Fluttershy’s face was buried in her forelegs. She’d never felt this embarrassed in her entire life.
The yellow Pegasus sat at a table in the town hall’s main room which was filled almost to the brim with ponies from all across Ponyville. The majority of the ponies were talking to each other about the occasion or other random stuff. Some sat at tables to try out Applejack’s warm apple desserts, which they found to be rather delectable. The only reason Fluttershy was sitting at a table was because of the disaster that went down only minutes ago.
When it was time for Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy to play the music, they had gotten off to a good start, but around a minute into the song, Pinkie began playing incorrectly, which resulted in a downward spiral. Her animals were distracted and sang out of tune and at points came in too late or too early. After a while, one by one they stopped singing until Pinkie Pie was the only one left making noise. It had taken her a few moments to realize this, and saw that everypony in the room was staring at them awkwardly. Being one of Fluttershy’s worst fears, she quickly draped her mane in front of her face and sunk to the floor.
It hadn’t gone how she planned at all. She wasn’t that surprised that Pinkie Pie didn’t have a problem with their terrible performance. It was expected from someone like her with her type of personality. As for someone timid like Fluttershy, it was the complete opposite.
She sat at the table almost unmoving, covering every part of her face except her eyes which stared blankly at the rest of the ponies in the room. All of them were dressed in clothing from Rarity’s handiwork, and the numerous gems Rarity added made them sparkle in the light. Her attention was soon caught by Twilight Sparkle who was approaching the table Fluttershy was sitting at.
“Hey Fluttershy. How come you’re just sitting here? Come hang out with us,” Twilight said, curious as to why her friend was here and not with her and everyone else.
Fluttershy sighed and looked up at the alicorn. “Didn’t you see what happened? It was a disaster! And the way everypony was staring at me…” Her face fell back into her forelegs.
“So you messed up a little, it’s not the end of the world. Come on and join us, we were about to try out Applejack’s desserts.”
Twilight waited for a reply, but Fluttershy didn’t say anything. “Or we could come over here,” Twilight recommended. “Whichever you want.”
“No, it’s fine,” Fluttershy said. “I’m coming.” She got up from the table, her frown now upside down—as Pinkie Pie would say—and spotted the rest of her friends, excluding Rainbow Dash who was preparing for the Wonderbolt air show. They stood in a group at the center of the room amidst the rest of the ponies.
Twilight and Fluttershy went together to join the group as its members noticed the two winged ponies coming to meet up with them.
“Fluttershy, what ever took you so long to join us?” Rarity asked.
“It was nothing, sorry,” Fluttershy responded.
“Well what are we waiting for?” Rarity said. “Let’s see what Applejack has to offer.”
The group headed over to the dessert table where Applejack stood. The table wasn’t as crowded with pies and muffins as it was when the party started, which gave the impression that they must have tasted really good. Staring at the treats, Twilight felt her mouth water. Pinkie wanted a bite of Applejack’s desserts as soon as possible, as did Rarity and Fluttershy.
“Hey, y’all,” Applejack said. “Take whatever ya like. There’s apple crumble, croissant, and a whole load more tasty desserts. Had a little nibble at ‘em earlier. Pretty delicious if ah say so myself.”
Each pony thanked her before grabbing a plate one by one—Twilight and Rarity using their magic—and put whatever their stomachs desired onto it. Unsurprisingly, the top of Pinkie’s plate was barely visible as one of each dessert was piled onto it. They alone had half the table’s desserts gone, and they found a table to seat the four of them when they’d finished selecting what they wanted out of all the tasty looking desserts. Each pony grabbed the forks that were already placed on the table and dug in. Immediately after entering the food into their mouths, their taste buds were overwhelmed with the scrumptious taste of apple and cinnamon along with the cakey goodness.
“My my, this is one of the most delicious things I’ve ever tasted!” Rarity said with a mouth full of pie. “I’d pay ten times more for this than anything at Sugarcube Corner! No offense, Pinkie.”
Pinkie didn’t seem to care about Rarity’s remark. “None taken, this is delicious!” Rarity was a bit unnerved by the fact that Pinkie’s mouth was filled with chewed up food, bits flying out when she spoke.
“Wow, you’re right, this is amazing!” Twilight said, swallowing what was in her mouth and shoveling more in. Spike needs to try this! she thought, and looked around the room for her dragon assistant, and saw him at a table along with Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, and with a plate with leftover crumbs in front of him. Fluttershy was the only one with proper table manners, but also had to agree that the food was delectable.
As Rarity got up for seconds, she heard the words of the mayor. “Attention everypony!”
Each pony in the room looked towards Mayor Mare, who was holding a microphone with a wire running from from the bottom of it into the wall behind her.
“The Wonderbolts air show will begin shortly, so I’d ask that everypony follow me to the stadium.”
***
The stadium was one of Ponyville’s newest builds. Its production had begun several months earlier and was completed surprisingly quickly due to the large production team on the job. It wasn’t far away from the town hall, and it didn’t take long for the immigration from town square to the stadium. Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie all found a spot on the bleachers where they could sit together and view the show perfectly. Slowly, the seats were adorned with the different colors of ponies from across town as more and more found their spots in the spectator area.
“Fillies and gentlecolts!” was heard by everyone in the stadium, and all eyes panned towards the mayor who was standing at the center of the stadium on a circular metal looking slab with a microphone in hoof. “I would first like to thank everypony who attended Ponyville’s very first New Years air show. This has been an absolutely amazing year filled with much excitement, which by the way was made all the better by Twilight Sparkle’s arrival in Ponyville.” A round of applause rang across the stadium, and Twilight, wide eyed upon hearing her name gave a slightly embarrassed smile and waved her hoof in the air. “And I’m confident that 2015 will be a huge leap from last year. And now, without further ado, please welcome: the Wonderbolts!”
The mayor darted off the scene, and everyone looked around for the group of Pegasi once the mayor mentioned them, but they weren’t anywhere to be seen. A few ponies looked at each other questioningly, when they suddenly came into view from the other side of the stadium. Everyone’s eyes followed where the Wonderbolts flew, and in a synchronized motion they steered towards the left and changed their direction, headed towards the ground. They closed their wings all at once and it seemed like they would crash head first into the grass but they caught themselves before that happened and rocketed back up towards the sky. Applause sounded in the audience as everyone stared in awe at the talented Pegasi who flew in a row, passing the spectators.
“This has gotten off to an amazing start!” said Rarity through the volume of the rest of the audience.
“Yeah, but just wait until Rainbow Dash makes her entrance!” Pinkie responded and squealed, exhilarated by the show in front of her, as were the rest of her friends.
“Girls, look!” Twilight said and pointed to the current act the Wonderbolts were performing. The row of suited flyers divided in half, both halves parting ways, and they slowly started making a gradual turn before both halves were now headed towards each other. The divided groups passed each other, giving the illusion that they’d flown right through each other like ghosts, and this act was repeated until the divided groups combined again. The suited flyers next flew in a spiral formation upwards, causing a rush of wind that blew back the manes of all the spectators. After reaching a little over the height of the stadium, Pegasus after Pegasus launched themselves from the top of the spiral like they’d been thrown from the top of a whirlwind, and flew around the circumference of the stadium until the spiral was gone. Slowly, the Wonderbolts formed a hoop that got smaller as they moved in closer. They now descended towards the metal slab the mayor had stood on before until they were only meters from the ground. While everypony wondered in suspense what was about to happen, Twilight and her friends were hyped, actually knowing what was coming next. After a few more seconds, the slab seemed to open up into a passage that went somewhere underground, and as soon as it had opened completely, a blur of cyan and rainbow colors escaped from the tube and flew up through the hoop formation at an unbelievable speed.
And in that moment, a huge ring of shining colors exploded in Rainbow Dash’s wake and expanded, waving over the entire stadium. Rays of gold, orange and cyan showered down on every single spectator and they all found themselves involuntarily smiling at the beautiful array of rainbow colors above. An eruption of ear piercingly loud cheers threatened to destroy the entire complex as Rainbow Dash flew up alongside the rest of the Wonderbolts.
And in that moment, a huge ring of shining colors exploded in Rainbow Dash’s wake and expanded, waving over the entire stadium. Rays of orange, red and green showered down on every single spectator and they all found themselves involuntarily smiling at the beautiful array of rainbow colors above. An eruption of ear piercingly loud cheers threatened to destroy the entire complex as Rainbow Dash flew up alongside the rest of the Wonderbolts.
And in that moment, a huge ring of shining colors exploded in Rainbow Dash’s wake and expanded, waving over the entire stadium. Rays of grey, yellow and cyan showered down on every single spectator and they all found themselves involuntarily smiling at the beautiful array of rainbow colors above. An eruption of ear piercingly loud cheers threatened to destroy the entire complex as Rainbow Dash flew up alongside the rest of the Wonderbolts.
Rarity was bouncing from her seat, clapping her hooves at an impossible rate and adding to the already existing cheering. Fluttershy was up on her hind legs and her screams of content were surprisingly audible through everypony else. Pinkie threw her hooves into the air and stomped her hindlegs while Applejack merely clapped, and Twilight seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and mimicked Applejack.
The audience’s screams died down, but still continued as the Wonderbolts flew upwards, now with a new addition to the flock. Before they reached the height of the clouds, the Pegasi made a 180 degree loop and sped towards the ground leaving trails behind them. Finally, each flyer opened their wings to slow their movement and their hooves hit the ground. The cheering powered up once again, even fiercer than before as a series of fireworks shot up from the ground and all at once, they exploded sending out multicolored sparks that glistened in the sky.
Rainbow Dash looked around at all the ponies applauding in the audience and felt like she was about to cry. She couldn’t even describe the overwhelming happiness she was feeling if she tried. This was her dream, to fly with the Wonderbolts and have everypony cheering her on, and now her dream had become a reality!
“Best. Day. EVER!”