Path to Peace

by Flamewarrior02

Short chapter: Nightmares Are Made From Mistakes

55 days after Zipp's breakdown

If somepony were to ask Zipp what she thought of dreams a year ago, she would've said they were nothing more than things generate by a pony's subconscious while they were asleep. Nowadays, she saw dreams as messages. From whom, she had no idea, but they were no longer just random scenes her unconscious mind projected. Now, every dream the pegasus had, or rather nightmare the pegasus had, was a reminder of her failures. A punishment for her wrong doings that she was forced to sit through until the horrible end. This night was no different.

It was a nightmare of one event deeply scared Zipp; the day she took the necklace and brought it into the Brighthouse. Instead of acting like a proper detective and taking an item she knew was possibly dangerous to investigate in private, she laid the weapon of destruction on the table in front of everypony. And what followed was a collapse like the princess had never seen.

All of her friends, made into the opposites of themselves, acting like unhinged wild animals, all because of that neckla-......No, because of her. But what made this different then what actually happened was the necklace decided to ignore her this time and instead she was forced to see completely what she had created, unable to do anything to stop it. "EVERYPONY, PLEASE!" She begged through tears for what might've literally been the hundredth time. "SNAP OUT OF IT! THIS ISN'T YOU!" She pleaded as she ran over to try and snap Sunny out of her state. Surely her alicorn friend was not really under such an evil spell because of her.

But Sunny wasn't just putting on an act or whatever Zipp wanted to hope for as she bucked the white pegasus away without any hesitations or restraints. Despite it all being a dream, Zipp practically felt the pain from both the kick and the hateful glare Sunny gave her afterwards "Shut up!" She snapped. "And get away from me, you trash!"

"Sunny." Zipp said with a hurt look on her face before she found herself getting pelted by literal trash courtesy of Izzy.

"Yes, yes!" Hitch said with glee as he watched from beside the unicorn. "More! MORE!"

"Hitch! Izzy!" Zipp tried to call out to them, but her words meant nothing to them as they just continued to enjoy the misery they inflicted.

Eventually remembering she could fly, Zipp flapped her wings and got out of range before she surveyed the evil room for the one pony she knew who could fix this. "Where's Misty?!" She asked as she looked around desperately for the unicorn that saved her friends last time.

Her answer came in the form of something attacking her from behind, sending the pegasus crashing and pinned to the floor. "Wha?" She asked before she saw the face of her attacker, and to her horror it was Misty, also corrupted by the necklace. "No." She fearfully whispered.

"What's the matter, Zipp?" The evil unicorn asked mockingly. "Isn't this what you wanted? For me to be the villain?"

"NO! That's not what I want!" Zipp pleaded. "I was just suspicious! I never wanted to not be your friend!"

"Oh, Sis." Pipp tsked as she flew around her downed sister. "I would've thought after all this time you'd stop lying. I guess once a liar always a liar."

Zipp knew what Pipp was referring to and shifted herself to look her sister in the eyes. "NO, PIPP! IT WASN'T MEANT TO BE LIKE THAT! PLEASE! STOP THIS!" She sobbed.

But the corrupted pegasus didn't listen and instead grabbed her guitar. "I think you just need a little song to get yourself to understand." Pipp said with an evil glee as Misty got off of the older pegasus, but used her magic to keep her in place as she stood back with the rest of her friends.

Knowing how destructive Pipp was in this state, Zipp also knew what kind of song her sister wanted to sing for her. "NO! PLEASE! I'M SORRY! PIPP! HITCH! SUNNY! IZZY! MISTY! DON'T DO THIS! I'M SORRY! PLEASE!" Zipp pleaded from her chains, but was completely helpless to do anything. "NO! NOO! NOOOOOOO! NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

---

Zipp literally shot up from her bed with a gasp. Landing on her hooves like a cat, Zipp scanned the room she was in with lightning speed. Everything looked as it should have, her friends peacefully asleep, Pipp right next to her as a source of comfort, and no sign of evil mist that she brought in anywhere. "Oh, thank hoofness it was just a dream." She sighed in relief before she climbed back into bed and laid down besides her sister. 'Just a dream' she told herself. Only it wasn't just a dream, it was a memory. A memory of an event she caused that could've been the end of her friends. An event she failed to prevent, as always.

Not finding it in her to fall asleep, Zipp got out of her bed again and walked over to her desk with all of her detective equipment. "Former detective equipment." She had to tell herself. What good was having this stuff just lying around for anyway? Outside of her friends and family, did anypony actually believe in her detective skills? She didn't need to hear them to know ponies were talking about her behind her back, about how uncapable and unstable she is. And what about those close to her? Did they really believe in her abilities, or was it all just lies they said so she'd feel better?

Already seeming to come to an answer to that last question, Zipp picked up her Rad-Visor that Izzy made and walked over to the nearby trash bin. But just as she was about to drop it in, starting the burning of a bridge that should've never been built, she heard somepony say to her. "You know, that took me weeks to make." Slightly startled, the white pegasus turned around and saw Izzy standing before her. "It's fine if you don't want it anymore, but you should give it to me so I could Unicycle it, rather than just throw it away."

"Izzy." Zipp said quietly in surprise to seeing the unicorn awake. "Did I wake you?"

The unicorn shook her head. "Nah, I woke up on my own and was feeling a little thirsty. So I was about to head down and get something to drink. You wanna come with? I can make you some Unicorn Sleepy Time Oo-oo-long tea to help you get back to sleep." She invited Zipp to join her as she made her way down the stairs.

Deciding it wouldn't hurt to try and go back to sleep, Zipp followed her friend downstairs, her visor still in hoof.

Once they were in the kitchen, Zipp sat at the counter while Izzy got out the tea leaves. "So, if you don't mind me asking, what happened in your nightmare?" The unicorn asked.

Zipp hesitated, before she answered with. "It....was nothing important." She lied and hoped Izzy would take the bait.

Surprisingly, Izzy did not fall for the, admittedly obvious, trick. "If it was nothing then why were you about to throw out your Rad-Visor?" She pointed out as she started blending the leaves. Seeing herself caught red hoofed lying, Zipp still hesitated in reliving the nightmare. Fortunately, Izzy noticed this as she mixed the ingredients together and once she was done with the tea for both of them, came over to the counter and sat across from Zipp, floating her cup of tea over to the pegasus, and said. "You know, I find that talking out my worries with my friends help me worry less. If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine. But I really think it could help you if we do talk."

Seeing some wisdom in Izzy's words, Zipp gave a sigh and began to explain. "My nightmare this time was about how I nearly ruined everything that day I took the necklace." She stated bluntly. "You and everypony else were all made into your opposite selves because of me."

"What? That's not true." Izzy disagreed. "It was-"

"The necklace I stole from Misty and I brought into the Brighthouse." Zipp stopped Izzy's obvious reply. "Don't try and twist the subject, Iz. What happened that day was all my fault and another example of why I shouldn't be a detective." She said before dropping her Rad-Visor to the floor

"What?" Izzy said for the second time in disbelief to what she heard Zipp say. "Zipp, that's crazy. You're an awesome detective!"

Zipp shook her head. "No, Izzy. Crazy is thinking a detective that puts everypony she cares about in danger and is constantly proven wrong is reliable. If I had just left well enough alone that day-"

"Misty would still be suffering from whatever evil that necklace had on her." Izzy pointed out, making Zipp stop her loathing rambling. Seeing she had the princess' complete attention, Izzy spoke the rest of her thoughts. "Zipp, listen. Yes, your detective work has resulted in some shenanigans, but when haven’t any of our jobs done that? And in the end, hasn't it all still worked out in the end?"

Zipp looked at the unicorn in disbelief to how she took her constant failures. "You call nearly corrupting you and the others, driving myself mad, all because I have some trust issues with Misty shenanigans?" She asked

"OK, that middle one definitely is something beyond bad." Izzy admitted. "And seeing you constantly having trust issues with Misty does hurt to see for both of you. But why do you keep seeing yourself as always wrong? You found out the crystals were glitching, you found out why it was endlessly snowing, you found the way to stop the blazeberry filled critters from eating Hitch, you stopped Zephyr Heights from being overwhelmed with eggs, and you found out how to stop the Troggles. That seems like a lot of right answers for somepony who's always wrong."

"But-" Zipp tried to say something else, but Izzy wasn't having it and told her sternly.

"Zipp, take a sip." She said, resisting the urge to giggle at the rhyme. obliging, Zipp took a sip of the tea and found that it really did have calm effects that she was already feeling. Seeing her client was calmed down and more wiling to listen, Izzy continued. "Look, even if things maybe got a little out of hoof with that necklace initially, you did still confirm something important about Misty."

"What? What did I confirm? That she's always been our friend?" Zipp asked, taking another sip to calm down her bitterness.

Izzy shook her head. "That she is hiding something from us if that necklace is anything to off of. Something bad. And we'd never know that for sure if you hadn't shown us. And even if you had taken that necklace and investigated by yourself, I doubt things would've gone much better given what we saw it do. You might not realize it, but you really helped Misty that day, Zipp. And I'm thankful for that."

Her horn glowing softly, Izzy levitated the Rad-Visor off the floor and gave it back to Zipp. "You think you've made your mark in all the wrong places, but I say that you've hit those marks way more. We all miss occasionally, I've done it many times when I first move hear, as I know you remember, we just need to make sure to move forward with that. Can you do that for me? For Misty? For all of us?" She asked.

Zipp said nothing and just looked at her visor as she finished her tea. After thanking Izzy, Zipp went back upstairs and the tea worked its magic and pulled her into a deep sleep once she plopped back onto her comfortable bed.

Her Rad-Visor placed back on her desk. An unsure future ahead of it.

Author's Note:

”:I don't really know if this has been done so far, but... I think the one character missing some interaction with Zipp in PTP is Izzy. Like, Sunny gave her advice, Hitch and Zipp's family has helped her out the most, and even Misty has helped a bit.

That leaves Izzy left... That being said, I guess you haven't done a chapter with her because you don't know what to do in the first place?"

"Yeah, that’s why I had Izzy help out with the mystery. Problem was there just weren’t many moments where I could see her helping Zipp out."

-A conversation between myself and BronySonicFan

That little conversation was just one of the two things that helped inspire this post finale chapter. Izzy was always the hardest to write for. There's a fine line between making her silly and making her stupid. Obviously, I want to stick with the former. And I think I did a good job here. Hopefully I did.

The second reason is once again my psychotic brain began realizing just how guilty Zipp would feel about bringing that necklace into the Brighthouse, corrupting her friends all for suspicions that were supposedly proven wrong by Misty saving them. Part of the story for next chapter is how Zipp is hesitant to start back up investigating as she feels she's always proven wrong. And I feel this chapter helps show that rather then just me saying it.

And for those of you many years in the future, you should get the picture with these chapters by now.

Comments

[BronySonicFan]

I'm happy I could sort of help making a chapter with Izzy as the focus.

Yeah, Zipp's breakdown was so terrible that she blames herself for the bad side of the things while completely ignoring the good things. That's something this Zipp and pretty much every Misty has in common: As much as they improve, something brings them down in the span of seconds and makes them vulnerable and oblivious to the good things because the bad ones are reasoning more with them.

This chapter is really good as it is, and no AU of the AU has to be added today.