrow at the odd statement.

Zipper slowly nodded, “Well, I mean, thinking back to the day I got my cutie mark, it only showed up after I was talking to my parrot, Gordon.”

“Your talking parrot?”

Zipper rolled his eyes. “Well, he was just squawking when it showed up, and I’m going to guess that maybe it’s because I could kind of understand what he needed right then… kinda like how a parent understands their kid.”

Silver nodded. “I get you, so you think that’s it then?”

Zipper shrugged again. “No idea, to be honest, but it’s my running guess. I reeeeeaaaallly had to focus on it, but I kind of understood what one of them was feeling, I guess? I’m going to just assume that my crappy offering of day-old bread I got from the bakery wasn’t the real key to my success.”

Silver shrugged, patting the gray pegasus on the back, “Well, whatever the case may be, glad you solved your goose problem, let’s just hope it stays solved.”

“You can say that again,” Zipper replied.

Before he turned away, Silver leaned in close, raising his wings and baring his fangs as he lowered his voice to a stern whisper in another rare show of aggression, “Oh and one more thing, your new friends chased after Orion the other day, and I was not happy about that. Just saying it now, you better use your talent to tell them to stay away from Orion from now on, or goose is gonna be on the Thanksgiving table this year... got it?”

Zipper raised an eyebrow, “But we don’t eat meat…” his eyes suddenly snapped open wide as the realization of what Silver was implying hit him, “Y...you wouldn’t! Not just to make a point… I— I know you freaked out about them the other day, but you wouldn’t do something like that— would you?!”

“I guess we’ll find out come Thanksgiving then… so we’re clear?”

Zipper nervously nodded his head, “y...yeah… got it.”

Silver broke his stern stance and returned a cheerful smile, “Fantastic! Glad we see eye to eye on this!”

As Zipper walked away, everything became a little more clear to him. He had a gift, and for the first time in years, he felt as if he knew exactly what his purpose in life was. Maybe this was jumping the gun a little quickly, but his new followers needed something from him, and as long as he was able to, he would work as hard as he could to give the animals of the Oasis the best home possible, even if he had to work extra hard to do it. It wouldn’t be easy, and he’d need a lot of help to do it, but in the end, it would be well worth it.

---

Zipper quickly knocked on the door to Patrick’s office, hoping that the city planning manager hadn’t left for the day yet. This had been a very eventful day for the pegasus, and he was already plotting out precisely what he wanted to do with his newfound talent. Blue Spring stood off to the side next to him, idly humming some cheerful tune while they waited. The mare had previously worked at a state park in Florida before moving to Colorado a few years before ETS and would probably be the only other pony in the Oasis who would be able to help him out with this. She was also one of his best friends, and he was more than grateful that she had agreed to meet Patrick with him with such short notice.

As Zipper raised his leg to check the time, the door opened, revealing the cheerful operations director. “Heya Zip whaddya need this time?”

He snapped back to attention, cheerfully nodding towards Patrick. “Hey Pat, do you have a few minutes to talk about a proposal?”

The cheerful unicorn nodded his head, “Sure, I actually just wrapped up my work for the day, but what’re a few more minutes?”

“Perfect!” He gestured towards the open door with a wing, letting Blue Spring lead the way in. The pair quickly took a seat by the large window while Patrick returned to his desk, turning towards them with a warm smile on his face.

“So what’s your proposal about this time, Zip? Another idea for a carnival? A tropical hideaway by the lake—“

“—an animal sanctuary, actually.”

Patrick knocked on his desk and returned a big grin, “Aha, an animal sanctuary; I was going to say that next… so uhhh… why an animal sanctuary? Not exactly the most ‘Zipper’ plan now, is it?”

Zipper nodded, “It’s a long story, and I don’t want to waste your time with every detail, but basically I figured out I can kinda sorta understand animals if I focus really hard on it, and I realized that they don’t have a safe place to live without bothering the other residents around the Oasis. So I kind of wanted to see about getting an actual animal sanctuary set up for them. Y’know, so they’re safe.”

Patrick raised an eyebrow for a moment as if he was going to question this, but chose not to. Instead, another warm smile spread across his face, “Well, a sanctuary is kind of doable, but we’ll need to do some research and figure out where the best spot i—.”

“—And then we can start? Because let me tell you, if we give them their own place to hang out, it’s going to make everyone’s lives a hell of a lot easier.” Zipper excitedly cut in.

Patrick shook his head slowly, “Whoa, hold up there, not just yet. The Oasis might be privately owned, but I can only approve so much on my own. You’ll have to draft a plan and run it by Silver and the rest of the city council, just like everyone else. We also need to make sure that we’ll be able to support the animals you want to house there, so we’re looking at bringing some experts in too. I don’t want to say you’re not capable of doing this, but it might just be easier to section off a little area for them right now and wait until we have more of the actual experts onboard here to help manage it.”

Zipper’s face scrunched into a worried frown, “Yeah but… but then we lose a part of the lake, and they still don’t have a nice safe home…” his thoughts drifted back towards Silver’s uncharacteristically aggressive display earlier. “and then Silver will get mad at them, and trust me, you do not want to know what that’s going to entail!”

Patrick raised his hooves, gesturing for Zipper to take a breather, “Alright, well I’ll tell you what, why don’t we section that area off for now, just so they’re all set in the meantime, and I’ll even talk to Silver and make sure he doesn’t do anything crazy. I can give you two the numbers for a few architects and engineers, and you can talk with them about doing something bigger down the line. You’ll have to get all the relevant experts in, but I think Blue Spring is more than capable of that on her own; she does have the most experience in something like this after all.”

Zipper nodded in understanding. He knew things wouldn’t be solved in a day, but at least they seemed optimistic.

The gray pegasus smiled and nodded his head. “Alright, I understand. Thanks again, Pat.”

He nodded, “Any time. If you do wind up coming up with an actual plan, please let me know, It’s not something you’ll be able to just do overnight, but I’m looking forward to seeing what you’ll come up with.”

The duo stood up and walked towards the door, “Well, thanks again, Pat! We’ll let you know if we ever get anywhere else with this.”

He responded with a warm smile as he walked to the door with them, “Glad I could be of service.”

---

Blue Spring led Zipper down the hallway and into the elevator, noticing that Zipper seemed lost in thought. As the doors closed, she turned towards the gray pegasus, watching him with a concerned look, “Hey Zip, what’s on your mind? You seem a little out of it.”

Zipper nodded his head quickly, “Yeah, I’m good. I just want to make sure they can have a nice safe home where they can all be comfortable. I know it’s going to be a lot of work, but I feel like I have to make sure they’re all good… you know?”

She nodded, “I’ve spent most of my life around animals, I know I can’t understand them like you apparently can, but I get what you’re saying. It’s going to be a lot of work, though, you know that, right?”

He nodded, “I do. I know we have the weather team commitments, but would you be up for helping plan this all out with me?”

She raised an eyebrow, “You mean you’re really going to plan it out? Even though it’s going to be a lot of boring work, that’s not going to be easy?”

He quickly nodded his head, “Truth be told, I feel like I’m constantly being typecast as the dumb brash idiot around here and what I learned about myself today is just one part of a bigger realization. I’ve been hiding away a lot of myself for so long, and I think realizing what my talent in gave me the reassurance I needed to accept that maybe I don’t need to be this bold flying ace that everyone looks up to. It’s a way more complicated thing, but I can’t just let this chance go by, right?”

“Well, I suppose so, you realize though, this is something you’ve never really had experience with. Running an animal sanctuary is a lot different than running amusement parks and carnival rides.”

Zipper shrugged, “Well yeah… I was kind of hoping you’d be able to help out with that. You sorta have more experience than I do… a lot more really.”

She nodded, “Alright, I’ll help you out with this when we have free time, but if I’m going to be in charge of it, you have to be open to letting me make the big decisions. I know you’re the weather captain and like to call the shots, but we’re talking about actual animals and their well-being here; it’s a lot of responsibility.”

He quickly nodded his head, “Yeah, okay, that’s fine by me! You’re the expert after all.”

She smiled, “Alright, well, we can head back over to my place and work on this if you want to.”

A big smile spread across his face, “I’d love that!”

“Alright, well, let’s get going; you feel like grabbing some dinner on the way?”

Zipper nodded, “I’m actually in a cooking kind of mood today. Do you have stuff back at your house?”

“Sure, what do you have in mind?”

“Macaroni, maybe? I have a new recipe that I’ve been dying to try out; I’ll even make it, my treat.”

Blue Spring smiled, “I’d love that Zipper.”

---

Zipper sat at the table with Blue Spring in her home, mulling over the layout with her over a small dinner. The blue pegasus perked up as she took a few bites of the macaroni that Zipper had helped prepare, “So Zipper, what do you want to do with this?”

“Well, I know this is all just some blue-sky idea, and we’ll probably never get all of it off the ground, but I’m thinking like… like a visitor center where you can learn about the different animals there and what we’re doing to help them, an animal hospital on the lower level, maybe a cool aviary outside with a whole natural habitat that you can walk through….”

She nodded along, jotting a couple of notes down. “What else, though? We need to have something big to bring people in.”

“Hmm… Oh, I know! Maybe we could have a boat ride through the aviary with a guided tour on the different animals!”

“Yes!” Blue Spring cheered. “We had a little guided tour back in Florida, and it was an entertaining part of the job.” Blue Spring suddenly interjected.

Zipper nodded, “Yeah, I’m thinking like one of those little guided boat rides, kinda like the boat ride we had back at the fair!”

“Or the Jurassic boat ride at Universal… that might be a good inspiration!.. You know, the calm, tranquil tour through an animal habitat part, not the getting chased by dinosaurs and plummeting down a big drop part.” Blue Spring continued her note-taking, “So a tranquil boat ride through an aviary with a visitor center and animal hospital at the entrance. Any shops? Restaurants? Exhibits?”

Zipper nodded, “We could build a bigger greenhouse by it and use that to stock the restaurant with!— Oh, and then the boat ride could even go through it! It could be like a great educational experience! Silver would absolutely be all over that!”

“Mhmm, and for the shops and exhibits?”

Zipper hesitated for a few minutes as he thought of how this would work out. “Well, we could have a big shop at the exit that has a bunch of souvenirs themed to the animals inside the sanctuary. We could do little rotating exhibits on the lower floor too; that way, there’s always a reason to come back. We could even put signs along the paths that talk about the animals too!”

“And the money from the shop and restaurant could go right back into funding improvements and expansions!” Blue Spring cheerfully added in. “I like it; that kind of covers the whole funding expansions part if we can’t convince Silver to let us do it.”

Zipper nodded in agreement, excitedly jumping up into the air and coming to a hover, “They’re gonna love it so much, I just know it!”

Blue Spring let out a few laughs, covering her mouth with a hoof. “Gee Zipper, I didn’t realize that getting your cutie mark would make you such a serious pony!”

Zipper came to a land, his face reddening in embarrassment, “Oh— sorry. I guess I got kind of excited. I finally know what I want to do, and I can’t wait to do it. My whole life, I’ve been trying to figure out what I was meant to do. I kept latching onto different things, trying to find something that I liked and that worked for me. The carnival gave me something to do that I really enjoyed and loved, even if it was never going to be something serious. People took one look at me and saw some annoying thrill chaser, but on the inside, I was just trying to figure out who I really was. I thought that ETS could have given me a chance to start over, but it didn’t make it any easier; I still had to figure this all out on my own. There’s still a lot I need to figure out, but I want to do something good, you know?”

She nodded along, “Well, I’m glad you want to do something that’s actually responsible with this. I’d be lying if I said the rest of the team didn’t think you’d try and start some goose-themed daredevil routine after.”

Zipper looked away, “I uhh… thought about doing something like that… but then I realized that that was just some dumb idea and that they just want a safe home to live in. I haven’t had much time to think about everything, but it feels like I was meant to help them or something. Like no one else can talk to animals, right? That has to mean something.”

“I’m just glad you found something good that you can work towards. Even if this never winds up going anywhere, it’s just fun to plan it all out.”

Zipper smiled, “That’s exactly what I think. Best case scenario, at least we get to make a cool park for them,” He smiled. “Thanks, Spring; this means a lot to me.”

She returned a smile, “Any time Zip, ponies help each other out after all.”

“So what now? Wanna keep working on this, or do you want to take a break and watch a movie or something?”

She shrugged, “We could watch a movie; you got anything in mind?”

Zipper started to raise his hoof but paused, “How about you choose one? I kinda just watch the same movies over and over, maybe it’s good to watch something new.”

She nodded, “Gotcha, well go make yourself comfortable; I’ll dig up something that I think you’ll like for sure.”

The rest of the evening had gone by swimmingly, and all Zipper could think about was that he was finally going to make an effort to be authentic and genuine. He didn’t know if it was his own hesitation and clouded thoughts lately or the self-discovery he had found earlier… but what he did know was that there would be no more hiding behind a mask. The world was going to see the real Zipper sooner than later, even if he still had a lot of self-discovery left to do.

Comments

[ProgAltRocker]

D'awww, Zipper gets to deal with all the animals. And he might have a nice marefriend in the making too