• Published 23rd Nov 2024
  • 333 Views, 11 Comments

Storming Through Your Fears - Flamewarrior02



Alone, Zipp must face her worst fears or lose everything

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Setting the Stage. Zipp's battle within.

Perhaps, dear readers, the beginning of this story sounds familiar.

It all started when a portal of an unknown origin appeared in front of the Together Tree in Maretime Bay. The ponies were naturally cautious and weary of such a thing, afraid of what could come from the other side. After much debate on what should be done, it was decided that a team of ponies would go and investigate the mysterious object. That was comprised of Zipp Storm, her sister Pipp Petals, her coltfriend Hitch Trailblazer, along with dragon son Sparky, and her close friends Misty Brightdawn, Izzy Moonbow, and Sunny Starscout.

Together, they entered the portal to discover the snowy world of Starlight Ridge, along with the auroricorns that called it home. Initially frightened by the presence of strange ponies in their village, the auroricorns soon came to welcome their new guests. With two of them, Violet Frost and Comet, acting as their guides, they showed the six ponies around their home and all of the fun actives the did during Starshine Time.

However, the fun was not to last, as suddenly the auroricorns' friendly nature changed to one of worry as they quickly put an end to everything and attempted to usher their guests away. Unsure as to what was going on, our heroes initially complied and went back to the portal. However, they knew in their hearts that something was wrong, and that they had to do something for their new friends.

And so they returned to the village to find the auroricorns acting strangely, walking around with massive, unsettling smiles on their faces, as if they were in some kind of trance, looking for something in the snow. And that was when they saw her.

Allura.

A winged, purple snow leopard, along with her rabbit minion Twitch, who had the power of hypnosis that she used on the Auroricorns. The site of seeing her take control of Violet despite her resistance was frightening for all to watch, but it was Zipp who was scared the most at seeing the feline's powers in use.

Able to conceal her fear for now, she and the rest of her friends were able to encounter Violet and Comet as they entered into the woods in their mindless search of something for Allura.

By sheer dumb luck, the Mane Six were somehow able to snap them out of their hypnotic state. Once free, the auroricorns explained their story of how Allura suddenly appeared one day and made herself the self proclaimed leader of the village by forcibly taking the Nova Charm. They also mentioned how Allura was able to get them to obey her commands with just simple purring, and how she was using that power to make them search for a special star that would allow her to move between realms.

Hearing that only frightened Zipp even more. It was only because her friends were equally shocked that they didn't notice her fears.

They had considered fleeing from the village with everypony, but when Comet ran back to gather everypony, he fell back under the trance just by being in the area.

Any composure Zipp had at that point had all but evaporated. She began to pant heavily as her vision blurred and her legs became weak, unable to keep her balanced that she almost fell atop of Misty. "Whoa! You okay, Zipp?" Misty quietly asked her.

Leaning up against Misty for support, Zipp was barely able to find her footing. "Y-yeah." She assured the unicorn with a forced smile. "I'm fine."

"What'd we do?!" Violet nervously asked. "What'd we do!? What'd we do!?"

Sunny looked at the Nova Charm hovering by Allura as she flew around and inspected the auroricorns at work. "Hmmm." She thought of a plan. "If whoever has the Nova Charm is in charge..."

"Then all we need to do is take it back and everypony will be freed!" Violet realized before she asked. "But how are we going to do that?"

"First we'd need somewhere safe to plan." Sunny proposed before telling the others. "Quick, everypony, to the mess hall."

Zipp, who had been toning out what Sunny and Violet had been saying, heard that a nearly blurted out loud enough for Allura to hear them. "What!?"

"Ssssshhh!" Pipp quickly covered her sister's mouth. After checking to make sure they weren't spotted, Pipp lowered her hoof and whispered. "You gotta be quiet, or else we'll be caught." She scolded Zipp.

"And you think walking into the village square won't get us caught faster?" Zipp retorted.

"If we keep our heads down, and stay away from Allura, we should avoid her hypnotic powers." Sunny assured her before she lead the others into sneaking towards their sanctuary.

Using the snow sculptures they made earlier as cover, they were able to avoid Allura's detection and trance. For the entire way, Pipp stayed by Zipp's side, consistently having to help keep her sister grounded and not fly away any time Allura got close to them like a frightened bird. Zipp's behavior worried Pipp immensely. She hadn't seen her older sister this afraid for months.

Once they had arrived in the mess hall, Sunny and Violet had started on brainstorming a plan to get the Nova Charm from Allura, with Izzy taking the front stage with a song about creativity. As that was going on, everypony else was listening in. Well, almost everypony else.

If Zipp was listening, she wasn't doing a good job of showing it. Instead, she seemed to be more focused on watching the window like a hawk, refusing to look away for a split second. This behavior eventually did get the attention of those closest to Zipp, and once Izzy was done singing and started working on the plan with Sunny and Violet, they went over to Zipp to see what was troubling her. "Hey, honey." Hitch said as he, Pipp, and Misty walked up to the pegasus.

With her being so distracted by what's going on outside, Zipp didn't hear their approach until Hitch spoke, and jumped when she heard him. "Aah!" She exclaimed as she placed a hoof on her heart to calm it down before she turned to look at the group. "Hitch!" She scolded him.

"Sorry." Hitch apologized with a sheepish smile. "We just wanted to make sure you were doing okay."

"Uh, yeah, I'm fine." Zipp lied, but her nervousness made it very obvious.

Not needing any convincing to know her sister wasn't fine, Pipp walked up to her and wrapped a hoof over her shoulder. "Zipp, come on, it's us. We never judged you before, we're not going to judge you now." She assured her big sister. "You can tell us what's scaring you."

Sparky decided to do his duty as Emotional Support Dragon and cuddled up to his mother's leg. However, despite the cute gesture, it wasn't enough to get Zipp to calm down as her head snapped back to the window to make sure they weren't spotted. The others saw this, and started to get an idea of what could possibly be frightening Zipp. "It's Allura, isn't it?" Hitch guessed as he joined Pipp at Zipp's side.

Zipp said nothing, and instead only nodded while keeping her gaze on the outside, and the evil snow leopard flying around. Noticing the pegasus also seemed to be emitting shame from her feelings, Misty stepped up to comfort her. "Hey, it's all right. We're scared too." She told Zipp. "I mean, having powers like hypnosis? That's scary for anypony."

"No! You don't get it!" Zipp told them as she broke off from the embrace. "It's more than just her powers being scary. It's what could happen if she uses those powers on me." Just the thought was making the pegasus start to panic, and those with her did their best to comfort her.

"Hey, Zipp, look at me." Pipp said as she held her sister's face, forcing the white pegasus to look into her eyes.

This gesture seemed to calm Zipp down just enough so she was speaking again. "The last time a villain mind controlled me, it nearly ruined my life." She said shakily.

"Opaline's necklace was designed to bring out the worst of the pony wearing it." Misty explained what she knew in hopes to calm the pegasus down. "Allura's spell seems to just be taking away a pony's free will and forcing them to obey her." Pipp, Hitch, and even Sparky gave the unicorn looks of unamusement at her information. "What?" Misty said in her defense. "My point being its not the same form of mind control. Even if Allura uses it on us, it won't be the same as when Opaline-"

"How can you be sure?" Zipp shakingly asked. Before Misty or anypony else could respond, she asked again. "How can you be sure!?" She shouted, now gaining the attention of the planning group. "It doesn't matter what the purpose of the spell is, all that matters is that I would be losing control of myself again! And what could happen after that? What if I end up going even more insane than last time! My dark side could actually get the better of me this time! I could kill all of you!" She started hyperventilating at the thought of loosing herself again.

"Wait, what?" Violet said at all of this.

"It's a long story." Izzy assured her. "About five or so hours. Just let them handle it. They know her best."

On the verge of another panic attack, Zipp nearly collapsed to the floor, but thankfully Hitch caught her in time. "Zipp. Zipp." He said gently. "It's going to be okay."

"But how-" Zipp was about to ask before Hitch answered for her.

"I know because we've been through this before. And we over came all the impossible odds." Hitch took Zipp's hooves into his own just as he had when he comforted her on their first date. "And no matter what happens, we will overcome this too."

"Mmmhmm!" Everypony else nodded in agreement before Pipp said her piece. "We will get out of this unharmed, Zipp." She assured her big sister.

Zipp looked at her little sister and quietly asked in a plea. "Promise?"

"Promise." Pipp promised everything was going to be okay.


It all went wrong. The plan to trick Allura into thinking she found the special star she needed had initial gone as planned, but then it all fell apart. Turns out having the Nova Charm or not didn't matter to Allura, not when she had her powers of Purr-suasion. And she demonstrated this on Zipp's friends.

After entrancing Comet again, and having him bring the Nova Charm to her, Allura first turned her powers on Misty and Izzy. The unicorns tried to dodge, but Izzy fell over and Misty wasn't fast enough and they gained massive, creepy smiles as they fell under Allura spell. "No!" Zipp shouted at seeing this.

Hitch grabbed Sparky and tried to run away, but running with three legs made him susceptible to tripping, and that left him vulnerable to Allura's attack from behind. "Hitch! Sparky!" Zipp cried at seeing her lover and son mind controlled.

Then, as if she was doing this all on purpose to torture Zipp, Allura quickly turned around and purred at Pipp. The pink pegasus could only back up fearfully, before she started laughing under the snow leopard's spell. "PIPPPPP!" Zipp cried at seeing her sister fall. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" She repeated at everything going just as she feared.

Speaking of fears, it seemed Allura decided the older pegasus was next to entrance. Zipp saw the snow leopard facing her direction, and knew what was coming next. "NOOOO!" She shouted before she spread her wings and launched herself into the sky, flying away from the village as fast as her wings could carry her.

"ZIPP, wait! Come back!" Sunny shouted and was about to fly after her, but Allura suddenly appeared in front of the alicorn and stopped her.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about her anymore than you should for yourself." Allura said before she purred at the earth pony.


Zipp didn't know how far or how long she had been flying. She was too afraid to look back in fears of slowing down. Only when she eventually felt that she had out flown Allura enough did she decided to land to rest her wings. Once on the snow, Zipp was able to properly take in everything that had happened. “You promised that nothing would go wrong.” She started to cry before shouting. “You promised!” The memory of seeing what happened to all of her friends made the pegasus fall to the ground and sob into her hooves.

She stayed like that, crying into the snow, not knowing what to do now, until she felt somepony behind her and heard a very familiar voice. “Well, isn’t this a sad sight to see.”

Recognizing the voice, Zipp immediately stopped crying and gasped. “It can’t be.” She said as she raised her head and turned around to see her dark self standing behind her with an annoyed look on her face. “You!” The pegasus gasped as she fell over in shock.

“Nice to see you’ve barely improved since we last spoke.” Dark Zipp said sarcastically.

"Wh-what are you even doing here?" Zipp stammered out. "How are you even here?"

Dark Zipp raised an eyebrow at the question. "Seriously?" She said in response before giving a proper answer bluntly, like she was lecturing a child. "Did you just forget my final words from the last time we met? I am a part of you. We can't have one without the other."

That wasn't the answer Zipp was looking for, but she decided it was probably best to just leave this mystery unsolved. The less she spoke to this evil her the better. "Whatever. I don't have anything to say to you, and I'm not listening to anything you have to say." She told her other self firmly before turning around and walking away.

Dark Zipp did not take kindly to being snubbed and appeared in front of the pegasus, startling her. "Oh, you're going to listen to me this time. Because right now, I'm the side of us that's thinking logically." She firmly told Zipp.

"Thinking logic-" Zipp stammered out what she was told before saying. "How in Equestria are you the one thinking logically? All you've ever done is tell me to betray my friends and take power for myself."

"Oh, so like what you just did?" Dark Zipp rhetorically asked.

That made Zipp freeze in place. "Wh-what?" She said in disbelief. "I-I never-"

"When you stomped me into goo, which I wanna let you know really hurt, you said that you weren't going to be a coward anymore. And at first, it seemed that you were taking said advice to heart, defending your sister, son, and others. But here we are now, you running away with your tail between your legs while your friends are under some freaky feline's hypnotic control, no chance of breaking free and being trapped for the rest of their lives, all because you're worried she would do the same to you."

"That's not what happened!" Zipp shouted in her defense.

"Please." The alicorn version rolled her eyes. "I don't have to be able to read your mind to know that's a huge lie."

"It's not!" Zipp retorted again.

Seeing the pegasus was stubbornly denying the truth again, Dark Zipp knew she'd need to take a different approach compared to last time. So, with a smile, she changed her game. “Oh, I get it. It was a tactical retreat so you can figure out a plan to kick that wannabe ruler’s rump. Not exactly what I would've done, but I do approve of the forceful options regardless."

“What?!” Zipp gasped at what her evil self suggested. “No! No! There is no way I can fight her!” She stated firmly.

“So then you did abandon your friends.” Dark Zipp said.

“No!” Zipp quickly yelled back.

“Then you’re going back to fight Allura then?” Dark Zipp asked. “You either do that or leave your friends behind.” She stated

"No, no." Zipp retorted before coming up with another plan. "I'll just find the portal and fly to Zephyr Heights and tell Mom what happened. She can send the royal guard, and then we'll..."

"Oh, give me a break." Dark Zipp rolled her eyes. "You know just as well as I that the portal doesn't have that long left. And it probably will have less with so many ponies crossing it." She then, somehow, grabbed Zipp and pulled her in close. "You don't get a third option here. You either go back and fight for your friends, or leave them and go back home. There's no alternate angle to take." The alicorn let the white pegasus go and asked the question. "What's it going to be?"

Zipp didn't reply. Instead she looked back the way she flew. She thought about her friends, under Allura's spell, trapped with the auroricorns in this hell, not knowing real from fake anymore.

She thought about Hitch and Sparky. The stallion she loved and wanted to spend the rest of her life with. Now she may never get that chance. Or see her son grow into a powerful dragon and soar alongside her.

She thought about Pipp and Misty; her sisters. After all they've been through, all the struggles they faced together, now she would be on her own. Never see Pipp preform again, or have fun with Misty again.

Unless she fought back.

"What I need to do." Zipp answered her dark self's question as she spread her wings and took to the sky.

Dark Zipp smiled at a job well done. "This will be fun." She said before disappearing.

Author's Note:

And we end part one of a cliffhanger. I'd laugh evilly, but you all knew it was going to anyway.

So, the saga continues, now delving into the Secret of Starlight Special. An OK episode, but seeing what Allura did to Zipp pisses me off.

I have been saying for a literal year now, 'If Allura ever hypnotizes Zipp again, I will make her into a through rug'. And by I, I mean my OC, as obviously I can't kill a fictional character. I've been planning on a revenge story for the longest time, but since the show ended, there's not much reason to post anything (unless something happens in the many leaked episodes being released) and that story was getting to weird for my liking, so let's just call this my revenge and leave it at that.

But revenge over a pony waifu is not the main reason I wrote this. Just, one of the reasons. The others I would love to get into, but that would require me to spoil things going forward. So you'll have to wait till tomorrow to see the thrilling conclusion of this story and find out if Zipp will be able to rise to the challenge or not.