//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Up on Cloud 9 // Story: With Bursts of Speed! // by Box of Imagination //------------------------------// Riff after riff, the sound of a sweet grand piano's melody filled the cool night air in Cloudsdale. The tune soothed Soarin's thoughts as he led the Wonderbolts to the source of the sound. There in the distance was Cloud 9, one of the most popular bars in Equestria. It sat atop a large cumulus cloud with a staircase that lured customers to the entrance. Soarin climbed the staircase and entered the building with the rest following suit. Inside there were ponies of all colors, shapes, and sizes. They were all enjoying drinks, discussing their lives, and overall just enjoying themselves in the company of others. Soarin took a minute to breathe it all in and smiled. "I haven't been here for about a year or so, but it's exactly the same as I remember it." Soarin said as the team made their way to the bar to get some drinks. Spitfire scanned the room, "So where is your brother? I don't see any pony that looks related to you." Soarin laughed, "He's probably in the back stocking items or something. Here, why don't I ask?" He motioned the bartender, who was a unicorn mare with a violet coat and a messy light pink mane, over to him. "Hey Sparkling Tonic! Is Skye here?" He asked Sparkling Tonic smiled, "He's in the back getting ready for his shift. I'm surprised he even came considering it's his birthday and all." "True, but you know how my dad is about his bar. He would probably be a little irritable if Skye didn't show up for work." Soarin laughed. "Yeah I can imagine!" She laughed, "How about I get you all drinks while you wait?" Spitfire nodded, "I'll have a gin martini." "A hard apple cider for me, please." Fleetfoot smiled. Misty spoke up, "Just water for me." Rapidfire shrugged, "And I guess I'll have a margarita." Sparkling Tonic took a minute to write everypony's drinks down and then looked over to Soarin. "What about you, hon?" "I'm good for now. I'll order something in a little while." Soarin replied. "Alright, I'll get those drinks ready right away!" Sparkling Tonic said as she stepped aside to go make the drinks. As the team waited, they started to ask Soarin about his brother. "So what's he like?" Fleetfoot asked, "Tell us a little about him." Soarin ran a hoof through his hair and sighed, "Where should I start?" Spitfire was the first to respond, "Well how about we start off with the basics. What does he do?" Sparkling Tonic walked over with the tray of drinks and placed in front of everypony. Soarin waited for them all to grab their drinks before responding. "Skye works here at our dad's bar as a bartender and the occasional performer." "Wait a minute, performer?" Rapidfire asked. Soarin nodded, "Skye's passion is music, and my dad thought it'd be a good idea to start making his voice heard. So whenever he get's a chance to, he goes and performs songs on the stage behind us." Everypony glanced at the stage where a earth pony stallion with a black coat and white mane occupied the piano at the moment. Misty looked intrigued, "That sounds quite interesting! I wonder how he sounds." "Do you think if we asked him to, he'd sing?" Fleetfoot asked. Suddenly, a door opened in the back and somepony walked out. Soarin smiled and said, "I don't think you even need to ask!" A pegasus stallion with a white coat and light blue mane with a silver outline, walked in and made his way to the piano. He was wearing a tight-fitting tuxedo that complimented his build. As he made his way to the stage, everypony in the bar started to applaud before going silent as he sat down. Spitfire looked confused, "He doesn't look that much like you." "I'll explain that in a little bit." Soarin replied. Fleetfoot smirked, "What a cutie! I could do definitely go for that!" Soarin playfully punched her shoulder, "What about me? Am I just a boy toy to you? "Woah! Just cause I was checking him out doesn't mean I'm throwing you out." Fleetfloot laughed, "After all, no pony can replace you!" "Good!" Soarin kissed Fleetfloot on the cheek and then turned his attention back to his brother. "Shhhhh!!! He's about to start!" Spitfire whispered. Up on the stage, Skye started to play a scale on the piano. He didn't seem all that pleased with the sound of the piano, so he stopped and stood up to face the audience. "I think tonight I'll take a break from piano. How does guitar sound?" Skye asked. Everypony gave a quick applause before going silent again. "Alright, guitar it is!" Skye laughed as he pulled out a guitar from behind the piano. Skye sat down and positioned the guitar. "This song is called 'Back Then'. It's a song I heard a band sing when I took a trip to San Franciscolt and it's surrounding cities." [Song: B STORY - Back Then (Acoustic)] Skye started to pluck the guitar and lightly slam the strings after each pluck for percussion. The song gave off a really nostalgic feeling and soon Spitfire, Soarin, and Misty swayed to the rhythm of the song while Rapidfire and Fleetfoot simply just sipped their drinks as they listened. As Skye entered the chorus, his intonation and ability to hit some of the high notes, despite it barely being in his range, sent chills down Spitfire's spine. When it came to music, she was usually very picky and often stuck to rock, but the way Skye was currently singing convinced her to possibly reconsider and stay open to other genres. Two minutes had passed and much to the Wonderbolt's disappointment, the song was approaching it's end. Skye started to wind down on the notes and played one last strum after singing the final lyric. After he was done, the crowd gave a very loud cheer and applause that didn't stop until Skye was done putting the guitar away and making his way to the bar to begin his shift.. As soon as Skye was behind the bar, he heard somepony speak up. "That's my brother! A showstopper as always!" Soarin said proudly. Skye's expression turned into a wide smile as he turned left and saw his brother and the rest of the Wonderbolts, "Soarin you made it! And you brought some friends!" Soarin smiled and nodded, "Of course I did! I'd wouldn't miss your birthday for anything." Skye continued to smile as he looked at the rest of the team, "Are you going to introduce me to everypony?" "Oh yeah!" Soarin laughed. Soarin got up from his seat and pointed a hoof to the mare next to him, "This is Fleetfoot. She's both my teammate and adorable marefriend." Fleetfloot smiled, "Hey there!" "Nice to meet you! Glad to see my bro has finally has got himself a mare." Skye returned a smile with a following wink. Soarin moved on over to Misty, "This is Misty. She is one of the most dependable ponies you could ask for." "Pleasure to meet ya!" Misty said waving a hoof. "Same here! It's always pleasure to meet Soarin's friends." Skye said as he turned his attention over to Spitfire. Soarin was about to continue with his introductions before Skye interupted. "And I'm guessing you're Spitfire?" Skye said getting her attention. Spitfire nodded, "Yeah that'd be me!" Skye moved over to her, "I've heard a lot about you in the letters that Soarin sends me." "Hopefully they're good things." Spitfire said lifting an eyebrow and eying Soarin. "Nah. Most of the things he discussed were simply things he admires about you as the Captain. He often shared some training stories, but nothing really negative." Skye replied. "Good. I guess I won't make him do extra wing-ups tomorrow!" Spitfire joked. Soarin immediately interupted, "ALRIGHT. MOVING ON!" Skye laughed while Soarin moved over to Rapidfire. "And finally we have Rapidfire! Being the brute force of the team, Rapidfire always pushes us forward during performances when we're not doing so hot." Soarin said while patting his teammate on the back. "Yo!" was all Rapidfire felt like saying. "Well it's nice to finally meet you all!" Skye smiled, "And I'm glad you all could make it as it's nice to have some ponies to enjoy my birthday with!" Misty took a sip of her drink before looking over to Skye. "It's no problem, really! Soarin is like family to us, and since you're his brother you're technically also family to us as well. Not to mention, we could use a night to relax every now and then." "Speaking of family, you two don't look very much alike." Spitfire said comparing the brothers, "Why is it that? If you don't mind me asking." Soarin was the first to answer, "Same father." "Different mother." Skye finished. Fleetfoot spoke up, "So half brothers?" Soarin nodded, "Yes we are. We don't think of it that way though, because blood related or not, we'd always be brothers." The team nodded in understanding. Skye went and grabbed two glasses full of a fizzing red liquid. He passed one over to Soarin and kept the other for himself. "Thought you'd want some bubbling hard cherry limeade. Considering that's what you always order" Skye said taking a sip of his. "Thanks!" Soarin quickly took the glass and took a big swig. After swallowing, he promptly remembered something. "Oh! We have something for you." Spitfire set two tickets on the bar and slid them over to Skye. He went wide eyed as he read them. "Two VIP tickets to your next show!? THIS IS AWESOME!!" Skye said as he became filled to the brim with excitement. "Yep. I thought since I won't get that much time off to spend with you, I could at least bring you to one of our shows. Considering you haven't been to one in years." Soarin explained. Skye set the tickets down on the counter behind him, "Thank you!" "Don't thank me. Thank Spitfire for helping me even get some tickets!" Soarin laughed. Spitfire set down her glass to speak, "We only had two left, and normally I would only have given you one, but a second one let's you see a future show if you decide not to use it for the current show. So I decided on giving you two." Skye grabbed the tickets again and looked over them once more. They were a reflective silver with the Wonderbolts logo etched into the material. Just like any other ticket, they said ADMIT ONE and all that usual information regarding the show and the time it was to be performed. "Thank you so much!" Skye smiled at Spitfire. "No problem!" Spitfire said with a wink. "I don't know about you all, but I could crash at any minute!" Fleetfoot said with a yawn, "We should probably get going." "Agreed." Rapidfire mumbled before chugging the rest of his drink. Soarin glanced at the rest of the team. Their expressions were worn with the struggle of sleep slowly winning the battle and overtaking them all. He knew it would be a good idea to leave so they could have the energy for tomorrow, but he wanted to stay longer to catch-up with his brother. Soarin sighed, I guess bro time will have to wait until next time. "Yeah, we got to get going and catch some Z's" Spitfire joined in, "After all, we do have a long show ahead of us." "Understandable." Skye smiled, "I can only imagine how exhausting shows are. Anyways, thank you for coming!" Everypony stood up and started to make their making their way out the door. However, Spitfire instead walked over to Skye and slid a note to him before whispering something in his ear and walking back to the team. Skye grabbed the note, read it, and immediately became flustered. It was a number. Her number. Fleetfoot noticed Soarin sitting there at the bar still spacing out. "You coming Soar?" Soarin snapped out of his trance, "Wha-? Oh! I'll be right there!" He got up and made his way to his brother to gave him a hug. "Hopefully I'll see you at the show tomorrow. I still want to catch up with you." Skye smiled as he hugged back, "No worries bro, I'll be there! Just make sure you get some sleep okay?" Soarin nodded with a smile as he walked out with the rest of the Wonderbolts. Leaving Skye to tend to other customers. He picked up a cloth and began to empty glasses so he could wash them. Skye glanced over to the sink and was greeted by a stack of dishes. He sighed. Just what I wanted to be doing on my birthday! Skye walked over to the sink and began what was one very long night of dish washing.