Rebirth of Magic: Zipping It

by The Blue EM2

Stand your Ground

I slowly came to in wherever it was I had landed, and glanced about me in surprise. "Huh... where am I?" I was groggy and having difficulty focusing, rather like that time I was in the hospital when this whole mess had started.

I looked about me in surprise. Had I been dreaming this entire time and I was just waking up? If so, that had been an incredibly long and intricate dream I'd been having the last few times.

But something felt wrong, off, awkward about the circumstances. My room wasn't these sorts of colours, nor was it so small.

And furthermore, if I was in my room, why could I smell jet fuel?

I suddenly sat up and looked about realising where I was. Or rather, I moved my body up as best as I could, as I realised I was somehow strapped in. The small space around me was the badly crumpled remains of a helicopter, which appeared to have been downed somehow.

I then remembered what had happened. We'd been flying for Bridlewood when the chopper took a hit and crashed with us onboard. It seemed I was still stuck in the wreckage.

I looked about to see if anypony else was still onboard. Most of the other occupants were motionless, and I assumed the worst. I looked around, and saw mom slumped against me. No. Please no. She can't be dead!

I tried to reach down to release the straps, but something wasn't moving. The buckles seemed to be jammed on pretty tightly. I began to panic, bashing at them over and over again to try and get them to release, but it wasn't working.

I looked around, and suddenly I saw a spark from what appeared to be ruined wiring in the cockpit. That was bad news. The tank hadn't been empty when we crashed, and that meant fuel was still loaded onboard the chopper wreckage or potentially spilling all over the ground. And if it was spilling across the ground, and there was a spark, then that meant-

Suddenly, there was a bang from the cockpit, and more electricals began to pop. The cockpit was on fire! My eyes widened in fear. If those sparks got into contact with any of the leaking fuel, this chopper would go up in flames- and that would probably be it.

I went back to trying to rip the straps open, but I seemed to lack the strength to do it. Just then I heard stirring to one side.

"Tha... cold here... dark..."

It was mom! She was stirring! I nudged her pretty forcefully with my foreleg, and she looked over. "Zipp? Where are we?"

"We need to get out of here!" I said, quickly. "I can't get the straps free! Mom, help me, please!"

I didn't care in that moment she technically wasn't my real mom. She was the closest thing I had to a parent figure out here, and as such I pleaded for help from her.

Luckily, she got to work, soon clipping open the straps as if she'd done this before. She then undid her own, sliding out of the seat before we both slipped out of the chopper wreckage, popped our wings open to glide to the ground, and landed outside.

As I've previously noted, pegasi can glide short distances, so getting down there was easy.

We then discovered what had happened to the others. The Colonel appeared to be directing some sort of firefighting effort, and Zoom was using a fire extinguisher on the cabin electricals to try and stop the fire in the cockpit from spreading.

"We're safe now," I said, to announce our presence.

"Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, you're both safe!" the Colonel said, with a look of sincere joy on his face. "Faust be praised, for she smiles upon us this day!"

Zoom had seemingly dealt with the electrical fire, and as such made her way back over. "How bad a hit did we take?" I asked.

"It's not looking good," Zoom replied. "We lost most of the troops onboard the chopper when it crashed. Myself, the Colonel, two others, and the Royal Family are all that's left."

I looked about me. We were stuck on some sort of mountain in the middle of nowhere, and I was unable to get my bearings. "We're not in a good spot right now," I said. "Where exactly are we?"

"According to my maps, we're stuck in the Peaks of Peril," the Colonel replied, consulting his display. "Quite a long way from our destination of Bridlewood."

"How long will this journey take?" mom asked.

"Several days by hoof over difficult terrain," the Colonel explained. "This area is incredibly dense in terms of terrain, and has many changes of elevation between here and there. What little of it has been comprehensively mapped has large amounts of terrain missing. And who knows if there are still Kirin out there. We'll have to keep our watch out there if we're going to make it through this alive."

Peaks of Peril? Of course! That's the place Applejack and Fluttershy visited in Season 8, not to mention where Autumn Blaze is from. It all made sense now! The geography of the world did seem to be lining up with what I remembered of Generation 4.

Before I could say anything, mom spoke up again. "What about the wreckage? Should we dispose of it?"

Opwinden looked surprised. "Your Majesty, I would strongly advise against that," he said. "We only have limited quantities of explosives and ammunition on us- which we might need if we have to do any unexpected tunnelling. I would personally advise we conserve resources for later as we continue out journey."

Mom nodded. "I understand. Seeing as we've not got anything else we need to do here, apparently, shall we be on our way?"

The Colonel nodded. "Yes, Your Majesty. FORM UP AND PREPARE TO MARCH!"

"I don't think we'll be marching over this terrain," said Zoom, glancing about her. "Far too steep and rocky."

The Colonel snorted. "Whatever are you talking about? We are pegasi, we thrive anywhere!"

---

So, we began our climb into the Peaks of Peril, with only our wits and limited supplies with us. As we gained altitude and saw the mountains all around us, my mind began to drift to my friends. Where were they now? What were they doing? How had they fared against the various myriad and horrible threats out here?

Zoom's words temporarily pulled me out of my thinking. "Heads on the swivel, everypony. The Kirin could be anywhere. There's no guarantee we purged them all from this region."

Well, that got dark quickly. The fact we hadn't seen many of the other races in G5 (a singular dragon, to be precise) had always led me to wonder whether the other races were extinct. But to learn they'd been systematically wiping the Kirin out and were so nonchalant about it...

We had an uphill battle to get over these attitudes, safe to say.

We reached a section of level ground, and we stopped for a moment to rest. Suddenly, one of the soldiers spoke up. "This is just fucked."

"What did you say?" I asked, looking at him.

"We lost a lot of good soldiers back there. Stallions and mares with families, not just in that crash but in Zephyr Heights too. And here we are running like cowards."

"That's enough, private," the Colonel said. "There's nothing we could have done to detect that SAM."

"Don't tell me to calm down!" the private continued. "We've got no idea what the fuck we're even doing here. Blundering across mountains with no idea where we're going."

"We're heading to Bridlewood," I calmly reminded him. "That's our best shot at fixing this mess."

"We're fixing this mess by going straight to where our enemies live?" He shook his head. "That's just crazy. We really are going downhill as a species."

I glared at him. "What makes you think you can speak to a princess that way?"

"Your title means jack shit out here!" the private said. "We're all just survivors of a series of colossal fuckups. And considering you've spent so much time hanging around with smallbrains and mind readers it's no wonder we're in such a mess. At least I'm doing my job. You just sit in your ivory tower waiting for things to unfuck themselves!"

I'd had enough. I punched him, and before I knew what was happening we were brawling in the dirt. I don't reall recall the specifics of the fight, but before I knew what had happened we'd both been pulled back and dumped on the ground.

The Colonel was admonishing the soldier with a target volume of drowning out jet engines, but that's not to say I had it easy either. Mom's face simply spoke of intense disappointment.

"Really?" she said. "Fighting in the dirt like an unruly schoolyard foal? Honestly, what were you thinking?"

I tried to form some words, but I was cut off before I could.

"You're the Crown princess, Zephryina. Act like it."

I hung my head. My pride would never admit it in pony but she was right.

Luckily, it seemed that Opwinden was also done, and we then continued on our way, the tension continuing to boil between all of us.

Author's Note:

Well, it's been a few months since we were last here, eh? Since November an awful lot has happened in the world, and we return to Zipp and crew. It's perhaps fitting these chapters are releasing in March- as in March 2023 this project began with Zipp's story in that point in Nottingham, which feels a million miles away now.

The chopper crash is partly flavoured with accounts from the Battle of Mogadishu, a seriously botched target extraction that resulted in US Military forces being pinned down for hours by Somalian insurgents- an incident which dealt a severe blow to American pride globally, as a less technologically advanced foe had defeated them again.

The Peaks of Peril were largely unexplored in FiM, with only one episode really looking at them and the Kirin society. This was, in my opinion, a shame, as their culture had the opportunity to be quite interesting.

The final scene is based on one from the 2012 game Spec Ops: the Line, the same game which inspired several aspects of Sunny's story. Safe to say, if normally professional and well kept figures are acting like this shit has truly hit the fan.

Tomorrow, the journey continues.

Comments

[The Blue EM2]

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We are back in business, folks! This story is back!

[Comickook]

Hey there. Thanks immensely for getting the first chapter of Phase Four up and running. Really appreciate the effort going into the dialogue, characterizations, action and future chapter set-up. You did a really good job on the recall concerning both before and just after the crash, as well as the use of the Peaks of Peril, the mention of the remaining supplies, the bits with the understandably terrified private concerning both the Colonel trying to calm him down and "Zipp" getting into a brief brawl over some disrespectful, but understandable in context outburst. Well, the next few chapters are probably going to cover the trip to Bridlewood to catch up with the others And probably include "Zipp" and "Haven" having to escape at least one or two of Chan's traps like the other six have had to do in Phase Three .

Anyway, really looking forward to more of this.

[ScisetShimmerEvan]

Suddenly, there was a bang from the cockpit, and more electricals began to pop. The cockpit was on fire! My eyes widened in fear. If those sparks got into contact with any of the leaking fuel, this chopper would go up in flames- and that would probably be it.

This is bad. Real bad!!!

We then discovered what had happened to the others. The Colonel appeared to be directing some sort of firefighting effort, and Zoom was using a fire extinguisher on the cabin electricals to try and stop the fire in the cockpit from spreading.

Good to know they're alright.

"It's not looking good," Zoom replied. "We lost most of the troops onboard the chopper when it crashed. Myself, the Colonel, two others, and the Royal Family are all that's left."

Guess they did suffer some fatalities afterall.

"We're fixing this mess by going straight to where our enemies live?" He shook his head. "That's just crazy. We really are going downhill as a species."

No you're not.

"Your title means jack shit out here!" the private said. "We're all just survivors of a series of colossal fuckups. And considering you've spent so much time hanging around with smallbrains and mind readers it's no wonder we're in such a mess. At least I'm doing my job. You just sit in your ivory tower waiting for things to unfuck themselves!"

Ok, he's gone too far!

I'd had enough. I punched him, and before I knew what was happening we were brawling in the dirt. I don't reall recall the specifics of the fight, but before I knew what had happened we'd both been pulled back and dumped on the ground.

I don't really recall*

[The Blue EM2]

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Part of the journey here is modelled on a personal experience; during one of my journeys through the mountainous regions of Scotland I lost my bearings due to low cloud and get hopelessly lost. I eventually found my way back to civilisation, but it was a frightening few hours nonetheless.

The oppressive atmosphere of the Peaks of Peril would be enough to drive anybody into a state of fear; things aren't looking too good if the unity of the unit is falling apart.

[The Blue EM2]

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1. Bad indeed.

2. They are indeed.

3. Sadly. It'd be unrealistic if they hadn't.

4. Not the view this guy holds. As previously discussed the racism has an extremely strong hold on their minds, and Zipp's interactions with Sunny and co won't have helped the perception.

5. True, but Zipp didn't help by punching said soldier in the face.

6. Fixed. Things are super bad if the characters are brawling like hooligans.

[ScisetShimmerEvan]

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5. Touché

[The Blue EM2]

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Yup. Not the best of days for her.

[shining paladin]

great chapter mate keep it up

[The Blue EM2]

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Glad you liked. More to come!