There was no run through Canterlot that morning, because Skyblaze had something far more important to do. So did his family.
At sunrise, Prism was almost prancing in the gondola of the balloon as Skyblaze started pulling it away from Canterlot after his family received the spell from Misty Morning that let them walk on clouds, Shimmergem and Gold Ring with her and them carrying quite a bit of food for the family and for their friends as they headed back for the forest. Rainsong fell in beside him just as he cleared Overlook Park, giving him a sleepy smile. She landed in the gondola when Shimmergem held out an apple fritter enticingly, devouring it without much care for manners. When she was done, she put her hooves up on the side of the gondola beside Prism and grinned at Skyblaze, who had a rope in his teeth that was tied to both sides of the basket. “Mush, Skyblaze, mush!” she called teasingly.
“I know where you live,” he warned through the rope, which made both young mares laugh.
All the clouds they’d set up were right where they left them when they got there, and Gold Ring again assumed command, stepping up on his small cloud that had been parked by their gondola anchor the day before and using his magic to make it move, carrying him out where he could get back to work. Prism mirrored his trick, getting on the cloud that Silverchain had used the day before, laying down, and moving it, following Shimmergem. “Alright, we need to start on the seventh tier,” Gold Ring called. “We’ll set the columns first while Rainsong and Skyblaze make the floor clouds. Sister, you ready?”
“Just tell me what goes where,” she replied with a confident nod.
“Ready, Mother?”
“Let’s get to work, son,” she replied as she turned her cloud around to face him, looking down from her higher vantage point.
“Alright. Sister, get that column right there, it’s the first one,” he said, pointing with his forehoof.
Gedwin and Gwendi joined them almost exactly two hours after sunrise, and once they were there, things picked up considerably. By lunchtime, they’d finished all but the top tier, which would be the easiest, as the pegasi and griffons shaped the clouds and the two unicorns put them into position under Gold Ring’s exacting blueprint. When they set the last narrow pole of cloud at the top about two hours after lunch, they all pulled back to regard their creation. It had no walls, no aesthetics, just a series of columns and flat platforms shaped from cloud and placed at the same distances as the stadium. Skyblaze and Rainsong sat with the griffons on their main platform cloud to which the balloon was tethered, which now looked down on their piecemeal creation. It didn’t look like much, but the distances within were very precise recreations of the dimensions of the actual stadium. With that mock-up of the stadium, Skyblaze could practice what he was going to do with confidence.
“And well before dinner, we’re so awesome,” Gedwin said with a grin.
“You still owe us dinner, Skyblaze,” Gwendi called.
“I owe you way more than that, Gwendi,” he replied as his unicorn family moved their clouds over to them, then stepped down onto the main cloud. “We wouldn’t even be halfway done if you didn’t help. I can’t thank you enough.”
“You can thank us by beating the snot out of everyone else in the competition,” Gedwin told him, which made Rainsong laugh. “I’d better have my feathers blown off by the sheer awesomeness of your routine.”
“I’ll do my best,” Skyblaze grinned.
“It may not look like much, but it’s correct,” Gold Ring noted as he trotted up to them and looked down over the edge of the cloud.
“It’ll do the job, brother,” Skyblaze assured him.
“I’m just glad I got to come finish it,” Prism said.
“Me too, sister,” Skyblaze smiled over at her.
“Let’s pack everything up and head back to the shop,” Shimmergem declared. “Gedwin, Gwendi, you are staying for dinner,” she told them.
“We never say no to free food, Misses Stardust,” Gedwin said with a light smile on his beak.
Skyblaze was a little too busy to hang out with his friends, however. They stayed down in the family’s common room talking with Gold Ring and Prism, getting to know them better, as Skyblaze sat up in his room with a quill between his teeth and Gold Ring’s exact drawings of the stadium, designing his routine. He knew what he wanted to do, so he quickly started working out his route, the best way to demonstrate his greatest flying talent while also sticking it to the committee for making him change his routine. He had the box where they’d be sitting circled three times, and he’d already designed some of his fastest and closest passes to the audience to go right over—and in one case through—their box. He plotted out every single turn, every roll, every change in altitude, every cross of the open space inside the stadium, while making it look like he was just flying around randomly, to further tweak the noses of the committee for thinking he was a reckless flyer.
He was going to show them reckless, but the twist of it was, that recklessness was being carefully planned and plotted on his map.
Word had even reached Canterlot. Prism told them about it when she came back just before dinner, that rumor in town was that the committee had almost banned Skyblaze from the competition because he was going to try some kind of dangerous stunt involving a tornado. There was, naturally, quite a bit of laughter behind hooves at the news, that the town’s most notorious pegasus had finally had his reins pulled, but those were the ones that had no idea what they were talking about. They were the ones that only saw Skyblaze’s crashes, not everything else he did, and how those crashes made him a better flyer by teaching him what not to do.
Gedwin and Gwendi came up to his room as he finished up the last bit of his routine on paper, looking over his shoulders. “That’s a whole lot of scribbling,” Gedwin noted.
“I hope you can make that out, Skyblaze,” Gwendi added.
“There’s a system to it,” he nodded. “Something my parents taught me when they tried to teach me how to make jewelry. I may suck at making jewelry, but what they taught me about planning to make jewelry stuck with me. It’s been useful.”
“Your folks are pretty smart,” Gwendi observed. “And your brother’s like a genius.”
“Yeah, you won’t find them much smarter than Gold Ring,” Skyblaze agreed with a nod, his face still quite serious and intense as he studied his flight chart.
“Who knew a jewelry maker could build a stadium. Our folks would be impressed,” Gedwin said seriously. Their parents built and maintained public buildings for their village.
“You guys staying the night?” Skyblaze asked. “I know we’re done, but you already told your parents you may stay. Why not go ahead and do it?”
“Sure, we can stay over, but we’re not sleeping on the floor,” Gwendi declared.
Skyblaze laughed. “We can find something,” he promised. “After dinner, we can go out and mortally offend the entire city.”
They both burst out laughing. “Sounds like fun to me,” Gedwin grinned.
Shimmergem put out a truly huge feast for them for dinner, and afterwards, Skyblaze, Rainsong, and the griffons went out and toured Canterlot more formally. Skyblaze showed them all his favorite parts of town, mainly from the air, and took them on a flight around the palace, making sure to warn them to stay outside the perimeter of the fence. They landed in the courtyard as he told them about his many crashes on the grounds. By far, he was the most frequent unintended visitor there. He told them about his visit to the buffalo and how it had changed his training regimen as they walked across the courtyard, but they all stopped suddenly when Princess Celestia herself landed right in front of them. Gedwin and Gwendi gawked a little bit at the regal alicorn, who was as tall as she was beautiful, her expression warm and curious. “And these must be Gedwin and Gwendi,” she said without a greeting, looking to each side of Skyblaze. The two griffons bowed awkwardly with Skyblaze and Rainsong.
“Yes ma’am,” Skyblaze said confidently. “Gedwin, Gwendi, this is Princess Celestia.”
“You never said you hung out with the Princess,” Gedwin accused.
Celestia chuckled. “As often as he crashes in my garden, you’d think that he does,” she asked playfully. “Luna thinks he does it on purpose just to say hello to me.”
“I’d never thought of doing that,” Skyblaze mused, which made Celestia smile.
“I’ve heard that you had a little bit of a problem with the competition committee,” she said as she quite easily injected herself into the group, walking with them beside Skyblaze, supplanting Gwendi as they headed for the fountain at the far end. Two of her pegasus guards landed behind her and followed at a discreet distance.
“If by problem you mean they totally destroyed my original routine, yes, your Highness,” he replied. “I tried to get them to let me show them the Tornado Twist, but they wouldn’t do it. They said it was too dangerous for me to use a tornado in my routine, and they were pretty mean-spirited about it because of my reputation in Canterlot for crashing into things,” he added with a grunt. “They said I’m too reckless, and one of them went so far as to say that if he had his way, I wouldn’t even be allowed to compete. So now I have a new routine that they’ll find much more entertaining,” he said in a dark kind of voice that made Rainsong laugh.
“And how is that?” Celestia asked, looking down at him.
“Let’s just say that I’m going to show them just how reckless I can be,” he replied. “I should warn you in advance, your Highness, you and Princess Luna. I won’t actually hit you. I might come close, but I won’t.”
Celestia laughed. “Yes, that’s probably a good thing to warn me about,” she said with a light smile. “Well, I’m glad to hear that you’ll be ready for the competition.”
“I should be, your Highness. I finished up my routine on paper just a little bit ago, and my family, Rainsong, Gedwin, and Gwendi helped me build a mock-up of the stadium I’ll need to perfect my routine. I’ll have the rest of the time to practice it.”
“And will you two be there?” she asked, looking at Gwendi.
Gwendi swallowed a little bit, looking up at her with big eyes. “Uh, y-yes your Highness,” she replied nervously. “We’re going to sit with Mister and Misses Stardust.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” she replied in her mellow voice. “I really must come visit Twintalon soon. I’ve heard that both it and Twoshoes have grown quite a bit in the last few years.”
Skyblaze looked at a pair of rather startled unicorns who were standing at the edge of the large courtyard, then back up to Celestia. “You realize, your Highness, this is the first time you’ve ever talked to me outside the palace?”
“It is? I guess it is,” she chuckled, looking down at him. “Are we upsetting Canterlot society, Skyblaze?”
“Probably just a little bit, ma’am,” he replied, which made Rainsong giggle. “A pegasus as notorious as me talking rationally with Princess Celestia? They must think that you’re lecturing me on how careful I have to be during the competition.”
“I should,” she smiled playfully down at him. “I have a collection of your lost feathers that is quite impressive.”
Skyblaze burst out laughing. “Well, I’m glad they’re being put to good use. I had no idea any pony was keeping them.”
“They are quite handsome,” Celestia said lightly. “And what are you four up to?”
“Showing Gedwin and Gwendi around, your Highness,” Rainsong replied, a little more confidently than the last time she talked to her.
“And what do you think of Canterlot?” Celestia asked, looking at Gedwin.
“It’s, uh, big, your Highness,” he replied uncertainly. “And it’s kinda pretty-looking. Nothing like Twintalon.”
“Griffon architecture is very bold and handsome, Gedwin, I’ve always appreciated it. Just give Twintalon time and it’ll start to show,” she replied. “Once your village grows a little more.”
Princess Luna landed in front of them, folding back her wings. The four of them bowed to her as Celestia trotted forward a little bit. “What is it, sister?”
“Nothing of great importance, sister,” she replied. “I thought you might be giving Skyblaze your be careful speech, that’s all.”
Skyblaze burst out into helpless laughter. “See?” he managed to wheeze.
Celestia chuckled, then turned a little to look at the four of them. “Luna does remind me that I do have a few duties to attend to,” she noted, glancing at her sister. “And it’s nearly time for Luna to raise the moon for the evening, so I’ll leave you to finish your tour, my young ones. Have a good evening,” she said. She and Luna spread their wings, then they and the two pegasus guards took the very short flight back to a balcony of the palace and disappeared within.
“Well, that was different,” Gwendi grunted as they looked back to the palace.
“She’s never done that before,” Skyblaze mused. “Sure, I talk to her a lot, but that’s because I’m usually laying somewhere in her garden,” he added with a laugh. “That and the palace does a lot of business with my family’s shop.”
“You really do know the Princess, we thought you were just blowing hot air,” Gedwin grunted.
“Not about that,” Skyblaze said seriously. “Now, you guys like donuts? You can get the best donuts in Equestria just down the street from our shop.”
“As long as you pay for them,” Gwendi grinned.
He had nearly a week to get his routine down, and it took very nearly the entire week.
Day after day, Skyblaze did only three things: eat, sleep, and practice. If he wasn’t sleeping, he was eating. If he wasn’t eating, he was practicing, and all the practicing made him eat a lot more than usual. Rainsong helped him keep the practice stadium in proper shape by helping him repair the damage he did to it when he wiped out during practice, very nearly neglecting her own duties, which gave him even more time to practice.
She also helped him by shaping a thin layer of cloud over the stadium on his first day of practice to hide what they were doing from prying eyes, to keep those jerks Cloudjumper and Thunderhoof from spying on him and trying to get his new routine banned.
But the stadium served him well. Over the days of practice, his routine slowly took shape, and then became more and more refined. He started slow, the basic fly-through to learn his moves, then he sped up more and more until he was flying his planned course at full, break-wing speed. He made several changes to it when the reality of the stadium didn’t match his ambitious route design, having to smooth out a few really rough patches when he found out that the maneuvers were simply too hard to do somewhere other than on paper, but he kept the multiple near-miss passes over and through the committee’s box. Those route changes were measured in fake columns and supports that he repeatedly wiped out in his practice.
When his family finished his dust spreader, he wore it during his practices to adjust to the weight and how it would alter his flight. And he used it, spreading the dust in his routines, because that made the weight of the spreader change during the routine, and he had to take that into account. That was why they needed so much dust, so he could use it for practice. The design of the spreader was ingenious, clearly a result of his family’s shop. It was made of a very light metal and had three pieces, a holding tank for the dust that strapped on Skyblaze’s back that was built low and wide to be aerodynamic, behind his wings, with two separate nozzles that dispensed the dust. Flexible tubes connected the spreaders to the tank, which he strapped to his back legs to keep them from flying around, and he could turn it off and on by hitting a button on his flank, which was very easy to do with his front hoof without having to think about it. They’d ground the quartz down to where it looked like fine sand, and it shimmered and glittered and refracted light when it was spread in the air, which made it perfect for what Skyblaze wanted it to do.
On the day of the competition, Skyblaze woke up before dawn feeling both excited and strangely angry. He sat in front of his window and realized that he’d been angry since they banned him from using his move, and it had not faded. Half of his routine was just to rub it in their faces in the fact that he was competing, as well as somewhat petulantly going right after them in his routine…but he couldn’t help it. He’d never been so insulted in all his life, and he meant to show them just how wrong they were. He didn’t care that they thought he was reckless, he cared that they never gave him a chance to prove their opinion of him was wrong. They were too judgmental, and he intended to ram those arrogant smirks right down their throats. As the sun came up, he flew out his window and out into the streets of Canterlot, but for the first time ever in his life, he didn’t fly them at high speed, didn’t try to push himself, try to make himself better. He flew very slowly, almost stately, along his favorite route, his expression sober and intense as he pondered the upcoming competition.
It wasn’t about winning anymore. It was about proving to the committee that they were wrong. And if he happened to win during the course of it, then so much the better.
Instead of galloping his laps around the large courtyard to work on his legs, he instead landed and walked briskly, almost cantered a bit as he went over the routine over and over in his mind, making sure that the week of practice was firm in his mind. There was only one part of it that was still a bit tricky, when he did a modified barrel roll that moved him from the second to the third tier due to how narrow the window was between the two columns he had to avoid. If he could get past that part of the routine without ramming one of the columns, he wouldn’t have much trouble with the rest of it. He trotted by the fence of the royal grounds, and was almost startled when he heard someone call his name. He stopped and looked back, and saw Princess Celestia standing on the little balcony that led to the throne hall. She beckoned to him with a hoof, and he obediently took off and flew over, landing on the railing. He bowed to her with practiced ease, the elevated rail almost putting him eye to eye with his ruler. “Good morning, your Highness,” he said in a calm, measured tone.
“My, it sounds as if you’re ready for today’s competition,” she noted as she stepped up a little bit.
“Yes I am,” he replied in a nearly grim tone.
She regarded him a moment, then startled him by putting her wing over his back and patting it. “I know you have a reason to be angry, my daring little pegasus, but don’t let it cloud your judgment,” she told him seriously. “Remember first and foremost why you’re in the competition. Why are you in the competition, Skyblaze?”
He looked over at her, a bit surprised, then blew out his breath. “To win the invitation to the Wonderbolt Academy,” he answered.
“And do you think you’ll get that invitation if you show the Wonderbolts how spiteful and angry you are?”
He blinked, then realized that she was right. No matter how good he did, if he looked like he was angry out there, they might not offer him an invitation if he didn’t win…and that was a distinct possibility because of Scootaloo.
“Tweaking the noses of the committee is fine, but not if you do it looking the way you do right now,” she told him gently. “It contaminates the entire reason behind it. To see such an angry face on the one pegasus in Canterlot that can always make me laugh looks very, very wrong. Remember that when you step out to start your routine, and don’t let your anger with the committee taint the reason you’re going to be there today.”
He gave her a long look, then blew out his breath and nodded. “I understand, your Highness.”
“I’m glad that you do,” she said, patting him on the back gently. “Now, I have to get ready for the trip to Cloudsdale, and so do you. So go home, get a good breakfast, and try to relax and have a little fun before you leave,” she told him. “And Skyblaze?”
“Yes, your Highness?”
“Good luck,” she smiled, the tapped him on the rump with the leading edge of her wing, a clear dismissal.
She was right, of course. She was completely right. The Skyblaze that Skyblaze knew wouldn’t show up the committee the way he planned to do it out of anger or spite. He would do it with humor, that was Skyblaze’s way, for he was a pegasus that almost never got angry and was as quick to laugh at himself as he was to laugh at others. The committee had struck him to the quick of his hooves with their rebuke, and while his response was typical for him, the festering anger he’d felt growing over the last few days was not. Skyblaze was not a spiteful pony. He was not mean-spirited, and he couldn’t let the mean-spirited actions of others change him.
Celestia was right. He would still do his routine, he would still scare the manes off the committee, but he’d do it with a smile on his face, not an angry scowl. He could show them how wrong they were without being as petty as they were. He’d simply be as petty as he was. He would go out there and have fun, not fly with a chip on his shoulder…after all, that was what flying all about to him.
He relaxed quite a bit by the time he got back home and ate breakfast with his family and Rainsong and her family, whom his parents had invited over. They were all going to leave together, Rainsong’s family pulling the balloon to get them there, and they were going to sit with them as well. Gedwin and Gwendi were going to meet them in Cloudsdale, since they had to fly there from Twintalon. Skyblaze had to leave as soon as breakfast was over, since he had to be there three hours early. The competition was scheduled to start at noon.
He headed out after breakfast, which was spent in much more relaxed conversation with Frost and Summer Breeze, Rainsong’s parents, flying the short distance from Canterlot to Cloudsdale feeling…better. He was still pretty mad at the committee, but he wasn’t angry like he’d been before Celestia took him aside and talked him down. He also felt more relaxed, and was looking forward to the competition for more than just the chance to stick it to the committee for what they did to him. He was looking forward to it for what it was, the chance to show what he could do, and win that automatic invitation to the Wonderbolt Academy.
Oh, and beat Cloudjumper and Thunderhoof.
There was more than a little grinning and snickering when he reported to the staging area in the stadium as the letter instructed. He was the last one to arrive, and the others were more or less just sitting around waiting for him. “It’s about time, Mister Stardust, you’re almost late,” the black-maned mare said in a strong, nearly disapproving tone.
“Three hours means three hours, ma’am,” he replied easily as he trotted up to them.
She cleared her throat. “Very well, let’s go over what’s going to happen, then you’ll be released to prepare for your performances.”
They spent an hour and a half going over the performance as a whole, from the opening ceremonies to the award presentation, so every pegasus knew what was going on and where they had to be both before and after the competition. The organizer handed out their numbers are a brief fly-through of the stadium, then interviewed each contestant to make sure that the props they requested were actually there and waiting for them. Skyblaze was fairly easy, since he’d asked for no props since changing his routine. He did have to go out to pick up his dust spreader from his parents, who had brought it with them on the balloon—also so no other pony saw it until he got ready for the competition, but came back and strapped on the pieces as the others put on their costumes or prepared themselves. Cloudjumper and Thunderhoof glared at him almost constantly as he put on his device and then sat in the waiting room and waited, much more relaxed, a little nervous, and very excited. He was still number four, so he didn’t have to wait long once the competition began.
And then the competition started. It began with the opening ceremony, when Celestia and Luna made their arrival to the thundering applause of the crowd, then the three Wonderbolts that were judging the competition zoomed into the stadium in a tight formation, which got Skyblaze’s attention. There she was…Rainbow Dash. She was at the left end of the three pony formation, wearing her Wonderbolt uniform with goggles, but her rainbow-colored mane and tail made her very distinct from the others, whom Skyblaze could identify with ease. Soarin and Spitire were the other two, the dark-maned stallion and fiery-maned mare landing with Rainbow Dash in the judges’ box.
That was why he was here, to take another step down the road to becoming a Wonderbolt himself. He’d almost lost sight of that, but thanks to Princess Celestia, it was back in the forefront of his mind. He would do his best to impress those three ponies so much that even if he didn’t win, he might get an invitation to the academy anyway.
After the opening ceremony, the contestants returned to the staging area and could do nothing but wait. Stormbuck had drawn the short straw and had to go first, and the music he’d chosen for his routine played in the stadium as Skyblaze simply sat near the main door, much more relaxed, thinking through his routine as he waited his turn. But he didn’t wait alone. Scootaloo came over and sat down beside him, looking over at him with a slight smile. “Hey.”
“Hey,” he replied. “You ready?”
“As I’ll ever be,” she replied. “Listen, for one, I think it sucks that they made you change your routine. I wanted to see what this trick is you do with the tornado. I think it sounds pretty awesome.”
“Thanks,” he replied. “But it was just a minor setback. I have a new routine now. It may not be good enough to beat you, but it should be good enough to prove to the committee that they were wrong.”
She gave him a look at his even, deadpan voice, then gave a bright laugh. “Long as you place higher than those two, you win in my book,” she said, turning a sly gaze back towards Cloudjumper and Thunderhoof. “Every pony knows that they ratted you out just to try to keep you from winning the competition, and quite a few other pegasi won’t even talk to them now. What they did was beyond lame.”
“That explains why they’re not over here trying to make fun of me,” he mused. “And I knew you’d see things the right way,” he added with a slight smile.
“So, after the competition, maybe you can show me this tornado trick of yours?”
“Not today, but some other time, sure,” he replied. “I can’t pull it off every single time, but I can most of the time.”
She gave him a look, then laughed. “You were going to use a trick you can’t do every time in the competition?”
“Hey, I can do it right most of the time,” he protested with a grin, which made her laugh harder.
“You’re pretty cool, Skyblaze. We gotta hang out,” she told him, nudging him a bit.
“Long as you can handle a couple of loud-mouthed, obnoxious griffons, sure,” he chuckled.
“Oh yeah, I saw them arrive. Every pony says you invited them.”
“Yup. Gedwin and Gwendi are two of my best friends. No way would I not invite them,” he replied.
“I saw your family in the stands too. They’re not hard to miss,” she chuckled.
“I love them despite them being unicorns,” he replied lightly, which made her laugh.
“Number four! Number four, you’re up!” the organizer boomed.
“That’s me,” he said, standing up. “Good luck out there, Scootaloo.”
“You too, Skyblaze. Knock ‘em dead,” she said with an honest smile.
He came out onto the platform to quite a bit of applause, as well as a certain amount of eager anticipation. Because of his reputation, he knew that half of the stadium expected to see him with his head stuck in a pillar within the first minute of starting his routine…and that was just fine with him. After today, they’d finally see why he crashed so much. He looked up and around at all the pegasi, saw his family, his griffon friends, and Rainsong’s family cheering for him, then saw Celestia and Luna in their box, both of them looking down at him with smiles of anticipation. He took a breath, shivered his wings a little bit, then lifted up off the platform to begin.
At first, he slowly flew around the bottom edge of the platform, producing a few chuckles and whispers, because he flew very slowly and carefully around the edge. It wasn’t to make them think he was being funny, it was to make sure that he had his dimensions right. The base of the stadium was the foundation of the distances he’d find above, and once he was sure of the distance around the bottom of it, he’d know if his practice area was right or wrong. But that lap came down to the exact number of flaps it took him to go around his practice field, and that told him that Gold Ring’s practice stadium had been a perfect replica of this stadium. It meant that he wouldn’t have to change anything about his routine to make it fit into this stadium.
Just as the laughter started getting a bit mean-spirited, Skyblaze turned to the side and put his hooves on the wall, lifted his wings, and then absolutely rocketed off the wall, using it as a platform. He was at full speed within four wingbeats, screaming across the stadium, and screaming directly at the committee box which was on the top tier. He screamed right over them, his hooves nearly hitting the edge of the box, then turned so sharply that the red streak behind him almost looked like a corner. He buzzed the top tier of the stadium with his hooves just barely over the dividing walls between the boxes at the top, and Luna and Celestia ducked their heads with bright smiles as he whizzed directly over them, the air wake from his wings and body pulling at their flowing manes. He came all the way back around to the committee, and then nearly smacked the stallion that hated him on the head with a back hoof as he turned suddenly and dove over the side, going down at a sharp angle and across the void in the middle of the stadium. Pegasus ponies ducked frantically as he seemed to divebomb them, but at the last possible instant, he turned under the second tier, flying just over the heads of the spectators and under the roof formed by the tier above, weaving back and forth with exacting precision between the columns and supports. He came out after two laps around and into the open, streaking back across the open area, and entered the second tier. It had a much higher roof than the first tier, so he flew at high speed around the front edge, performing a constant corkscrewing barrel roll that spun him around and around the columns along the front edge, his hooves and wings just barely missing the lower wall, showing off just how precisely he could fly. The sky and stadium spun to his eyes, but his constant spinouts and rolls had taught him about knowing where he was in the air in relation to the ground, able to navigate the constant roll with practiced skill as he did two laps around the second tier, then he turned hard after passing a column and streaked directly across the stadium towards the third tier. That tier had columns much closer together, and for them he almost looked to gallop from column to column, turned sideways in his flight and landing all four hooves on each one, then almost seeming to jump to the next one as he went around the stadium. He jumped off the final column and went directly across the stadium to the fourth tier and turned inside the tier, which had sections divided by walls with large holes in them for ventilation. Skyblaze lined up with the first of them and tucked in his wings, and just barely managed to squeeze through the hole. Each hole was in a different location, and he went through every single one at high speed, grazing his hooves on a few, grazing the tank on his back on a few others, but he didn’t miss any of the holes. When he came back to where he began, he turned so sharply it looked like he bounced off a wall and flew directly across the stadium, rising up to the fifth tier. This tier had empty walls behind it in the form of arches that supported the top two tiers, and he went directly over the heads of the seated pegasi and out the arch behind them, then turned on his dust spreader as he came around. He went back in through the next arch, spreading a line of glittering dust behind him, screaming across the stadium and through the arch on the other side. He turned off the spreader as he came out and around and turned it back on when he came through the arches, and he went through the 16 arches so quickly that the line formed by his first pass had only drifted down to the next tier by the time he made the final pass. He rose up to the sixth tier, where his family was sitting, then once again did a series of barrel rolls around the columns supporting the final tier. He finished that up and streaked across the stadium again, this time hurtling directly at Celestia and Luna, but neither of them flinched as he pulled up almost at the last second and did a looping turn over them, again doing a series of much wider corkscrewing barrel rolls over the top tier, this time spreading dust in a spiral pattern behind him. He came all the way around until his dust trail met the beginning, then he flew directly in the center of it, spreading a trail of dust through the exact center of his spiraling creation over the heads of the ponies in the top tier. He then lanced ahead in a sudden burst of speed, dragging the dust he’d spread behind him in his air wake, coming all the way around and collecting it all, then careening almost straight up as he reached the committee members.
And this was the part that was going to get him in trouble.
He flew high up over the stadium dragging the dust, then turned and dove back through it, feeling the dust pepper off his goggles, yanking it back down with him with his air wake. He divebombed directly at the committee members, and they looked about to scramble for cover as he pulled out just enough to streak just inside the dividing wall…and then all that dust hit them, making them cough and creating a swirling cloud of shimmering, glittering rainbow refractions. He flew all the way down to the base of the stadium and put his hooves on the wall, galloping along it with his body sideways as his wings pushed him against the wall, and when he did a full lap, he turned on the spreader and started his finale. He flew in ovals around the base of the stadium, following the wall, then started to rotate, then turned it into the corkscrew spin he used to pull snow off the ground. He turned on the spreader again and let it empty out, the dust caught up in the swirling vortex formed behind his body, nearly a sideways tornado as the dust rotated rapidly around the column of air he formed. He ascended in his passes around the stadium, lifting the dust higher and higher, up each tier, and when he rose over the very top, he pulled the dust into a tight circle with him just inside it, his tighter and tighter turns drawing it in, very nearly forming a tornado of crystal dust. And just as he got to the point where he couldn’t possible turn any sharper, he gave a powerful sweep of his wings and jerked upwards, the move that made the tornado explode when he did the Tornado Twist. That move didn’t blow up his tornado ring, but it did make the dust shudder, then explode outwards, sending an expanding halo of glittering rainbow light flying over the stadium as the quartz dust caught the sun and refracted the light, with Skyblaze directly in front of the sun to those in the stadium below, his wings spread and his hooves out in a grand pose. He allowed himself to simply fall, fall down the very center of the stadium, then flared his wings out, pulled out of his descent, and landed lightly on the starting platform.
There was a moment of almost shocked silence, then the stadium roared into applause. Gedwin and Gwendi were jumping up and down in their box on the fifth tier, and the three Wonderbolts looked really surprised. But on the other side of the top tier, the five committee members looked down at him with very angry expressions…but he didn’t care. He showed them, he showed all of them, that his reputation in Canterlot was completely misunderstood. Yes, he crashed a lot, but if any of them ever bothered to watch more than just the crashes, they’d know that he crashed because he was always pushing himself to get better.
Skyblaze flew up to the box holding friends and family, and he got quite a few hugs and hoofbumps. “That was so awesome, Skyblaze!” Gwendi gushed as she gave him a rough hug, a very un-griffonlike thing to do.
“Yes it was, but I think dust-bombing the committee members might have been a mistake,” Silverchain chuckled, looking over and up at them. They were all giving Skyblaze a murderous look. They were all absolutely covered in glittering crystal dust, and one of them was sneezing uncontrollably. Skyblaze had managed to get almost all of it onto them.
“I couldn’t go without showing them how much I disapproved of their decision, it wouldn’t be me, Dad,” Skyblaze said lightly, which made both griffons and Rainsong laugh brightly.
“If that doesn’t win you the competition, then we’ll know that someone’s cheating,” Gedwin declared.
“It’s not over yet, Gedwin,” he said. “Scootaloo hasn’t gone yet.”
Those fears were justified. The next four participants were good, but nowhere near as good as Skyblaze’s performance had been. Then Scootaloo came up, and she awed the stadium with a demonstration of aerial agility and skill, doing all kinds of different and amazing tricks that showed off her ability, including an absolutely awesome trick where she made two clouds fire lightning back and forth between them while she all but danced between the lightning bolts. She made it clear that she was trained by a Wonderbolt in that performance, and Skyblaze wasn’t sure if he’d done enough to beat her by the time she landed and bowed while the crowd roared in approval.
And what Skyblaze felt was complete vindication, neither Cloudjumper nor Thunderhoof’s performance was even close to as good as his or Scootaloo’s.
After the last performance, all the competitors assembled on the landing platform for the award presentation. Celestia and Luna flew down with two of their guards, one of them holding the winner’s wreath, and the announcer pegasus landed on a small cloud near the top of the stadium. “We have a decision!” he called. “The winner of this year’s Young Flier’s competition, with the closest margin of victory ever in the history of the event, is…” he trailed off to heighten the tension, then he pointed down. “Scootaloo!”
There was loud cheering, of course. Skyblaze felt a little crestfallen, but not too crestfallen. He had done his best, and while it wasn’t good enough to beat Scootaloo, it was good enough to make him feel proud of his performance. He was standing next to Scootaloo, so he gave her a hoofbump of congratulations, then wheezed a bit when she gave him a sudden crushing hug, almost jumping up and down, then bowed her head when Princess Celestia approached. She placed the wreath on Scootaloo’s head, and congratulated her in a loud voice on her victory and her routine.
After the ceremony, the spectators started to depart. Skyblaze flew up to the box and landed beside his family, who gave him reassuring smiles. His parents and siblings patted him on the back in consolation, Rainsong and Gwendi hugged him, but Gedwin looked a bit annoyed, and Rainsong’s parents looked similarly troubled. “I’m not sure I agree with that,” Frost said soberly, looking up at the three Wonderbolts as they took off from their judges’ box and flew down to congratulate the winner. “I think there was a tiny bit of favoritism going on up there in that box.”
“I saw her perform, Frost. I can live with it,” Skyblaze said calmly. “I don’t think they cheated.”
“You were amazing, sweetie, and I’m proud of you,” Shimmergem told him, hugging him again.
“If anything, you got to stick it to the committee. They’ll be getting that dust out of their coats for days,” Rainsong said slyly, which made them all laugh.
He walked with his family and friends back towards the balloon, listening to them talk about the competition. He felt…weirdly okay with it. He didn’t win, and that was a blow, but he had done a good routine, he hadn’t crashed into anything, and he showed the committee and every pony who doubted him that he was not what they believed him to be. And he had flown the manes off Cloudjumper and Thunderhoof, and they knew it. That was a moral victory right there. He skidded to a stop when the three Wonderbolts landed in front of him and his family, names and faces he knew oh so well from the posters in his room. Spitfire, captain of the Wonderbolts. Soarin, second in command. And Rainbow Dash, his colthood hero and their newest member. “That was a pretty awesome routine you did, Skyblaze,” Spitfire told him. “You only lost by two points out of one hundred on our score sheets. I just wanted you to know that.”
“And that I didn’t judge any performers,” Rainbow Dash said. “I couldn’t judge Scootaloo because I’m friends with her, and it wouldn’t have been fair for any other pony if I did any judging. I was just watching like every pony else.”
“I’m glad to hear that, Miss Dash,” Silverchain said seriously, giving her a nod. “I can’t deny that there wasn’t a little bit of doubt over the results of the scoring.”
“Where did you learn to fly like that, kid?” Soarin asked.
“A week of practice in an exact replica of the stadium, built by my family and friends,” he replied, rearing up and putting a hoof over the necks of his mother and father. “I wasn’t just flying around randomly in there, sir. I knew exactly where I was going and how much room I had to do those tricks, thanks to my brother Gold Ring, who was the one that helped us build our practice stadium.”
“Still, that was majorly impressive,” he said with an approving nod. “And it was more than just practice in that stadium, kid. You had to learn how to fly like that to do what you did. I’ve only seen two other ponies that could fly like that at your age, and there’s one of them right there,” he said, pointing a hoof at Rainbow Dash. That made Skyblaze absolutely beam, being compared to his hero. “The other one won the competition.”
“So, we were talking, and since you virtually tied with Scootaloo in the competition, it wouldn’t really be fair to only give Scootaloo an invite to our next Academy class,” Spitfire said, giving Skyblaze a smile. “So, what do ya say, Skyblaze? How’d you like to attend next month’s training course?”
“Would I!” he said with sudden excitement.
“Then you’re on the roster,” she said with a nod. “We’ll send you a letter telling you exactly when and where you’re going. And don’t expect us to go easy on ya!” she warned. “We’ve seen what you can do, kid, so you’d better not disappoint us!”
The three Wonderbolts flew off, leaving a nearly ecstatic Skyblaze to celebrate his little victory with his family. He may not have won the competition, but he did just get himself an invitation to the Wonderbolt Academy…which had been what it had all been about in the first place. He traded hoofbumps with his griffon friends, hugged his family and Rainsong, and almost pranced with them towards their balloon, feeling like he’d just finished the first and biggest step towards his dream of becoming a Wonderbolt. He’d earned a coveted invitation to their academy, and if he did well there, they’d know who he was. And with time and lots of hard work, he might someday find himself wearing a Wonderbolt uniform.
He felt like he was well on his way to accomplishing his dream.
“Well, that just made all this worth it,” Gedwin said with a chuckle as they started back for the balloon. “And now I’m kinda interested. Maybe we’ll try out this competition next year, sis.”
“Yeah, we need to show these pegasi what real flying is,” she agreed haughtily, then she wheezed a bit when Rainsong whacked her on the rump with her wing.
The Wonderbolts weren’t the only surprise visitors. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna landed in front of them just before they reached the balloon, and they all bowed to them as the tall, regal sisters folded back their wings and stepped up to Skyblaze. “You did Canterlot proud, Skyblaze,” Celestia said in a warm voice. “I’m very proud of you.”
“I tried my best, your Highness,” he told her, looking up at her. “It just wasn’t good enough today. Maybe next time it will be.”
“I have little doubt,” she smiled.
“I’ll work twice as hard,” he declared. “So that means I’ll be laying out on the castle grounds at least twice a week from now on.”
The two sisters gave him a look, then both laughed helplessly. “Are you trying to add to my collection?” Celestia asked.
“Not intentionally, ma’am,” he replied, a bit playfully. “It gives your collection more value if you earn all the feathers.”
“Collection?” Shimmergem asked, looking at Skyblaze.
“She keeps all the feathers I lose when I crash on the palace grounds,” he replied with a smile. That made his family and friends laugh.
“That goes without saying,” she murmured, then Luna stepped up.
“Skyblaze, you will report to the palace tomorrow just after sunrise,” she told him. “There is something we wish you to do.”
“Your skills as a delivery pony are quite well known, and we know that you can fly long distances and not get lost or drift off course, which will serve you well in this task,” Celestia smiled.
“Of course, your Highness!” he replied eagerly.
“Then come see us just after sunrise tomorrow. We’ll tell you more about it then.”
“I’ll be there right after breakfast,” he nodded.
“Just to warn you, come ready to spend two or three days on your trip. You will be going a long way, my young pegasus.”
“I will, ma’am,” he nodded.
“Then report to the palace in the morning,” Luna told him, then she looked to Celestia. They nodded to each other knowingly, then they both opened their wings. “We need to go congratulate Scootaloo on her victory. Until tomorrow, Skyblaze.” They all bowed again as the two royal sisters took flight, heading back for the stadium.
“Ooooohhh, working for the palace now,” Prism grinned at him. “You’re moving up in the world, brother!”
“I just hope I don’t mess it up,” he said nervously. “Sure, I talk to Princess Celestia sometimes, but I’ve never worked for her before. That makes it way different. I don’t want to disappoint her.”
“I’m sure you won’t,” Silverchain said with a proud look on his face. “You’ve never disappointed us, so you’ll never disappoint the Princess.”
Skyblaze gave his father a look of gratittude, overjoyed to hear that despite how different he was from his family, they had never felt that he was a disappointment to them. “Thanks, Dad.”
“Any time, Skyblaze. Now let’s head home and have a big dinner to celebrate you getting that invitation to the academy,” he said grandly. “Gedwin, Gwendi, we’d love to have you join us.”
“Free food? We never say no to free food!” Gedwin declared with a grin on his beak.
“You’re earning it this time, Gedwin,” Shimmergem said playfully. “You abnd Gwendi are pulling the balloon back to Canterlot.”
“No sweat, Misses Stardust,” he said swaggeringly. “But if we’re pulling, then you’d better tie yourself to the gondola. It’s gonna be an exciting trip.”
That made his parents laugh “The sicker we get on the way back, the smaller your dinner,” Silverchain warned.
“Nuts. I guess we’d better behave, sis,” Gedwin said, prancing a tiny bit.
“Yeah, free food is way more important than having a little fun,” she agreed.
His family climbed into the balloon, and the griffons took the rope in their taloned forepaws and started pulling it back to Canterlot with Rainsong, Skyblaze, and Rainsong’s parents flying alongside the gondola. Skyblaze looked back at Cloudsdale as they flew away, feeling…well, feeling eager. He may have lost the competition, but he had done his best, and if any pony was going to beat him, he was glad it was Scootaloo. He liked her, and he was happy to see a pony he liked win something important to her. Besides, he got his own invitation to the academy, so he hadn’t really lost much more than the wreath. He had shown every pony that he really could fly, and now he was going to work for the Princesses. From the sound of it, they wanted him to deliver something for them and take it a long way and it just might be pretty valuable. It was what he did for his parents, carry really valuable things a long way, and while he was a little nervous about not wanting to disappoint them, he was pretty sure he could do it for Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.
It hadn’t gone as he’d hoped it would, but he couldn’t be disappointed with the result. With a job for the Princesses and that training course for the Wonderbolts in his future, he really had something to look forward to now that the immediate focus of his life, the competition, was in the books. He had new challenges to prepare for, and that always made Skyblaze happy.
He has the feeling that the next month or so was going to be very interesting.