Chapter 1
The sculptor wiped the sweat off her brow, letting out a satisfied sigh. She took a step back, then turned to address her Queen. “Well,” she said with a polite grin, gesturing towards the bust she had finished. “What do you think?”
Queen Haven placed a hoof on her chin as she inspected the statue. “Hmm,” she said, frowning in thought. “This is absolutely terrible.” She then pointed an accusatory hoof at the bust. “No, no, no! Literally everything about this is wrong! Is this even supposed to me? I mean, just look at that chin! That is way to bulbous for me! I’m much prettier than that…”
Meanwhile, two of the Royal Guard stood by, keeping a silent vigil over the courtyard as their queen continued her art critiques. Well, at least one of them was. The other was snickering to himself, his phone tucked under his wing in a way he thought was stealthy. He stopped laughing, however, once the guardsmare beside stepped on his hoof.
“Put that away, cadet,” Zoom said, keeping her gaze locked straight ahead.
Thunder let out a grunt of pain. “Oh, c’mon,” he said. “I was just checking it real quick!"
“Not interested in excuses.”
“But...”
“Not. Interested.”
Thunder pouted, but put his phone away as told. As he slid back into attention, however, he spotted something out of the corner of his eye. He pointed with a hoof. “Uh, Zoom? I think we have a problem.”
Zoom followed his gaze, her eyes widening. She spun around, running over to the Queen.
“Y-your Majesty! Your-”
“Not now Zap,” Haven said without looking at her.
“Zoom…”
“Whatever. I told you I am not to be interrupted during Queenly business!”
“B-but, but…”
“And look at this! You know my nose doesn’t look like that…were you even paying attention?”
“LOOK!” Zoom shouted. Haven spun around to reprimand her, but stopped once she saw the two of them gesturing towards something off in the distance. She squinted, curious. Haven saw the tower where her daughters slept, nothing unusual. That is, until she noticed that a window several stories off the ground had a small white filly leaning out of it.
“ZEPHYRINA!”
Zipp was sitting in the window sill, wingtip in her mouth as she took in the view. She was wearing a cobalt blue hoodie with a yellow lightning bolt crudely painted on the front, along with a pair of swimming goggles on her forehead. She removed her wing from her mouth, carefully extending her primaries into the air.
“Alright, no wind! You know what that means?”
Zipp turned towards her sister, who was sitting in her crib, engrossed in the task of stacking blocks. When she realized Zipp was looking at her, she gave her a nearly toothless smile. She then clapped her hooves together with a giggle.
“That’s right, Lil’ Pipp,” Zipp said, affectionately running a hoof through her hair. “Your big sister’s gonna be the first Pegasus to fly in thousands of moons!” Zipp then pulled her goggles down before leaning out the window. “Hear that Equestria? I’m gonna fly!”
“ZEPHERINA!”
“Oh, hi Mommy!”
Haven skipped to a halt just below the tower, with Zoom and Thunder in tow. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? You get down from there this instant!”
“But Mommy, I’m gonna do it! I’m gonna fly, just like you said I could!” Zipp said with a grin so large it could be seen from the ground.
“Zepherina! You get down here this instant before you hurt yourself!”
“Silly mommy, I’ll be fine. I did the math,” Zipp said proudly.
“Enough of this nonsense! Zepherina, you cannot fly!”
“But Mommy! You told me I could do it,” Zipp pouted.
“I said no such thing!”
“You told me I could do it as long as I didn’t give up.”
“I… uh,” Haven stuttered as the memory came back to her. “Well, I suppose…”
“...and didn’t you say I should never give up on my dreams? That I need to live life to the fullest?”
“Well, uh, you see, what I meant was…” Haven frantically looked back and forth between Zoom and Thunder, silently pleading for help.
“Uh, Zipp?” Zoom cautiously asked. “You see, your mother was…”
“...Lying?” Thunder added.
Zoom and Haven both turned to glare at Thunder, before looking back to Zipp. The filly slowly frowned. “Oh,” she said, disappointed. “So, uh, dreams don’t really come true then?”
“...usually no.”
“Even with lots of hard work.”
Thunder swallowed. “N-not really.”
“So life is just biding your time until death comes and sends you into an eternal nothingness?”
“Kinda?”
“Huh,” Zipp said, leaning away from the window. The three let out a collective sigh of relief.
“Oh thank goodness,” Haven said.
“Wait,” Zipp said. Queen Haven froze. “If life is meaningless,” she continued, “but we only get one chance at it, then I better make the most of it!”
“Oh no,” Thunder said. “She’s full of unyielding optimism again!”
Zipp then leapt off the window sill.
“I’M A WONDERBOLT!”
“NO!” Haven wailed. She collapsed onto the ground, burying her face into her hooves. A million thoughts raced through her head. How could this have happened? Why didn’t she put a safety latch on the window? Why didn’t she station a guard outside their bedroom? Why didn’t…
The Queen’s musings were interrupted by the sound of a filly laughing.
“Look at me mommy, I’m doing it!”
Cautiously, Haven looked up. Her eyes widened. “I-I don’t believe it,” she heard Zoom say.
“Z-zepherina? You’re…”
“She’s gliding,” Thunder finished for her.
“Wow. I’ve never seen a filly able to glide like that before,” Zoom added.
Zipp landed in the courtyard with a “Yippee!” She then turned and ran towards her mother. “Mommy, Mommy!” Zipp said, practically vibrating with excitement. “Did you see me? I did it! I flew! Just like you said I could! Mommy… why are you crying?”
Haven whipped her eyes. “Oh, Zipp,” she said, pulling her into a hug.
“You are so grounded.”
Also LikedSimilarAuthor
- Lulamoon-Crystal · 3.8k words · 33 1 · 1.8k views
- Flamewarrior02 · 1.5k words · 36 4 · 1.4k views
- Flamewarrior02 · 1.6k words · 17 0 · 954 views
- Flamewarrior02 · 4.2k words · 48 0 · 2.2k views
- Admiral Producer · 1.5k words · 60 4 · 1.4k views
- Shrinky Frod · 4.3k words · 55 4 · 1.7k views
- Flamewarrior02 · 13k words · 32 1 · 1.5k views
- Wise Cracker · 3.3k words · 24 2 · 399 views
Stats
Page generated in 0.127 seconds
Total duration
980 users online
54,924 hits today, 2,244,100 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
so zip went from wanting to fly to follow her dream to then doing it as a you only live one thing after she was hit with reality? well at least she did the math
This contest has a ludicrous amount of entries, I'm always impressed to see there's still more coming all the time. It's great to see such drive.
A fun little add-on story! Anything with filly Zipp is A-tier reading. A few spelling errors or missing words here and there, but nothing too distracting. Good luck in the contest!
Decided to give this a read based on the Douglas Adams reference in the title. There's some entertainment value and I gave it an upvote, but you might want to reread your work before posting so you can catch your errors.
"Sculpture" is the art; "sculptor" is the artist.
You got it right the first time; not sure what happened all the times after that.
That apostrophe doesn't belong there.
And they are SO putting a lock on that window.
In fact, make it ALL the windows...just in case.
11227898
Not to mention putting a guard or two nearby as a precaution.
11227743
The math doesn't lie
11227784
11227884
I went back and fixed the errors. Thank you for the kind words and pointing out my mistakes
11227898
11228178
Zypher Height's is not OSHA approved
Okay, that's simply adorable. But good pony, I feel sorry for Haven as she's watching this happen.
Aah, I finally got 'round to reading this! And boy was it worth it.
That was adorable! Lil' Zipp is already hella adorable, I have no clue how you made her even more cute, but you managed it.
For a story with only 1000 words this was paced amazingly well. I really don’t get how you brilliant people mange to do that, but I digress. Seeing Zoom and Thunder again is amazing, and Queen Haven's critiques were fun and a great way to start this off.
I have a little technical question:
So when Zoom says she’s never seen a filly glide like that, does that imply the royalty's been pretending to be able to fly even before Zipp and Pipp, or is it implying that all Pegasi can glide if they want, but most don’t know how, which would mean fillies and colts as well? Or am I looking to deep into the lines? Probably that last one.
Overall: Wholesome! Deserves this favorite, bud!
11229328
Brilliant people, you say...
*Ahem* But yeah, I'm glad you liked it! And to answer your question, my head cannon is that most pegasi can still glide without magic. It's skill that takes practice, though, and by Zipp's time only a few, like the military, would bother to learn it (propaganda that common pegasi weren't meant to fly didn't help either). But Zipp, being Zipp, taught herself how to glide (at an impressively young age to boot). Eventually Zipp learned that she wasn't really flying, but she kept practicing anyways. Then came the day when she actually could fly...
TL;DR, the second part was right. Thank you for the favorite!
Cute profile pic and story! Great job, Zipp!
11229868
Fun fact: originally I wasn't gonna watch Tell Your Tale. But then I saw that screen cap...
the title is hilarious and the twist of zipp gliding down to safety is great
11230017
Noice
Awesome story.
11260561
Thank you
On the one hand, at this point in the timeline, the guards should still think the royal family can fly and that Haven can snatch Zipp out of the air if need be. On the other, this is still a delightful blend of positive nihilism and shameless feghootery. Thank you for it and best of luck in the judging.
11265899
Thank you for the kind words! And yeah, now that you mentioned it I might have a bit of a plot-hole, although I guess could hand-wave it and say that a few of the guards know.
Or should I hoof-wave it...?
Howdy, hi~!
This was adorable. Love the short story that really captures the personality of all the characters present. I particularly love the line from Thunder about unyielding optimism. Excellent read, thank you~!
i can just about hear Jane Krakowski's voice!
ah, classic! poor Zoom!
oh, yeah, that is certainly warranting of some panic!
augh, that is just so cute! Pipp being too young to understand anything said to her, Zipp talking to her anyway, calling her "Lil' Pipp", all of it is so great. and yeah, can definitely picture a younger Zipp trying something like this
brings to mind the following sketch:
made all the worse for them being pegasi who pretend to fly in a world where everypony knows that pegasi once could fly and would give anything to have what is rightfully theirs back. great stuff!
aha, a bit zero to sixty for a foal, but that is dark humor for ya
ahaha, love this line!
ehehe, that is a fun ending, all the more so for the dip into nihilism in the middle of the story! makes this read like a text about the triumph of Zipp's you-only-live-once philosophy over the despair of nihilism, which is an interesting bit of texture to chew on. in any case, this was really great! silly and cynical without overdoing it on either, letting the ridiculous characters and situation speak for themselves, with a great sense of comedic timing. thank you so much for it!
11298025
11297606
I might have to make "Oh no, she’s full of unyielding optimism again" my catchphrase
Hello! Have a review. This was really nice, and if anything more satisfying G5 than Tell Your Tale itself has (largely) been so far. Zipp was particularly nicely characterised. Have a like, and well done on the Bronze Medal!
11313459
Howdy howdy, and thank you for the review! I'm glad you liked Zipp's characterization here. My goal was to show how her more adventurous side, which A: her mother both encourages and discourages, and B: how it never really goes away, even is Zipp gains some cynicism over the years. So yeah, I'm glad to see that I was able to communicate that.
Oh, and thank you for the up-vote.
This was a fun little vignette. Oh man, the image of toothless baby Pipp was priceless!
Not bad.
Burning should be burying.
This was a fun and simple read!
It had some fun lines, and it captured Zipp and Haven well.
Pipp's part was a powerful performance!
Patrick Stewart wishes he could play a character as impactful as she was to the story.
Pipp was pivotal to the progression of the plot!
Zipp, Haven, and the guards were alright I guess.
I had a silly idea for a comment, so I ran with it.
11561580
11561962
Glad you enjoyed my comment!
Aw, that’s cute!
I love it