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// One: The Best Young Fliers Competition, Part I 
// Story: Stereoheart 
// by FimFan14 
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The next morning came, and was a day that Stereo had looked forward to for weeks now. He had a surprise planned for his brother, but would still enjoy it just as much himself.

"Frisky," he said, shaking his brother lightly in hopes of waking him gently, and much more considerately than had been done to him the previous night. "Frisky!" He tried again, shaking rougher, and finally eliciting a response.

"Nnng..." Frisky groaned. "What time is it?"

"Seven," Stereo replied simply.

"Already?" The younger colt complained. "I'm still tired!"

"Mum and Dad will want breakfast," Stereo explained. "I wouldn't stay in bed for long. You know how they get."

"Uuuugh!" Frisky gave out an annoyed sigh. "Fine."

The two made their way into the bathroom, both looking nearly identical with white coats and a purple mane and tail. The only differences would be the size and eye color, Stereos being a similar shade of violet purple as his mane, and Friskys being an emerald green. They both wore necklaces that, curiously, had never been taken off by anypony. They were both a striking silver, Stereos having a large amethyst gem in it, and Friskys an emerald.

After making themselves respectable, they both grudgingly made their way down the stairs to their parents.

One confusing fact about their family is that, while the two sons were unicorns, the parents were both Pegasi. While this was not unheard of, it was extremely rare. Stranger still is the fact that they lived in Cloudsdale. The two young unicorns knew not of how they stayed atop the clouds, nor did they question it. They just did. One last point of interest is that they know nothing of magic, being told by their parents that they are merely 'earth ponies with ridiculous looking horns.'
The two walked slowly down the stairs, their life of living with the two cruel Pegasi in the dining room doing nothing to quell their desire to postpone the inevitable. Maybe they would receive a better reception? Maybe they were in a good mood?
“Hey! Where’s our breakfast, lazy mules!”
Maybe not. Frisky made his way quickly to the kitchen, while Stereo bravely trotted over to his parents to ‘take their order,’ as it were. Sometimes, it did feel to him as if he were a butler, and not a son.
“Mum, Dad,” he began nervously, “What would you like for breakfast?”
A torrent of orders flew forth from the greedy parents.
“Hay Fries! Eggs! Toast! Cereal!” They barked, more meals than are healthy to be consumed at once were requested as the young pony’s head swam, juggling to remember what they were continually spitting forth, while wryly noting that they were being more polite than usual.
“And make it fast!” his father eventually concluded. “We don’t have all day.”
Stereo rushed into the less than spacious kitchen, in turn giving his own orders.
"Frisky," he started, a fair bit more curtly than he himself had been addressed less than a minute before, "I need you to start cooking the toast and eggs, and prepare the cereal."

"Yes, Sir!" Came the mocking reply, causing Stereo to wonder how his brother managed to keep smiling almost indefinitely, even after when they would be treated cruelly. Not that he had personally experienced it that day, or even Stereo apart from some plain rudeness.

Stereo started cooking the hay fries, while also beginning an omelet. He never could understand why anypony would make them cook fried eggs and an omelet. And they usually ordered scrambled eggs, to boot.

Stereo began some light conversation to pass the time.

"Sleep well?" he said, still slightly perturbed after his discovery of the shocking similarities between their dreams.

"Only after you helped me. I didn't even dream," Frisky replied.

"That’s good," Stereo said, before adding one piece of information that would probably drive his brother crazy for the next half-hour. "I have a surprise for you today."

"Really?" His brother said, already showing excitement in that one word. "What is it?"

"I can't tell you."

"But why?"

"Then it wouldn't be a surprise." Stereo said plainly. The old classic. Nopony could argue with the 'then it wouldn't be a surprise' tactic. Nopony, excepting Frisky.

"I thought you promised never to lie to me!" he wined, probably to send his brother on a guilt trip and find out the secret early than actually being genuinely upset.

"When I said that," Stereo began to explain, "all those years ago, I said I wouldn't lie to protect you. Not to let you worm out of waiting for a surprise. Besides," he added, "I'm not even lying. I would be lying if I said that there was no surprise. I'm just... Not telling you everything."

Frisky sat down and grumbled, out of ammunition for this round.

"Do I get a hint?" he tried feebly, firing the last proverbial shot in the pistol.

"It happens straight after breakfast."

***

It would have taken them over an hour to prepare breakfast that morning, a plethora of delicacies for every meal; all eaten at once by two surprisingly fit Pegasi.

"C'mon, c'mon!" his father shouted. "We have a big day, and we need food! Celestia knows how we get when we don't eat, and it isn’t pretty! Do you want to see us like that?"

"No, Dad," Stereo replied submissively, before his Mom took over.

"We work the hide off of our flanks every day, and we don't complain," she said. "You don't do anything, but you expect food and a house? Hurry up, and pull your own weight!"

Stereo thought that the last comment was uncalled for. He had already submitted to his father’s demanding attitude, and she had to put her two bits in, just to make them feel bad. As he walked forward, he felt a strategically placed hoof cut out, making him trip and throw the food he was holding across the room.

"You numb-skulled, dim-witted unicorn, can you do anything?" His Father said, although it sounded more like an explanation than a question. It had been learnt long ago not to answer a question so obviously rhetorical.

"We are leaving right now!" His Mother yelled, more than anything. "This house better be spotless when we get back, you got it?"

The two children nodded with plenty of energy, not wanting to leave any doubt of their sincerity. With that in mind, the two Pegasi literally flew out the door, in the general direction of the Cloudsdale weather factory.

Both were feeling down-trodden, until Stereo remembered their plans for the day.

"We have just less than an hour," Stereo said. "I'll start picking up the food, and you get started on some breakfast."

A rare treat was fresh breakfast for them, being forced to eat their parents’ leftovers, which were, sadly, not always guaranteed. Today being a Sunday, however, was a day that their parents had somehow gotten stuck working on. A rather unfortunate case, to work on a Saturday, but Stereo and Frisky took advantage of it with a fresh breakfast, and an occasional outing.

Stereo busied himself with cleaning the mess they had made. Everything managed to eventually get into the bin, however, and he finished with the mop just as Frisky bought out a stack of banana pancakes, something his parents rarely, if ever, seemed to request. Even when they did, there was never anything left over for him or Frisky. It was an extremely rare treat, even on Sundays.

"These are great!" Stereo said, taking his first bite. "Why did you get all of the cooking talent?"

"I don't know," Frisky replied. "I'm just good!"

"You usually experiment with your food a lot, though," Stereo noted. "These pancakes seem a little... Normal."

"I was rushing."

After finishing, they both ran off, with a half hour left until Frisky's surprise.

***
“So,” Frisky began as they walked along the plush cloud walkways that intersected the city. “Will you tell me what my surprise is yet?”

“Well, were getting pretty close now,” Stereo said. “Maybe we could wait a little longer.”

“Please?”

“Okay, okay,” Stereo said defensively. “We’re going to the best young flier competition, with our own cloud platform.”

“Wow!” His brother said, growing more ecstatic by the moment. “How did you afford it?”

“I spent almost all my bits,” Stereo explained. “I started saving about a year ago, and only just made saved up enough for today.”

They approached a stadium as he finished speaking, the Cloudosseum. They looked up at its magnificence, before Frisky piped up.

“How do we get up to our spot? We can’t fly!”

Without answering, Stereo handed two tickets to the box office, the occupier of which called over two Pegasi to carry them up to their seats. As they landed, Stereo, with a relieved sigh, noticed that there was a walkway around the edge of the level they were on, leading to refreshments and amenities.

“I didn’t know that they did that here,” Frisky stated.

“Well, sometimes Pegasi get injured wings,” Stereo explained. “They do it for the same reason that walkways are built into some areas of Cloudsdale. Sometimes ponies aren’t fit to fly.”

“Oh.”

***
The day at the competition went all too fast, with some interesting performances. Then again, some of the performances were horrible. But what really piqued Stereo’s interest was that, on a cloud almost directly opposite to them, was a single yellow Pegasus. She wasn’t the interesting one, though. Her companions were, being comprised of an orange Earth Pony, a bouncy pink Earth Pony, and more importantly (to him), a purple unicorn.
His thoughts were interrupted by the announcement of the final routine.

“And now,” began the smartly dressed Pegasus stallion on the announcer’s podium, “for our final contestant of the day, contestant number fifteen!” He shouted proudly, as a nervous looking blue Pegasus mare flew out from under the curtains, and then fumbled as another mare came out just after. “Umm… And apparently number four!”
Stereo looked carefully at the white Pegasus mare that came out second, eyeing her butterfly-like wings, and her horn… wait, horn?

The sudden onset of classical music reminded him to watch the competition. He didn’t want to miss two competitors at once. The white one began to do some form of ballet in mid-air, so he cast his eyes on the other, more… normal blue Pegasus. She was doing slalom with the cloud pillars in the middle of the stadium. This was a little more to his interest. But then, she smacked into one of the last pillars, crashing into the wall just below a group of jeering stallions. He felt a fire growing in him, directed at the three laughing ponies. It soon disappeared, though, and was replaced with admiration as she got up and kept flying.

He checked up on the other mare. She was still dancing. No interest there. The blue one, however, was spinning around a selection of cumulus clouds overhead, causing them to spin rapidly. She did, however, fail once again, slamming into the last one, sending it flying into the face of Princess Celestia. Stereo winced at this. That was probably a crime.
He noticed the mare gulp, before flying upwards, and passing the white one. Just as she reached a point where she began to slow down, everypony heard a tremendous shout from above.

“LOOK UPON ME, EQUESTRIA; FOR I… AM… RARITY!”

With her rather loud declaration in mind, Stereo determined that the white pony was probably named Rarity. She opened her butterfly wings, shining a magnificent pattern of colors all over the stadium. Everypony in Cloudsdale probably saw it.
As he began to stomp his hooves in applause, her wings evaporated into thin air. After a brief moment, in which physics contemplated its next move, she plummeted towards the ground. The Wonderbolts were dispatched, heading down and out to the rescue of the now Unicorn. They approached the screaming mare, and were knocked out by her flaying hooves.

“I’m comin’ Rarity!”

The somewhat relieving voice of the first mare was heard, as she sped down at breakneck speeds towards the screaming pony and unconscious stunt fliers. But they were so far down away… would she make it?
The blue Pegasus mare dashed towards them, building up what must have been incredible speed, until a white shape began to form around her extended hooves.

“No…” Stereo said in wonder. “She can’t be!”

She did though, the shape tightening into a slim mach cone, flashing its tip flashing a brilliant rainbow pattern before it happened. She broke the sound barrier.

A massive rainbow shockwave formed beneath the city, accompanied by a deafening boom, as the blue Pegasus mare caught the falling ponies, and pulling up just in time.

When hearing returned to his ears, all he Stereo could hear was, “YES, YES! SHE DID IT! A SONIC RAINBOOM!”
Stereo smiled, before standing up and being the first to begin applauding, stomping his hooves to the cloud, and pulling everypony into reality. Soon the whole stadium was filled with applause.