My Little Pony: The Storm of Zephyr Heights is a three-issue miniseries from My Little Pony Generation 5. The first issue was released on September 25 2024, and the last was released on November 20 the same year.
Queen Haven and Alphabittle are going on vacation for a week, leaving Zipp Storm in charge of Zephyr Heights. Fortunately, she has her friends to help her... but they're put to the test when a freak snowstorm puts the whole city in danger.
This comic contains examples of:
- Affectionate Nickname: Haven calls Alphabittle "Alfie", which her daughters find embarrassing.
- Big "WHAT?!": Zipp after her mother decides to leave her in charge.
- Black Comedy: In issue 3, Izzy carries a tank of glue labelled "nopony you knew brand". Glue used to be made of horses' hooves.
- Call-Back: Zipp brings up the old Wonderbolts poster from the station she brought Sunny and Izzy to during the events of A New Generation.
- The Cameo: Rainbow Dash, Derpy Hooves, Bulk Biceps, Spitfire and the silhouettes of the Wonderbolts appear in Zipp's Imagine Spot. Somnambula is seen as a statue. Rarity, Applejack and Fluttershy are seen in a old recording from the Wonderbolts museum.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- In the first Issue, Flash Magnus is mentioned by Sunny when she is reading a history book from the Zephyr Heights library. He shows up as a hologram in the next issue.
- Rainbow Dash has a cameo in the second issue. Like with Flash Magnus she appears as a hologram in Issue #3.
- Continuity Nod:
- This isn't the first time Zipp and her friends were left in charge of Zephyr Heights.
- This also isn't the first time Zipp and her friends have come across the ruins of an ancient city.
- In the royal library, books are titled "The Return of Chrysalis" and "Cosmos", the names of two storylines from the main G4 IDW comics series.
- Other books include "The Sombra Saga" (referencing the G4 villain King Sombra), "The Prophecies of Cheese Sandwich" (a guest character), "The Photography of Photo Finish" (a recurring character) and "The Political Downfall of Mayor Mare" (a supporting character).
- A weather report includes an image that looks exactly like Rainbow Dash's Cutie Mark.
- Fling a Light into the Future: At the end of Issue Three, Rainbow Dash left behind a video message to explain how the pegasi will lose their magic and are forced to leave their hometown due to being unable to walk on the clouds. She pleads with anyone watching the video to revive or create a successor to the Wonderbolts to inspire a new generation of flyers.
- Inconsistent Coloring: Usually, Zipp's hair is dark magenta with cyan stripes, and her wings have cyan, blue, purple, and dark magenta feathers. Here, she has an extra light-pink stripe in her hair, and her feathers are only cyan and purple.
- Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: A flashback to early pegasus history in issue 2 shows ponified versions of Fred and Wilma Flintstone living in caves on the side of a mountain.
- Music Soothes the Savage Beast: Pipp sings an improvised song to calm down the horde of arkan sonney. It also soothes the lightning bird in the weather factory.
- Mythology Gag:
- The royal library has books titled Little Fillies and The Unicorn of Odd, which are both miniseries from IDW's My Little Pony: Classics Reimagined range.
- Zipp and Pipp search for videos on Rainbow Dash in the Wonderbolts museum. All the video titles are the names of episodes from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
- Noodle Incident:
- Zipp mentions that when she and Pipp were fillies, Queen Haven took a long bath and the government almost collapsed.
- According to Zipp, there were several instances of Pegasi getting struck by lightning after magic returned.
- No Ontological Inertia: Subverted in issue 3, where shutting off the weather factory doesn't get rid of the storm it already made.
- Post-Victory Collapse: At the climax of issue 3, Zipp busts a lot of storm clouds and then holds up the airship carrying Zephyr Heights' evacuated citizens. The strain causes her to fall into a coma for over a week.
- Pun-Based Creature: Flying hogs (also known as arkan sonney) are pigs with cloud-like wings, as in "pigs may fly." They're a double pun, because it turns out they're actually flying hedgehogs with quills.
- Revision: Zipp reveals the Wonderbolts poster shown in ''A New Generation" was what inspired her current character and goals despite that in the the movie she never gave the poster notable attention.
- Series Continuity Error: Rainbow Dash's message explains that Cloudsdale was abandoned due to Twilight Sparkle sealing magic, which immediately caused pegasi to lose their flight and cloud walking powers required to inhabit it. This is at odds with all other G5 media (including the IDW Comics themselves) which established that ponies didn't lose their powers until the Crystals were split, which happened (seemingly long) after Twilight sealed Equestria's magic in them.
- Shout-Out:
- The first issue features two Star Trek references:
- One of the glitter colors in the royal craft room is "Borg gray".
- A book in the royal library bears the title "Janeway Was Wrong".
- Another library book is titled "The Fall of the House of Apple".
- Izzy is seen holding a toolbox which has Binford written on it.
- Sunny, Pipp and Zipp find a shop called Mogwai Curio Shop. Even the rules for caring for a Arkan Sonney read "don't feed them or get them wet".
- The recording of Flash Magnus mentions It's Always Sunny in Fillydelphia.
- The first issue features two Star Trek references:
- Trailers Always Spoil: The synopsis for issue 2 gives away the discovery of Cloudsdale, which was meant to be a surprise in the work.
- Weird Weather: The titular storm is surrounded by a wall of wind that pegasi can't fly through, so Zipp, Pipp, and Sunny have to fly over it instead. They arrive in Cloudsdale and learn it was caused by a malfunctioning weather machine.
- Wham Shot:
- Issue 2 revealing the source of the storm is Cloudsdale, a long lost G4 location.
- Issue 3 has Zipp perform a Sonic Rainboom, a near-impossible feat only ever achieved by Rainbow Dash.
- Written-In Absence: Hitch mentions he left Sparky with a babysitter for the week to explain why he doesn't show up in the story.
- You Are in Command Now: The inciting incident is that Queen Haven abruptly tells Zipp to be her regent just before she goes on vacation. Zipp is understandably stressed about this.