Skyblaze

by Darkest Night

A Message from Cloudsdale

It was barely past dawn when Skyblaze knocked carefully on Rainsong’s window, her room in the apartment her family had over their spa. Their spa was fairly large and successful, so they had a very large apartment over it with spacious rooms and large windows. Like Skyblaze, Rainsong used her window far more than she did the door to get in and out of her room, at least now that she could open it. When she was a younger filly she had a habit of sneaking out, and as a result her parents had her window nailed shut. When she came back from weather school, they felt she was mature and responsible enough to come and go as she pleased…which was their mistake.

Rainsong gave him an eager grin as she opened her curtains, a pair of goggles already resting above her eyes, ready to be pulled down, and then she opened her window. “Ready?”

Skyblaze nodded. “We’ll go to Ponyville and get something to eat after we work our mischief,” he said, which made her laugh.

“You’re buying.”

“Such a moocher,” he complained as she flitted out of the window and closed it.

“Let’s go, O teacher of bad things,” she said extravagantly, sweeping a hoof towards the snow-capped peak high above.

He explained the mechanics of fake snow to her up on the flat area near the pinnacle of the mountain, a tiny plateau of sorts that was perfect for what they had to do. “So, you have to corkscrew through it? Why not just fly straight?”

“You need the circular air currents to drag the a lot of cold air with the snow, else it just melts,” he explained. “You’re not just dragging snow down, you’re dragging enough cold to make sure the snow makes it to the ground.”

“Ohhh, okay,” she nodded as they hovered over the snowpack, the air still and crystal clear, without even a hint of wind. Their breath misted in the cold air around them as Skyblaze deliberately lowered his goggles. “It’s been a while since you did a tornado. Think you’re up for it?”

“Of course I am, you dink,” she retorted with a grin. “I’ll just follow you once we get it formed, so I can see what you do.”

“Simple enough. Let’s get this going.”

With two of them, they could make a really big tornado and still be able to control it. They’d been partners in tornado drills back in weather school, so the two of them easily circled each other and formed a fairly large tornado that quickly sucked up the loose snow on the small plateau . Once the snow-nado was fully matured and carrying a whole lot of snow, Skyblaze disengaged himself from the funnel and rocketed to the far side of the snowy field, his wingtip cutting into the snowpack as he looped around to come back at his creation. Rainsong was turning above and behind him so she could get a good vantage point. Skyblaze lifted just high enough off the gently sloping snow so he could start his corkscrew, spinning as he ascended and descended , his wingtip brushing the snow over and over as he picked up speed. Snow was pulled into the air behind him as he formed the vortex, a much weaker horizontal tornado of sorts formed by his corkscrew, and then he accelerated in a lurch once he had it going. He pierced the tornado in a blaze of red, exploding form the other side as the tornado behind him shuddered and then shattered, but the snow it held was drawn into his wake. Rainsong hurried after him as he screamed across the plateau and then over the edge, coming out of the corkscrew when the air wake behind him was fully formed and turned downwards, using his agility to avoid the rocky outcropping and ledges along the steep mountainside once he was below the snow line, dragging a massive amount of snow and cold air behind him. The adrenalin surged as he saw rocky ledges and shelves lance by, saw the rocky face blur into a single color without feature as he went too fast for his eyes to make out the details, felt the icy air bite at his nose and ears and pull his mane, making him feel alive. He again bounced into the open air just before reaching the mouth of Doom Gulley, streaking in a tight barrel roll high over the city of Canterlot to alter the path of the snow behind him, then he lifted up and over the vortex and allowed it to peter out directly over the city. The snow slowed down and began to fall, spreading in a cascade over Canterlot and starting to drift down as Rainsong reached him. The two of them descended down into the snow, orbiting one another in a graceful dance of circles, then they landed in the huge courtyard beside the palace just ahead of the first of the snowflakes.

“And that, my friend, is how we get in big trouble,” Skyblaze declared, which made Rainsong laugh as she looked up. Skyblaze opened his wings and caught the first snowflake to reach them right at the very tip of his longest feather, then the gentle drifting flakes surrounded them as they ghosted lazily to the ground.

“I doubt many pegasi around here could pull it off, they’d get dizzy trying to do the corkscrew for that long,” she winked over at him, then she caught a flake on her nose.

A shadow ghosted over them, and Princess Celestia landed just behind. Rainsong gawked a little and bowed, quickly and a bit awkwardly, while Skyblaze did so with a little more grace. “Good morning, your Highness,” he said urbanely as she walked up to stand between them, towering over them. Rainsong looked up at her with both anxiety and adoration—she loved the princesses—while Skyblaze gave her a mischievous smile.

“I see you had to try again, my young pegasus,” she said lightly, looking down at him with an amused expression. “And now you’re teaching others your bad habits.”

“She doesn’t need my help to get in trouble, ma’am. I just make her better at it,” he said, which made Rainsong gasp and Celestia laugh.

“And you would be Rainsong, right, my dear?” she asked, looking over.

“Uhh, y-yes, your Highness,” she quavered a bit.

Several pegasi appeared in the air behind the palace, wheeling and careening around, then they seemed to stop and converge. “And now we run,” Skyblaze declared. “Nice seeing you again, Princess.”

“You too, my incorrigible young pegasus,” she winked, then looked to Rainsong. “And you have a large mountain to climb if you want to be as notorious as he is,” she noted, then she trotted in a carefree manner towards the gate of her palace.

They watched her maybe a second too long. “SKYBLAZE!” a furious shout boomed through the courtyard. It was Silver Stratus, the pegasus in charge of the Canterlot weather team, diving on Skyblaze with fury in his eyes.

“Eep!” Rainsong squeaked, lifting a hoof off the cobblestones, then the two of them turned and took off with the older stallion in hot pursuit.

Silver Stratus was a good flyer, but he wasn’t half as crazy as Skyblaze was, who flew the streets of Canterlot below the rooftops on a daily basis. Skyblaze led Rainsong at street level through Canterlot along paths he knew well, turning and twisting along the narrow streets, their air wake pulling at banners and hats and dresses worn by the unicorns and earth ponies below, working them towards the edge of the city. Rainsong stayed right behind him as she depended on his ability to navigate, then they surged ahead when they entered Overlook Park. Skyblaze’s hooves clattered on the low wall as he landed on it for the briefest of instants, just long enough to dive off the edge, to push off of it at a downward angle to help alter his trajectory. Rainsong was right behind him, their wings tucked in as they hurtled towards the rocks below. Silver Stratus had the sense not to try to chase them beyond the boundary of Canterlot, mainly because he realized quickly that there was no way he was catching Skyblaze out in the open when he had that much of a lead and was in a power dive.

Laughing, they pulled out of the dive and leveled off, angling for the small village of Ponyville in the distance, nestled in a gentle valley. “I’m gonna be in sooo much trouble when Silver Stratus tells the weather managers in Cloudsdale!” Rainsong said, then she laughed again. “But it was worth it!”

“Welcome to every day of my life,” he replied cheekily.

They landed in the center of Ponyville, bounding a bit as they folded their wings, then Skyblaze led Rainsong to the little café where he’d eaten the first time he was there. He had just enough money on him to buy breakfast for them, the bits tucked into slots along the inside of the strap of his goggles, which was often the only place he had to carry them when he wasn’t delivering for the family shop. They talked about the upcoming competition and his practice, since Rainsong had a lot of work to do over the next couple of days getting ready for a series of strong showers so the trees could get in their growth before summer started winding down. She wouldn’t be able to help him move rings, but she was saving a bunch of small clouds for him over her territory for him to have plenty of clouds for busting in his practice. Since they often dumped extra clouds over her area since no pony lived out there, she always had plenty she could give him.

Their breakfast wasn’t without its issues, and it had nothing to do with Silver Stratus. Just as they started working through the excellent apple fritters the café served, a mature pegasus stallion landed beside the café and immediately trotted over towards them. “Uh oh, I think they followed us,” Skyblaze said under his breath as the stern-looking yellow-coated stallion presented himself before them, his orange mane cut very short and in a mohawk style

“Skyblaze Stardust?” he asked.

He wouldn’t be asking if he sent by Silver Stratus, so Skyblaze nodded.

“You need to report to the competition office in Cloudsdale immediately. It concerns the competition,” he declared.

“For what?”

“I wasn’t told, only to find you and relay the message,” he answered. “Your parents sent me here, they suspected you might be in Ponyville.”

Message delivered, the stallion turned and took off, leaving Skyblaze and Rainsong looking at each other speculatively. “Maybe they’re changing the order. Some pony might have dropped out.”

“They wouldn’t need me to go there just for that,” he said as he finished his apple fritter. “No use worrying about it,” he added with a shrug. “I’ll go see what they want after we finish breakfast.”

They split up after finishing, Rainsong going to get her work done while Skyblaze flew nearly due north, ascending towards the flowing, handsome town of Cloudsdale. He entered the competition office and was directed past the reception desk, to a large office with a view of the stadium behind it. There were five pegasi sitting at a long table made of cloud there, their backs to that panoramic window, and they all looked at him when he trotted in. “You wanted to see me?” he asked.

“Yes,” the one in the middle said, an older stallion with a dusky off-white coat and short cropped black mane. “It has come to our attention that you intend to use a tornado in your performance.”

He gave a start of surprise. How did they know that? “Well, yeah,” he replied. “It’s for my last trick, a move I invented. I call it the Tornado Twist.”

The five of them, three stallions and two mares, gave him penetrating stares. “A tornado being formed within the stadium presents an exceptional danger not just to you, the performer, but also to the spectators and the stadium itself. If that tornado gets out of control, it could cause a great deal of damage,” he stated in a strong voice. “For that reason, we cannot allow you to perform this, Tornado Twist.”

“What?” Skyblaze gasped. “Why not?”

“For just the reason I gave,” he replied flintily. “It’s too dangerous, especially when being used by a young stallion with your…reputation,” he added.

“This committee feels that using a tornado in the competition is simply too much of a risk,” the mare beside him said in a gentler voice. “I’m sure you feel that you can keep it under control, but we can’t take that chance, not with the safety of every pony watching hanging in the balance. I’m sorry, mister Stardust, but we can’t allow it.”

He was absolutely speechless, staring at the five of them with an expression approaching horror.

“Compounding that is the fact that you have a very notorious reputation in Canterlot for sheer recklessness,” the stallion sitting at the end said in a haughty voice. “There isn’t a day that passes by that there aren’t reports of you crashing into something. We cannot allow a young pegasus with a documented history of barely being in control of his own flight to use something as dangerous as a tornado in his performance.”

“I’m not reckless!” he protested. “I crash because I’m trying to make myself a better flyer! If you don’t push the envelope, you don’t get better!”

The stallion gave him a cold smile then produced a scroll. “The pennant pole atop the Royal Palace in Canterlot. Sixteen different lamp posts. Thirty-one windows. Nineteen flower boxes. Four carts. And what I think must be a record, fifty-one different hanging signs. Do you deny that you’ve destroyed all of those items?”

“Well, yeah, I can’t deny that, but I paid for them.”

“Your parents did,” he said, narrowing his eyes. “But this list just demonstrates how reckless you are, mister Stardust. A pony with such blatant disregard for his own safety and the safety of others cannot be allowed to use something as dangerous as a tornado in his act. Some ponies on this committee are against you performing at all,” he added, leaving no doubt just where he stood on the matter with his expression.

“Be that as it may,” the stallion in the center interrupted, “you will be allowed to compete, young mister Stardust, but you are not allowed to use a tornado in your routine. You will simply have to rework your routine to take that part of it out.”

“But—but I can’t win if I don’t use the Tornado Twist!” he protested vehemently. “I’ll never beat Scootaloo without it!”

“Then perhaps you should bow out of the competition?” the stallion at the end asked with a slightly malicious smile.

“A true competitor rolls with the punches and perseveres in the face of adversity,” the other mare said calmly. “If you believe that you can’t win without using this trick of yours, then you’ve already lost. And that is the wrong attitude, young stallion. If you believe that only some kind of impressive stunt will help you beat your rival, then you have a full week to come up with one that doesn’t involve a tornado.”

“But—but this isn’t fair!” he protested, stomping a hoof. “Let me show you I can control the tornado! I almost have the trick mastered!”

“Almost is not good enough when the safety of others hangs in the balance, Mister Stardust,” the stallion in the middle declared.

“Well—well, let me do the trick high above the stadium!” he nearly pleaded. “That should be far enough away!”

“The matter is settled, Mister Stardust,” the stallion stated flatly. “And there will be no further discussion. Now, we have a great deal of work to do to prepare of the competition, so you may take your leave.”

Skyblaze gawked at them, disbelief sweeping through his expression. He then turned and stormed out with a snort of anger. He couldn’t believe it…he just couldn’t believe it! They were banning him from using the Tornado Twist, the one move that was going to win him the competition! And with the competition only a week away, now he was beyond being back at square one! His entire routine was based on using the Tornado Twist…without it, he had no routine. They’d just all but crippled him! No other competitor had to draw up a completely new routine with only a week left, and given just how good the competition was, who had all those amazing skills and all that time to get their routines just so, it put him so far behind that it was going to be almost impossible to win.

No. That was not the way to think about it, like the mare said. If he started thinking that he was going to lose, then he would lose. He had a week. He could draw up his new routine today, and that would still give him five or six days to practice it. It was going to be really, really hard, because he still had to make a routine so awesome that it would let him beat Scootaloo, but it was possible. He had to look at it like it was a challenge, because he loved a challenge.

Skyblaze stormed out of the competition building and down the steps, opening his wings and preparing to take off, when a voice stopped him. “Hey, Skydaze,” Cloudjumper said in a smug voice. He stopped and looked behind himself, seeing Cloudjumper and Thunderhoof approaching, both looking almost gleeful. “Everyone’s heard about it. Heard you were trying to use a tornado in the competition, and they smacked you down like the jerk you are. I guess it’s a good thing we saw you practicing the other day and saw what you were doing, and we warned the committee before you blew up the whole stadium.”

“You told them? You were spying on me?”

“That’s right, we told them,” he said with a malicious grin. “Not so big now that you can’t use your fancy move, are ya?”

It clicked in his mind. They’d seen him do the Tornado Twist, knew they’d have no chance of beating him in the competition if he used it, so they whined to the committee and somehow got them to ban him from using it. A surge of anger and disbelief welled up in him, that they’d resort to trickery and cheating to get an advantage in the competition, but instead of reduce himself to their level or do something crazy, he instead fixed them with a nearly unholy stare, his ears pinned back, which made both of them flinch a little. “Now it’s personal,” he hissed. “I’ll win the competition without the Tornado Twist, if only to show both of you who the best really is. Go home and practice, little foals. Practice every minute you’re awake. Come to the competition at your absolute best, so when you get beaten down like the cowards you are, you’ll have no excuses. You’ll have tried your absolute best, and I’ll still beat you,” he declared in a voice of doom. He yanked down his goggles with a snap of his forehoof, then he turned and launched himself into the air, going from standing to nearly full speed within two wingbeats, such a sudden and violent acceleration that it whipped up an air wake that pulled at their manes and warped the clouds briefly

He made it back to Canterlot in what would have been record time had he bothered to clock it, and instead of going home, he landed on the wall at Overlook Park and jumped down, furious and disgusted and insulted and worried all at the same time. Without the Tornado Twist, how was he going to impress the judges so mightily that he’d beat Scootaloo, whom he had no doubt was the favorite? She’d been trained by Rainbow Dash, and that made her one of the best. She had to have tricks just as impressive as the Tornado Twist she could do.

He kicked at a leaf that had blown from a nearby tree. Some of this was his fault, he could admit that. He did have a reputation for crashing into things, but he’d never once believed that it would ever be held against him. He didn’t crash because he was clumsy. He didn’t crash because he was reckless. He didn’t crash because he didn’t care. He crashed because he pushed himself to the absolute limit when he flew competitively, and when he did that, it wasn’t that hard to go over the limit and lose control. His parents understood it, and so did those who knew him—even Princess Celestia understood it. But that reputation for being a dangerous flyer had reared up and smacked him on the rump, for the committee had used it as their reason for banning him using the Tornado Twist in the competition. But still, it burned him up that they didn’t even give him a chance. He could have shown them the Tornado Twist, let them see what it was and how he did it, that the tornado he formed would have been no danger to any pony.

He couldn’t dwell on that. Thanks to those jerks Cloudjumper and Thunderhoof, he was banned from using his signature move in the competition. And he was going to beat them. Even if he didn’t win the competition, it would be a moral victory for him to place higher than those two jackwagons, to show them just which pegasus was the better flyer.

But…what was he going to do now? The rings and cloudbusting were literally a setup for the Tornado Twist, something that looked easy to make the Tornado Twist look that much more awesome by comparison. To do that without his finishing move would make his routine look dull, simple, even if he performed it well. He began to pace around the edge of the park, trotting in circles as he furiously considered the problem. He only had a week to design a new routine, refine it, and then practice it, while everyone else had been working on their routines for months in preparation for the competition. But without the Tornado Twist…what was he going to do?

For nearly an hour, he worked on that problem. He knew a lot of flying tricks, learned or invented by him in his practice in Canterlot, but none of them were awesome enough to win him the competition. He considered each and then discounted it, over and over, until he’d gone through his entire arsenal of moves and deemed not one to be awesome enough to replace the Tornado Twist. He eventually had to stop and consider the problem from another approach, one less concerned about awesome and more concerned about skill.

Simply put, what was he good at? What made him a good flyer?

That was an easy answer for him. It was his agility, his ability to turn tightly even at high speed, and turn with a great deal of precision. Slightly below that was his resilience in the air, for Skyblaze literally did not get dizzy, even in a full-out spin, having learned how to handle spins in his many crashes. And just below that was his speed. He was the fastest pegasus in Canterlot by a country mile, and there was no dispute about that from any pegasus in town.

His original routine had highlighted his agility both with the Tornado Twist and the rings. The rings were supposed to showcase his agility, his ability to turn at high speed, to demonstrate his ability in precision flying, where cloudbusting was going to demonstrate his speed. While he was a very fast flyer, he didn’t consider it his greatest strength, because it wasn’t natural talent that made him so fast, like it did with other pegasi like the incredible Rainbow Dash. He’d developed his speed through hard work, constant practice, turning virtually everything into a training exercise to get there as fast as he possibly could…and thus why he crashed so much. He’d taken so many tumbles trying to control his flight at those speeds as he learned that he couldn’t count them all, but all those crashes had taught him, each failure helping to make him a better flyer.

So, knowing that Scootaloo was going to have an amazing routine that showed off the amazing skills taught to her by Rainbow Dash, how was he going to use his skills to top what he knew would be her incredible performance?

He looked over his shoulder back towards the city, at the breathtaking panoramic view of the buildings and towers of Canterlot, whose ways he knew—

Canterlot.

Now that was a crazy idea. They thought he was reckless. They thought he was a dangerous flyer. Well, what if he used those very traits they thought were bad and showed them how wrong they were, that they didn’t understand him at all?

It had potential. Everything he needed would already be there, mainly the stadium itself, plus a little something he knew his father could make for him. He’d need no rings, no clouds, nothing extra. All he’d need to do is study the stadium carefully, make a few drawings of it to take back home with him, then with Rainsong’s help, build a crude replica of it out of her extra clouds, with only the main features represented in rough fashion.

They thought he was reckless, maybe a little crazy…well, he would show them that there was a method to his madness, that sometimes crazy works.

He rushed home and into the shop, bounding over the counter. “Dad,” he said quickly. “Dad, I need your help.”

“What’s the matter?”

He gave him a grim look. “The competition committee won’t let me use the Tornado Twist in the competition. They say it’s too dangerous,” he relayed.

Everyone in the shop stopped what they were doing and rushed over. “Now? They tell you now?” Shimmergem demanded. “That’s unfair!”

“I know, and I tried to make them change their minds, but they won’t hear of it,” he said. “It means that my entire routine is in the trash. So I came up with a new routine, but I’ll need you to make something for me,” he said, giving them an earnest, brave look.

“What, son? You name it, we’ll make it.”

“No, we can’t just leave it like this,” Shimmergem said, and she looked mad. “It’s ridiculously unfair that they waited until just a week before the competition, after he’d worked so hard on his performance, to make him change it! They either let him do his trick or they make everyone else change their routines too!”

“Just leave it, Mom,” he said in a very sober voice, without the usual amusement in it…and much more mature voice. “We’re not changing their minds. You weren’t there to hear them talk. They made it clear that they’re only letting me compete at all out of the goodness of their hearts,” he growled. “It seems that my reputation for crashing into things in Canterlot got back to Cloudsdale. A couple of the committee members don’t want me competing at all because they think I’ll just crash into the stadium.”

“They have no idea what they’re talking about,” Shimmergem fumed. “Sure, you crash sometimes, but they don’t see what you do when you don’t crash! You have no idea how many unicorns in Canterlot love to watch you fly the streets! They think it’s amazing what you do! No other pegasus in Canterlot can do what you do!”

“And that’s why I need your help,” he said. “If they’re going to punish me because they think I’m reckless, I’m going to show them reckless,” he said in a grim voice that made Prism and Gold Ring burst out laughing. “Dad, I’m going to need a whole lot of crushed quartz crystal, and something I can wear on my back legs that spreads it, you know, like the Wonderbolts and their smoke devices,” he said. “I can get the crystal for you, I know where there’s a whole bunch of it just laying in a talus slope in the Foal Mountains.”

“I can make something like that easily, son,” he said with a fierce nod. “You bring me the crystal, we can set it up for you.”

“Gold Ring, brother, I need your help,” he said. “You draw way better than I do. I need a very detailed picture of the stadium. Where everything is, how big it is, the distances, so I can build up a practice area that mimics its dimensions.”

“Is right now too soon?” he asked. “I’ll go talk to Misty Morning, she can cast the spell that lets us walk on clouds. She was going to do it for us for the competition.”

“Go, son,” Silverchain declared. “Skyblaze has to go get that quartz, so you should be ready to make those drawings when he gets back.”

“I know exactly what we need for his dust spreader,” Shimmergem said. “Let me go talk to Roseglass.” She opened the counter with her magic and almost galloped out of the shop, just in front of Gold Ring.

“We don’t have much time, you only have a week,” Silverchain stated. “Prism, I want you to go around to all the ponies waiting for a commission and warn them we’ll be a few days behind. When you come back, finish making the settings and filigree for Princess Celestia’s order. That’s the only one we’re not going to shelve.”

“Yes, Father, I’ll take care of it,” she nodded, turning and hurrying after the others.

“How long will it take you to get that quartz?”

“Maybe an hour, it’s only about twenty minutes from here by wing,” he replied. “Twenty over, twenty to gather up the quartz, twenty back.”

“Then do so,” he said. “Gold Ring should be ready when you get back. Bring as much as you can carry, son,” he said as he picked up Skyblaze’s saddlebags off the peg on the wall and floated them over to settle on his shoulders, just in front of his wings. “We’re going to need a lot of it.”

“I’ll bring as much as I can carry, Dad,” he said, gratitude all over his face as Silverchain buckled the bags for him. “Thank you. And thank the others.”

“You may not be a unicorn, but you are my son,” he said proudly. “Now go get what you need to show up those idiots on the committee.”

Skyblaze gave him a short, fierce hug, then snatched up some old burlap sacks they kept behind the counter and put them in his saddlebag before bounding out of the shop and immediately taking wing. He turned towards the edge of town as he rose over the rooftops and then accelerated, but he didn’t go fast enough. Rainsong fell into formation beside him just as he passed over the edge of town, over the railroad tracks, looking over at him soberly.

“Word’s gotten out, it’s all over Cloudsdale, and Blossomforth told me when she flew by earlier,” she said. “It’s totally unfair!”

“I know, but they’ve made up their minds,” he said. “And we can thank those jerks Cloudjumper and Thunderhoof for it. They were spying on me while I was practicing and told the committee. Then they decided that it was too dangerous for me to make a tornado during the competition,” he snorted.

“They should have let you prove that you could control it, not just make you throw away your entire routine!” she flared.

“You weren’t there, Rainsong. They think I’m too reckless, some of them don’t even want me to compete. They don’t want Skydaze doing anything they think is dangerous,” he fumed.

“Seriously?”

“Yup. But that’s okay, I have a new routine now,” he said. “I know exactly what to do.”

“What?”

“First, I’m going to scare the manes off the committee by showing them what I learned flying the streets of Canterlot,” he said, which made her laugh despite herself. “Then I’m going to make it snow in Cloudsdale, but it’s going to snow crystal dust, not snowflakes. I’m on my way out to get the crystals for the dust right now.”

She gave him a look, then made a little squealing sounds, clopping her forehooves together. “Your summer snow trick! That’s gonna be awesome!” she said. “I’ll help you get the crystals, Skyblaze! I know where there’s some just laying on the mountainside!”

“I think we both know the same place, that’s where I’m going,” he grinned in reply. “But I’m going to need your help later. We’re going to build a rough replica of the stadium out of the extra clouds in your territory, so I can practice with the right dimensions and heights. Half the reason I can go so fast in Canterlot is because I know the streets. I need to know the stadium to pull this off, and I don’t want to practice in the stadium.”

“We can do that. It may take a day or so.”

“I know. Gold Ring’s gonna help us. He’s gonna make drawings of the stadium so we build it with the right dimensions. I don’t want us making it the wrong size and having me plow into a wall or a column because I think it’s further away,” he said, which made her laugh brightly.

“I can see that. He’s gonna be up there to help us build it?”

“I hope so. He’s going to talk to that unicorn that can cast the spell to let him walk on clouds right now, so he can go to Cloudsdale and make the drawings. You’ve seen him draw jewelry designs, and he can tell how far away something is just by looking at it. He’ll be able to make drawings with almost perfect dimensions. And if he helps us build it, he’ll be there to make sure we get it exactly right. He may be a jewelry maker, but my brother could have been one heck of a good engineer.”

“And who says having unicorns in your family is a bad thing,” Rainsong laughed brightly. “That unicorn education is gonna come in handy.”

With Rainsong’s help, it only took them about ten minutes to fill both his saddlebags and every extra burlap sack he’d brought with him. She helped him carry them back, sacks hanging off both of them, hauling them back to the shop. “I need to go out and gather up every spare cloud I can find, Skyblaze, I might not have enough extras,” she said as they came through the door. “I might even have to steal a few of them,” she added with a wink.

“Alright, we’ll meet you over there as soon as Gold Ring finishes the drawings, so we can get an idea of what we’ll need to do,” he replied as Gold Ring came down from upstairs, a saddlebag holding his best drawing materials strapped to his side..

“I have the spell cast on me, brother, Misty said it’ll last until sunrise tomorrow morning,” he replied. “And she said she’d be happy to cast it again tomorrow. You’re going to need us up on the clouds to help you set up your practice stadium. All of us,” he said, to which his parents and sister puffed out their chests a little. “With all of us up there, we can get it finished quicker.”

He gave them a look of profound gratitude. “You guys are so awesome,” he said earnestly.

“How are you going to get Gold Ring to Cloudsdale?” Rainsong asked.

“With this,” Shimmergem said, holding up a knot of ropes and leather with her magic.

“I totally forgot you had that!” she said with a laugh. “I haven’t seen that since we went to weather school!” It was a sling that Gold Ring had invented, which allowed Skyblaze to carry a pony with him. Skyblaze was a strong flyer, strong enough to carry a passenger, and the sling let him do it comfortably for both him and his passenger.

“It’s been a while since we used it,” Gold Ring noted, taking it from Shimmergem. “Skyblaze, you remember how to put it on?”

“Yeah,” he nodded. “Lemme help you.”

The two of them got the slings on, which would carry Gold Ring in a seated position while Skyblaze supported him with sturdy ropes and leather straps buckled to his shoulders and hips. Gold Ring hooked on the connecting ropes, tying them together. “We’ll be back as soon as we have the stadium drawn out,” he said to his parents.

“Alright, we’ll get to work on the dust spreader while Prism continues working on the Princess’ order,” Silverchain nodded.

Gold Ring tried not to be nervous when Skyblaze picked him up once they were outside, his forehooves wrapped around the leather straps that went up to the front of the harness. Gold Ring was carried in a seated position, and Skyblaze felt the ropes shudder a bit when they went over the wall of Overlook Park and the ground dropped out from under them. “Quite a different view than I’m used to,” he said nervously.

“We haven’t used this thing for almost a year, brother,” Skyblaze said, his wings working hard to carry both of them.

“Don’t worry, Gold Ring, he won’t drop you. See you over at the forest,” she said to him, then she banked away and turned north.

“I’m not worried about you dropping me, I’m worried about the straps breaking,” Gold Ring admitted.

“Then you should stop spending most of your time at Donut Joe’s,” Skyblaze replied, which earned him a dirty look up at him from his brother.

It slowed him down carrying more than his own weight in addition to himself, but he still made good time to Cloudsdale. Quite a few pegasi gave them surprised looks as he flew into the city, going straight to the stadium just beside the committee building. He had no doubt some of them would see him and Gold Ring descend into the empty stadium, but he honestly didn’t care. He tentatively set Gold Ring down on the highest point so he could get a good look, right by a flagpole, and Gold Ring’s hooves settled onto the cloud as if it were solid ground. When Skyblaze saw that, he set him fully down and let him unhook himself from the harness, then landed beside him. “I’ll need you to move me to a few different places, and we’ll have to pace off some of it,” he said as he opened his saddlebag and produced a quill, an ink pot, and a large rolled piece of parchment. “But this is a good place to start.”

“I sorta figured you’d need to see the whole thing from a good vantage point,” he nodded. The stadium was designed for pegasus ponies, so it was very open and had tiers for seating that had no stairs or connecting hallways, each tier wider than the one above it so they didn’t stack entirely vertically, but there were areas where the tier above overhung the tier below, what would be the back row. There were elegant columns made of clouds running from the tiers down to the one below to give them stability. The whole place was designed for ponies to fly in and take a seat, with the top tier being the one for the important ponies, like the judges and Princesses Celestia and Luna. It was very large, more than big enough for flying contestants to show off their skills and still give all the spectators a good view, oval-shaped, and the very center had no floor, open to the sky below. There was a landing deck of sorts along the east edge at the base of the stadium that opened to the dressing room, and that was where he’d be coming out to do his routine.

It took Gold Ring nearly two hours to draw the stadium to his satisfaction. Skyblaze had to move him from tier to tier several times, and then they carefully measured off the distances within the stadium, with some precision. They measured the distances between the columns, the width in the center between the tiers at each level, the height of each tier and the overall height of the stadium from the bottom to the top, even the width of the seating boxes and the width of the open arches that led to the outside that were on the upper tiers. Gold Ring even carefully measured the size of the Royal box, where Celestia and Luna would watch the competition. Quite a few residents of Cloudsdale hovered over the stadium watching the pair, as Gold Ring had Skyblaze move him around, fly around the stadium very slowly with him to get a good, close-up look at its main features, and hold a gem so Gold Ring could use a magic spell to get an exact distance between his horn and that gem; Gold Ring was actually very good with magic, he knew more magic spells than any other pony in the family. Once they were done, he carried Gold Ring back out of Cloudsdale, with about ten pegasus ponies following behind for a little bit. “What’s that all about?” Gold Ring asked, looking behind him.

“They don’t see unicorns in Cloudsdale very often, they’re probably wondering what we were doing.”

“Nothing that’s their business,” he declared.

“Exactly,” Skyblaze agreed, glancing behind himself. “Want to go back to the shop?”

“No, take me over to where you’re going to build the practice stadium,” he replied, looking up. “Let’s see what we’ve got to work with.”

“We won’t have everything there, Rainsong’s out gathering more clouds,” Skyblaze warned.

“I know, but we’ll see what we’ve got to start with,” he replied. “We can work out how we’re going to do it with what’s there while Rainsong’s out gathering clouds.”

Rainsong had been busy, he saw when they reached the forest north of Canterlot. She’d parked dozens of clouds over the woods, of various sizes, and Skyblaze picked the smallest one and set Gold Ring on it. “I’d just lay down if I were you, brother, you don’t have much extra room,” Skyblaze warned. “And I can’t hover over you in case you fall if I have to move clouds.”

“I can move the cloud myself, brother, don’t worry,” he smiled, and proved it. He laid down on the cloud and his horn glowed, which made the cloud start to rise. Skyblaze gave him a startled look, then laughed brightly.

“When did you learn to do that, brother?” he asked curiously.

“Clouds are solid enough for me to move with magic,” he replied mildly as he took his drawings out of his saddlebag. “Can you change the shape of the clouds without making them vanish?”

“Up to a point,” he replied with a nod. “Rainsong’s much better at it than me,” he added honestly. “She’s the weather expert here.”

“Hmm, I might be able to change their shape with magic, but I’ll wait til Rainsong gets back before I start trying,” he said professionally. “Alright, brother, let’s set some clouds out to serve as landmarks, so we can get an idea of distance.”

“Sure thing, brother. Just tell me where they go,” he said, zipping away and landing on the nearest cloud.

Rainsong was gone for nearly two hours, as Skyblaze set clouds in specific places to serve as landmarks under Gold Ring’s supervision, letting his unicorn brother build the stadium in his mind’s eye before they started trying to set up a mock-up of it for Skyblaze to practice. Rainsong did come back, and to Skyblaze’s surprise, she wasn’t alone. Gedwin and Gwendi soared in behind her as she returned, landing on the largest cloud as Skyblaze moved one of the smaller ones just over and behind another to simulate the edge of the tiers. “Guys! What are you doing here?” he asked in surprise.

“Rainsong told us how those stupid ponies that run the competition are trying to cheese you, Skyblaze,” Gedwin said with some heat. “Well, we’re not about to let them get away with it!”

“No way!” Gwendi agreed. “Rainsong told us what you’re doing, and griffons can move clouds, too! You’re gonna need more paws helping you set up this fake stadium you can use to perfect your new routine, and what do ya know, here’s four of ‘em right here,” she grinned as both she and Gedwin reared up and held out their taloned forepaws.

“Guys, you’re just too awesome,” he said with honest gratitude, smiling at them.

“With them and our parents all helping, we could get this done by noon tomorrow,” Gold Ring said, smiling at the two young griffons. “They can help with this, brother. You need to go get Mom and Dad.”

“We stopped in Canterlot on the way here, they’re on their way in a balloon,” Rainsong said. “I’ll go pull it here so they can get here faster.” She turned and zipped away.

Skyblaze landed between the griffon siblings and put a foreleg around each of them, then dragged them into a rough hug. Both of them gave a little wheeze, Gedwin’s beak opening in protest, then he laughed and jabbed Skyblaze gently with his elbow. “It’s no big deal, Skyblaze,” he said. “You’re one of the few ponies in Equestria that’s not a total embarrassment. We gotta make sure you don’t turn completely lame on us,” he grinned.

“I almost like you too, Gedwin,” he replied, which made Gwendi laugh.

Silverchain and Shimmergem arrived in a balloon pulled by Rainsong a moment later, Rainsong tying it to the largest cloud. The two of them tentatively stepped out of it, looking down with a look of slight surprise on their faces, then they smiled at each other and then at Skyblaze and the griffons. “Alright, everyone’s here but poor Prism,” Silverchain said. “But someone had to stay in the shop and work on Princess Celestia’s order. Gold Ring, you have your drawings ready?”

“We’re laying the foundations now, Dad, we’ve been setting marker clouds so we know where the others go,” he replied from his small cloud across the imaginary void of the stadium. “We can move the clouds with magic, so that’s what we’re going to be doing, Mom, Dad. Rainsong, we’re going to need you to shape some clouds into columns, and flatten some out to shape into the floors of the tiers.”

“No problem, Gold Ring,” she replied.

“Me and Gedwin can help her shape clouds, no sweat, Gold Ring,” Gwendi announced. “And Skyblaze and Mister and Misses Stardust can put them in place.”

“Alright, it sounds like we have a plan,” Silverchain declared, nodding his head. “Gold Ring, tell us what goes where.”

With that many there, things started moving quickly. Rainsong, Gedwin, and Gwendi shaped the clouds they had into rough estimations of what was in the stadium—those were much more elaborate—and when they ran out of clouds, Gedwin and Gwendi flew off to steal some from other places. They wouldn’t get in trouble the way Rainsong would, and besides, they’d enjoy annoying pegasi working on the weather elsewhere. It satisfied their need to be jerks for the day. The pieces that Rainsong shaped while the griffons were out terrorizing the weather pegasi were carefully put into position by Skyblaze and his parents as Gold Ring looked on, referring constantly to his map of the stadium, often having them move this fake pillar or that flattened cloud that mimicked a seating area by just a few inches, getting them as precise as possible and satisfying Gold Ring’s need for perfection. Gold Ring never did anything that he didn’t do to the absolute best of his ability. Gedwin and Gwendi joined Rainsong to shape clouds when they came back with one giant cloud, which they’d formed by stealing smaller ones and packing them together, which they then cut back into pieces and started to shape.

By dinnertime, as the sun started to sink low on the horizon, the cloud-skeleton of the stadium had definite shape. Skyblaze could recognize the layout from what he remembered of the stadium, for they’d placed most of the main columns and the floors for the first six tiers, with only two tiers remaining to form. Skyblaze and Rainsong anchored the clouds using a pegasus trick so any stray wind wouldn’t move them, then Skyblaze and Rainsong pulled the balloon back to Canterlot as Gedwin and Gwendi flew slowly on each side of it. “We absolutely must treat you two to dinner before you go home,” Shimmergem told Gedwin. “It’s the least we can do for all your help.”

“It wasn’t a big deal, Miss Stardust,” Gedwin shrugged. “Griffons are always there for each other, and Skyblaze is almost an honorary griffon.”

“Almost,” Gwendi agreed lightly. “And we’ll be back as soon as it’s light enough for us to start back for Canterlot. So, about two hours after sunrise or so, we’ll be here.”

“We’d stay the night, but we didn’t tell our parents we’d be gone, and they will kill us if we’re gone all night,” Gedwin grunted.

“Sounds like you speak from experience there, Gedwin,” Gold Ring noted.

Both griffons laughed. “Yeah, we did that once. Once,” he nodded.

“Ain’t never gonna do that again,” Gwendi agreed with a shudder.

Prism wasn’t too jealous that she’d been stuck at the shop, but her mood brightened considerably when Silverchain told her that she’d be going with them tomorrow to finish the stadium while he remained in the shop to do more work on the Princess’ order. Shimmergem went all out for dinner, making apple and cherry cassarole and lots of it, then feeding Gedwin and Gwendi so much they almost couldn’t get off the ground when it was time for them to head back. They talked about the stadium during dinner, how much they’d done, how much was left to do, and all of them were maybe just a tiny bit vindictive over having to build it in the first place. Gedwin and Gwendi especially were still somewhat torqued off that the committee had forced Skyblaze to redo his routine; griffons had a big sense of fairness, and what they’d done to Skyblaze was completely unfair in their opinion. Rainsong had to go almost before dinner was done when her parents came looking for her, and not just a few moments later, Gedwin and Gwendi had to get started so they’d get home before it got dark.

Outside, Skyblaze crushed his griffon friends in another hug, making both of them a bit embarrassed since several unicorns looked onward as they walked the streets. “I can’t thank you guys enough,” Skyblaze said honestly. “If not for you, it might have taken us three or four days to finish, and now we’ll be done by tomorrow.”

“No prob, Skyblaze. We gotta look out for the only pegasus in Equestria almost cool enough to be a griffon,” Gwendi told him playfully.

“We’ll be on the way as soon as it’s light enough for us not to crash into a mountain,” Gedwin promised.

“Just come straight to the forest, we’ll be there working,” he replied. “And we’ll make sure we have a lot of apples there for lunch this time.”

“Awesome,” Gedwin grinned. “We’ll tell our folks that we might be staying overnight with you in Canterlot tomorrow, just in case we don’t finish. That way we can be here first thing in the morning to get things done. You need all the time we can manage to practice.”

“You can stay in my room if you do, my parents won’t mind,” he assured them. He bumped his hoof with Gedwin’s closed forepaw, then with Gwendi, and the two of them opened their wings. “See you guys tomorrow.”

“We’ll be here,” Gwendi promised, then the two of them took off.

Skyblaze watched until they vanished behind a building, and he’d never been more glad that he had friends like them. Others may think they were crude and rude, and maybe they were, but they were two of the most awesome friends a pegasus could have.