//------------------------------//
// Flighty Thoughts 
// Story: The Composer 
// by Smug Anime Girl 
//------------------------------//

In the ancient times where ponies were split in to three tribes based on their species, Cloudsdale was a militarily powerful city-state, the pegasi relied heavily on a powerful sky navy to defend their home. The isolated nature of the city also meant that it heavily relied on the ground far below. The merchant skyfleet was the lifeblood of the floating city.

There was a fast food joint in the shadow of one of these half-finished galleons, completely crowded with young creatures. Off to the side, a large number of snobby unicorns muttered amongst themselves, drinking instant tea and eating salad. Most of the students were wearing a runestone engraved with a cloudwalking pentagram around their necks. The CSGU students had all prepared their own spells as part of a magical theory assignment, and Celestia had cast spells on Schuberry's friends.

Luster Dawn was looking over at the CSGU students, drooling slightly. She was wearing her Wonderbolts costume again, metal pin proudly pinned on her neck. She must have seemed like a very strange pony to the unicorns. "So cool..."

Celestia chuckled at the reverence the filly seemed to hold. "I'm sure you'll be able to get in if you work hard and study." Celestia encouraged. She was one of the parents to volunteer as a chaperone for the school.

"Do you really think so?" Luster looked up at the much older pony expectantly. "You know, when I was in the weather factory, I really saw the importance of maintaining the meteorlogical conditions above Equestria, but being a student of the magical sciences is cool too."

"Of course." Celestia smiled. "You're still very young, you have a lot of time to decide what you want to do."

"You pegasi are so lucky. I would kill to have a cloud bed..." Hayseed reached for Schuberry's wing.

'its annoying tp write on' Schuberry let him stroke her feathers. 'im just not going to'

"You might as well try using this chair." Hayseed groaned as he lifted his butt and sat down again. "They made it hard as concrete. I mean, what sized pony is this for? Look at that mare over there. She's not fat but she's spilling out over it."

"That's Celestia and she's sitting right in front of you." Luster groaned.

"Meanwhile I can't even get my hooves down on the ground." Hayseed ignored her. "This is like...the perfect chair for the eleven to thirteen age group. It just doesn't work for anycreature else. This is ageist!"

Luster was unsympathetic to his situation. "Just finish your food, Hayseed. We've all been done for nearly half an hour now."

"I just can't get comfortable in this." Hayseed continued. "It's like, we went from a log, to this cloud chair, to cushions."

"You're not funny." Luster gave up and turned her nose up, letting out a small 'hmmf.'

"The one comedy bit working so far in this entire story was this terribly designed chair, don't take it from me." Hayseed grumbled. "And don't 'hmmf' that, you know as well as I do that it's true."

Mentor trotted over and tapped Celestia. "Hey, we're getting ready to leave. The Principal said we could get better seats if we head off before the other students. I'm getting the rest of the class, meet you back here."

"But-wait! I'm not done with my food!" Hayseed began to cram fries into his mouth.

Luster said what they were all thinking: "Should've spent less time complaining about the seats."

The Silver Shores schoolfoals bunched up onto the road, and after each teacher or chaperone reported all foals were accounted for, the massive congregation began to slowly drift towards the massive Cloudeseum like a chunk of ice on a river. Along the way, the foals slowed down to look at the ships flying by or being built, and the adults had to herd them along like shepherds.

They arrived within minutes, taking advantage of the bridge connecting to the massive reinforced cloud structure. Everypony stopped to gaze up at the massive pillars before sliding into the cool shade beneath the seats.

The journey up onto the bleachers felt like an eternity of climbing, even though they were headed for the front few rows. Staircases leading up to the first indentation in the sections seemed to overflow with creatures, and then they spilled back down towards the wide open space at the center like a waterfall.

There were a few scattered ponies already waiting in the stands, but the main crowd hadn’t arrived yet. Celestia squeezed up against Schuberry on one side and Luster on the other. While the ponies slowly trickled in, food vendors dashed back and forth, and Schuberry took notice of the strange food they were selling. She nudged Celestia and pointed.

"Do you want some?" Celestia fished out a purse from under her wing and waved a stallion over. "Hey, Donut Joe! Come here please!"

Hayseed leaned forward. "Can I please have some too, Miss Celestia?"

"Sure." Celestia handed Donut Joe a few bits and distributed the cotton candy to the foals. Hayseed happily lapped up the airy confection at a fairly quick rate. Schuberry stuck out her tongue and lapped up a small portion to test the taste. Finding that she enjoyed it, the pegasus practically sucked up the entire sugar cloud in a single breath like a vacuum cleaner, sound effect and all.

Celestia stared with a slightly incredulous expression. She must have seen the filly display her terrifying ability several times by now, and yet, she was just as amazed as if she saw it for the first time.

Generally, other ponies found Schuberry's gluttony an endearing quality and had fun feeding her, but having thought about it before falling asleep, Celestia found the behavior depressing. Schuberry must have always felt that there wasn't enough food and was pressured into eating whenever it was available.

Everypony's attention was quickly drawn to the center of the Cloudeseum. A single pony was slowly being raised on a cloud platform. The crowd began to stomp their hooves in excitement.

"RAINBOW DAAAAAASH!" Luster screeched.

The blue pegasus slowly spread her wings, and in a powerful flap, she shot into the sky like a rocket. Spitfire lead Soarin and Fleetfoot in a three element delta formation, and Rainbow slotted into the number four position right behind and below Spitfire. The formation made a perfect left knife edge turn.

They preformed some basic acrobatic manuvers, barrel rolling and switching speed. Cameras flashed as they pulled out low over the crowd before zooming up into the sky again. There was plenty of time to marvel at their perfect flying-it seemed almost like they were flying as one, the distance between the pegasi never changing. 

At the top of their climb, the team split up at perfect right angles, vapor trailing off the leading edges of their wings. It was a reasonablly executed bomb burst manuver, and certainly a beautiful image against the deep blue sky.

As the pegasi leveled out over the stadium, two more ponies-Thunderlane and Misty Fly-dropped in from the flanks and formed an arrowhead formation. Zooming back down at the crowd, Thunderlane and Fleetfoot pulled off to the left, Soarin and Misty pulled off to the right, and Spitfire lead Rainbow straight back up.

Meeting at the bottom, the two flanking groups swung around to meet up with the center group. The smoke left behind formed a pierced heart, slowly being blown lopsided by the wind. The pegasi flew off triumphantly, disappearing over the edge of the Cloudeseum.

Luster stood up to get a better view amongst the celebrating crowd of ponies. "Is that it?"

No sooner had she finished talking, High Winds and Suprise suddenly burst from below the cloud layer, doing a reflection pass. High Winds was inverted and directly below Suprise, mere inches away. Suprise rolled right and High Winds leveled out, and they turned into each other, executing a very hair-raising crossover break. High Winds pulled up, inverted, and then dove over the edge of the stadium, and Suprise made an Immelmann turn, setting up for the solo routine.

"Hey, Schuberry! Whaddya think?!" Luster turned to look at her friend. "Oh, right, sorry. Tell me later!"

Suprise rolled a snappy eight point presentation roll, sunlight glinting off her suit, and pulled up again, enduring at least six g of force on her frame. This time, Suprise didn't pull back over, opting to hang in the air, before falling backwards back towards the ground. She pulled out at about half the speed of sound, leveling off seemingly effortlessly. Several ponies began to scream with excitement.

The less sharp-eyed members of the crowd didnt notice High Wings zooming right at her until the last second. There was a collective gasp as Suprise flicked to the left and High to the right, passing at the last second with almost no room to spare. Hayseed crossed his eyes and fell backwards dramatically, then got back up to keep watching. Only Schuberry noticed.

High Winds took the spotlight. In shows like this, she played the bubbly idiot who looked like a young pegasus just learning to fly. However, if it took above average skill to perform like a normal Wonderbolt, it took double the skill to fly badly purposely and not crash. Pegasus aerodynamics was very imbalanced and front-heavy, making stalls and spins very dangerous. High Winds needed to know her limits and push herself to them, but not beyond.

And she did.

Her curly tail wiggled back and forth, causing her to yaw in crazy patterns. Her routine was doing crazy flips and reversals. At one point, High Winds did a pass at moderate speed, suddenly standing up on her hind legs in midair, using her entire body as an airbrake of sorts. The pegasus also took advantage of her namesake-she slowed down to stall speed, pulled up, and hung in the air with zero ground speed for over half a minute before dropping back down.

When High Winds finished her solo, she disappeared below the Cloudeseum. The eight pony formation flew over once more at a high altitude, and Rainbow Dash did a split-s, heading straight for the center of the arena. A vapor cone formed around her body as she sliced through the sound barrier, and the blue blur passed right through the temporary clouds at the bottom, blasting them away with her rainbow shock wave.

The Wonderbolts all landed at the edge of the stands and took a bow. Several ponies threw flowers down, which fell right through the cloud. With the show over, the crowd began to disperse away. Many pegasi simply flew off, while a few die-hard fans gathered around the bottom to meet their idol.

Celestia gently herded her foals back out of the Cloudeseum, trying to keep an eye on all of them at once. Luster accidentally bumped into a griffin as they were heading down the stairs.

"Hey, watch where you're goi-" He paused as he noticed Schuberry. "Hey..."

"Gallus, we waiting for you! Hurry up!" A large yak called.

"Guys, I just saw that filly..." The griffin disappeared with his friends in the crowd, and Schuberry didn't seem to notice that a complete stranger recognized her.

The skyship that took them to the city was waiting for them outside the Cloudeseum, propellors slowly churning the air to stay in place. The classes slowly filed onto the wooden hull and took their seats, students all jostling for the back. Mentor took another head count before slumping against the side of the hull, completely knackered.

The twin motors' pitch increased, and the ship slowly pushed away. Celestia looked down at Schuberry.

'My pen is black but it can write red.' The filly smiled, pen still clamped between her teeth. Celestia smiled-this was the first whole sentence she formed.

"I don't belive you." Luster said. "Show me."

'Red.'

The unicorn opened her mouth, then closed it again. She thought of something to say and opened her mouth, but decided against it. "You know, Schuberry, sometimes, I wonder why I bother sticking around you." Luster leaned up against her. "Then I remember you're the one giving me piano lessons."

Schuberry chuckled at the joke and wrapped one of her small wings around her pink friend. Hayseed was busy looking out the round porthole, humming to himself.

This is so peaceful, Celestia thought. I want it to last forever.





"She's been like this for a day." Celestia sighed.

"She's been like this since the concert, though it's only gotten worse." Luna sipped her hot coffee.

Schuberry was scribbling away on a piece of paper ferociously. Around halfway down, she let out long, frustrated exhale and ripped apart the paper into little bits.

The two sisters looked at each other.

"You've been keeping an eye on her, right? Is this affecting her performance in school?" Celestia asked.

Luna scrunched her snout. "She's been passing a lot of notes with Hayseed and Luster Dawn but I wouldn't say it's abnormal behavior for her."

"That's not good enough." Celestia slumped into the couch and stretched out her slender legs. "She's like a zombie!"

"Well, what do you want me to do?" Luna huffed. "I can’t just magic away her worries and frustration?"

Celestia slid off the couch completely before jumping up. "I'll talk to her."

"Hoo, this is going to be good." Luna put down her coffee and looked on.

Schuberry, noticing the alicorn approaching, rolled onto her belly for rubs. Celestia nuzzled the soft fur for a moment before becoming serious. "Don't you think you should take a break?"

'No, I'm good. I will make a very good song for you. Schuberry tried to grin but a yawn got in the way.

"You don't have to do it for me. Do it for yourself." Celestia patted her. "Is there anyone who can help?"

Schuberry looked up at Celestia with wide eyes. 'An writing song about Wonderbolts. Atmosphere of flight. Make sense of discipline and wonder. How?'

"I don't know much about music, and I don't think I could give you specific suggestions but..." Celestia smiled rolled onto her back like Schuberry. "Why don't you talk to the pony at the concert? He's your friend, right?"

Schuberry's eyes widened. She grabbed a piece of paper and began to write a letter.

"I...should check her grammar."