Rebirth of Magic: Zipping It

by The Blue EM2

Over the Mountains we Go!

The next morning we packed up all our equipment and prepared to set off on our journey towards Bridlewood. As I was loading my supplies into a travel sack and pulling it onto my back, I overheard a brief discussion from Feldsturm and Opwinden.

"Sir, you should lead," Opwinden said. "You've been out here for much longer than me, and after all you were my commanding officer when you vanished."

Feldsturm laughed. "I'm but a Captain, sir. I'm the one who should be calling you sir. And from what I can see you're are nothing but the finest of soldiers. Lead the way, Colonel. I shall be happy to give expertise as needed."

As the other soldiers made ready to move, mom and dad still put their supplies together and loaded them onto their backs. "This isn't exactly what you'd call light," mom commented.

"No," dad admitted. "It is quite heavy. But such is the life of living in the mountains. It's a good thing we were able to get the running water working- without it we'd probably smell so awful Kirin would smell us long before we appeared." He paused. "But point the way and I shall gladly guide you there."

Mom nodded. "In which case, we need to head towards the other lands."

Golden nodded in return. "Very well."

As we left the encampment, extinguishing any traces of our time here, the mountains and clouds once again loomed ahead of us like mighty sentinels of time. No matter how many times I saw them I couldn't help but be overwhelmed by an incredible sense of wonder at these towering sentinels that had stood here for centuries, probably millenia. How much had passed by them in the years they had stood strong and tall?

It also reminded me of how small I was. I may have been crown princess, but I was ultimately insignificant compared to these towering peaks. In the long annals of history I didn't matter all that much. If the entire history of the world were to be reduced to one book, ponykind would appear in the final sentence of that book, and of the words in those sentences I would barely occupy one of the last letters.

Wow. That really is rather a lot to think about, I guess.

I continued along, noticing mom and dad talking happily, clearly catching up on what had happened in the intervening years. Given mom had been here for a few weeks at best I have no clue how she was disclosing things from before that point. Hey, at least she didn't end up here before me and Pipp were born. Swapping bodies is bad enough, but having to give birth twice in an alien body far from home? Sounds like nightmare fuel.

Speaking of alien, I had no clue how we were going to break the news to dad that we weren't quite whom he'd once known. Even if we were to break the news at all, to be honest. I sighed, and looked at the clouds below us, noticing we were beginning to lose height. Perhaps our journey was almost over.

After some more walking, we were at the bottom of the mountains, and looking out over a field.

"That was a solid walk," mom said. "Helps to get the breakfast out. I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but the ration pack was rather stodgy." She quickly glanced down and up again. "I do rather like keeping my figure as it is."

"If I may, Your Majesty," Opwinden said, "you have an exercise regime that would knock a soldier half your age flat."

"Well one thing hasn't changed!" dad smiled. "But your point about the food stands. It's partly why we call them MRE- meals rarely edible."

"I shall have to launch an investigation into this once we have returned to power," mom commented. "But we have a mission to complete."

"We have a road sign, sir!" said a soldier. "The border with unicorn territory is this way!"

"Good," mom said. "The that is where we shall go."

Dad looked in shock. "Travel direct into unicorn territory? You can't be serious."

I spoke up. "Dad, this is serious. I've made allies with the other tribes, and they're fighting to help us rebuild the world. If we're gonna stop Gulfstream and restore the world to peace we need all the help we can get- our little band isn't strong enough to pull this off on our own. We need their help, and besides, they're my friends."

"I can vouch for them," mom said. "Their help will be invaluable, and I imagine my presence there will give them some much needed negotiation clout."

Dad nodded. "Alright then. I'll guide you to Bridlewood, but we'll have to be sneaky if we're going to avoid the sentries. The border is fortified."

"Which border isn't around here?" I said, with a wry smile. "Cold war, huh?"

We then set off again into the plains, with the flatter terrain meaning we could build up some speed as we made our way towards the unicorn lands. The sun shone and the clouds were out of the sky, allowing us to get up some speed as we walked along towards our destination with determination in our hearts and strength in our limbs.

At last, we reached the border, and stopped. A gate was down to prohibit access. Large concrete towers loomed over the landscape below, and we suspected they had armed guards inside, trained to intercept intruders. Before them was a layer of barbed wire, and some tank traps nearby.

"Not much chance of us getting in there with that lot trained on us," Feldsturm said. "We'll have to find a gap in the line somewhere and move that way. It's not all concrete towers- there are gaps in it. Somepony must have opened the fence somewhere. Let's go."

So we did, slipping away as far as we could and then moving towards another section of the wall.

Just as we arrived then Opwinden called a halt. "Listen," he said. "Engines."

Sure enough, the rumbling of engines could be heard in the distance, followed by large dust plumes behind something or other. Looming out of the darkness was a formation of six metal boxes. As they got closer, the treads became visible, as did other features such as turrets, barrels, and other features.

They were tanks. But were they loyal to us or supporting Gulfstream?

"If they're hostile, we have no way of engaging," I said quietly. "Unless anypony brought a panzerfaust."

Luckily, the tanks weren't firing on us. They rattled to a stop near our position, and the commander of one tank opened the top hatch and opened it. "As I live and breathe," she said. "Boys, it's the Royal Family!"

She saluted. "My greetings, Your Majesty and Your Royal Highnesses. What brings you here so far from Zephyr Heights."

"It's a story rather too long to get into here, but we're fleeing the General," I said quickly.

"Well, this unit is still loyal to the Crown," the commander replied.

"But why are you here?" Dad asked, looking surprised.

"We were performing a scouting mission," the commander answered. "Just in case the unicorns are planning anything."

"We need transport to Bridlewood," mom said quickly. "Can you get us there?"

"It won't be an easy journey ma'am," said the commander, "but I can get you there. Those flak jackets and helmets will help you though."

Huh. I'd forgotten I was wearing one for a moment.

We hopped on the side plates of the tanks, which sat over the tracks, and with a single order the formation of machines got underway, driving along the border wall at speed. I have to say these were pretty speedy for lumbering weapons of war.

We arrived at a gap in the wall, which seemed to have been abandoned. Maybe this was why the unicorns in Bridlewood seemed to have so little- the cost of upkeep on this wall must have been enormous.

"Moving forward. Hold on." The tank we were on rattled through the wall, with the others following behind it. Once we were through, they formed up in single file and moved off towards our destination.

"Welcome to unicorn territory, boys," one of the tank commanders radioed. "Hope you got your tennis balls ready."

As we rolled through unicorn territory, I couldn't help but notice how similar it looked to the terrain on the other side of the border. The same rolling hills surrounded all of us, and the soil looked the same. I guess a border is a somewhat academic exercise, though at least they weren't just straight lines drawn onto a map.

A forest rolled out of the distance, our vehicles moving to adjust. "Deploy wheel plates. Move slowly. Don't let the unicorns try anything clever."

As the vehicles rolled under the tree canopy, I felt a sense of dread in the pit of my stomach. This would either go well, or horribly.

Author's Note:

Our heroes have finally crossed the border into unicorn territory, and have picked up some unlikely allies along the way. The tank operation is based on a common Cold War tactic of patrolling near borders to find weak points- many NATO and Warsaw Pact light armour formtation were fielded for just that.

The border is based loosely on the Berlin Wall. A complex maze of defensive structures and concrete walls, the Berlin Wall served the double purpose of keeping its population in and enemy troops out. Although much of it was demolished with German reunification in 1990, large sections survive in use as street canvasses- and for those particularly interested in the history of the GDR an entire section has been preserved as it was in the 1970s.

The panzerfaust (German for 'tank fist') was a cheaply made fire-and-forget anti-tank weapon used in the dying days of WW2. Devastating at close range, German units would often give these weapons to children, taking advantage of the average person's hesitancy to fire on a child to their advantage. The 2014 film Fury contains a depiction of such an attack, nicely driving home just how brutal the last months of WW2 were.

Colonial era maps have a rather interesting and notable feature- borders between territories rarely, if ever, followed geographical features and were straight lines drawn on maps. A notable example is the border between Egypt and Sudan, which is a series of straight lines drawn on maps. Similar can be seen in the western United States- the borders between Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah have been arbitrarily drawn on a map (this is why the four states meet at right angles). These sorts of borders would end up triggering conflicts in the post-colonial era, with some of the strife during the war with Islamic State partly being caused by Colonial-era British borders.

Comments

[The Blue EM2]

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New chapter, fresh for the dinner table!

[Comickook]

Another rather well done chapter. Definitely appreciate the work going into the dialogue, characterizations and future chapter set-up/set-up for the last chapter of this part of Phase Four. REALLY liked the bits between the Captain and the Colonel as well as "Zipp" and "Haven" explaining as much as they could to their father (in "Zipp's case)/husband (in "Haven's" case) that wouldn't make them sound COMPLETELY crazy before they encountered that group of Pegasus loyalists on their way to Bridlewood.

REALLY looking forward to the next chapter/last chapter for this batch.

[shining paladin]

the tank crew fought to the bitter end sweetie belle could learn from them but she chose to throw her friends to the wolves a REAL friend stands by you to the bitter end

[shining paladin]

" We fought the wrong enemy"-George S Patton awesome chapter mate keep it up cant wait for the next chapter

[ScisetShimmerEvan]

Feldsturm laughed. "I'm but a Captain, sir. I'm the one who should be calling you sir. And from what I can see you're are nothing but the finest of soldiers. Lead the way, Colonel. I shall be happy to give expertise as needed."

you are nothing but the finest of soldiers.*

I continued along, noticing mom and dad talking happily, clearly catching up on what had happened in the intervening years. Given mom had been here for a few weeks at best I have no clue how she was disclosing things from before that point. Hey, at least she didn't end up here before me and Pipp were born. Swapping bodies is bad enough, but having to give birth twice in an alien body far from home? Sounds like nightmare fuel.

Yep...

"Good," mom said. "The that is where we shall go."

"Then that is where*

"Welcome to unicorn territory, boys," one of the tank commanders radioed. "Hope you got your tennis balls ready."

You don't need them.

A forest rolled out of the distance, our vehicles moving to adjust. "Deploy wheel plates. Move slowly. Don't let the unicorns try anything clever."

They won't cause they have no magic.

As the vehicles rolled under the tree canopy, I felt a sense of dread in the pit of my stomach. This would either go well, or horribly.

Mhm.

[The Blue EM2]

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As noted in the short description, the sheer weirdness of the scenario presented here helps to add to the strangeness of how the protagonist feels-so the only real way to achieve results is to tell a version of the truth. Given that G5's biggest theme is the conflict between truth and propaganda it felt like a natural fit.

[The Blue EM2]

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Fury was filmed not too far from where I live in the UK. Principal photography was conducted in Oxfordshire, whilst the vehicles used were from the Bovington collection in Norfolk-the home of Tiger 131. The film marked the first use of an authentic Tiger tank in a WW2 movie since 1946.

[The Blue EM2]

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That quote applies here too. The three tribes are so locked into their views that they cannot see the bigger threat to all of them.

[The Blue EM2]

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1. Fixed.

2. That's partly an allusion to how TF fiction tends to include a romanticised element. In reality such a scenario has the potential to be rather horrifying.

3. Fixed.

4. Not that they would know that.

5. Indeed they don't, but they have conventional defences like tank traps and mines.

6. Tomorrow will reveal all.