Blossomforth shamefully hung her head low in the Manehattan library foyer, where seated around a large round table were her five friends, all staring at the laminated plastic labeled with the number 13 laying on the hardwood center.
"Sooooo..." Trixie finally broke the silence. "Run this by Trixie again, how exactly does one go into a stadium to buy tickets and then come out as a contestant?"
"How could this happen?" Twilight sighed in exasperation. "Honey, we told you keep an eye on her!"
"Hey, it's not my fault the weather factories have fifty separate facilities, all open to the public!" the tan pegasus complained. "By the time I got to the Cloudiseum, Blossom here was slouched over the steps with the thing in hoof."
"I'm sorry," their white flier muttered. "I guess I really am a flower loving scatterbrain."
"It's fine," Sherbet reassured her. "We still love you regardless and wouldn't want you any other way."
"The open minded are more naive than they are narrow," Octavia mused. "You are an innovator, not an imitator."
"Oh, thanks," Blossomforth said. "...I think."
"Well then, ticket incident aside," Trixie continued, "perhaps we can address the other issue she brought back with her, say...these two?"
With a wave of her foreleg, she pointed behind her to two other pegasi, a butter yellow one cowering behind a rather annoyed cyan one with a spectrum mane and crossed hooves.
"Hey, I don't like this any more than you do," the irked one groused. "Imagine my surprise when I find my friend Fluttershy after scouring every cloud in the city, and find out she's not going to be cheering for me, but flying against me in the competition!"
"I-I'm sorry Rainbow Dash," the mare behind her squeaked. "I-I-I didn't mean to...t-that is...I'm sorry!"
The cyan mare immediately turned to her remorseful friend, her face instantaneously softening. "Hey, it's okay Flutters, it's not your fault. I don't blame you-" she then whirled a both emotional and physical one-eighty, pointing an accusing hoof at the other pegasus who flinched at her sudden outburst. "-I blame you!"
"Hey!" Twilight shot to her hooves. "Don't go getting angry at her! She's just as distressed at this situation as your friend Fluttershy is!"
"Yeah? Well, I gotta be angry at something! Do you know how scared Fluttershy is to even go grocery shopping by herself?" Rainbow Dash circled this way and that as she ranted. "This contest will ruin her! It's taken her years to get over being a laughingstock at flight camp, she was teased almost every day!"
"And you think Blossomforth wasn't?" Twilight countered. "She's been bullied by the other pegasi just as much as she has! They filled her lunchbox with compost on a regular basis!"
"Bet you ten bits they didn't come up with a snippy little rhyme for her! Fluttershy, Fluttershy, Fluttershy can hardly fly!"
Trixie then gave a disdainful turn of the cheek towards the brash pegasus. "Hmph. You know, for a pony that doesn't like teasing, you're pretty adept at picking on others yourself."
That brought herself muzzle to muzzle with the Ponyville weather captain. "You inferring something about me?" she growled.
"Oh no, Trixie was implying...you inferred it. It's pretty obvious which one of you two wears the thinking cap in your clique if that's your full extent of the equestrian vernacular."
Spike was right, thesauruses are a terrible birthday present. Next year I'm getting Trixie an almanac instead... Twilight thought as she watched one big ego puff itself up against another.
"You wanna dance, freaky cape? Huh? Cause if you don't want me to beat up on her, then I'll gladly beat-"
"STOP!" A pair of yellow hooves groped the barrel of the cyan pony while another pair of white ones pulled the azure one back. Fluttershy looked at her friend with disproving, yet completely fearful and pleading eyes. "Oh please oh please don't fight. I don't like it when ponies argue."
"Come on Trixie, don't provoke her," Blossomforth pleaded with her own friend. "Besides, this kinda really is my fault-"
"See? She's admits it!" Rainbow smugly blurted, only to be pulled deep into a blue eyed gaze that was no longer pleading, but scolding.
"Now see here, Rainbow Dash. I've known Blossomforth almost as long as I've known you and she is a very sweet pony who'd never do anything mean on purpose. So don't you be giving her a hard time just because I'm your friend and she isn't!"
Almost instantly, the cocky athlete seem to shrink back and wither under her stare. "Woah, hey, easy Flutters. I get it, I get it. No player hating. I'll back off."
The moment Fluttershy's intense stare softened and she smiled again, Rainbow Dash quickly regained some steam. "But you can't honestly tell me you're thrilled at the fact that bumping into her was what caused you be entered in the Best Young Fliers competition in the first place!"
"Well, I guess I don't like it but-"
"I mean, what are you going to do now? You drop out this late in the competition, you're pretty much saying 'look at me, everypony! I'm a no talent wimp that doesn't even deserve last place!' Every pegasi in Cloudsdale will mock you and then some!"
"Well, uh...uh...maybe I could-"
"And if you do go out there, we both know you're going to freeze up, crash, and make yourself into a big teasing target the minute you see all the hundreds of ponies watching you!"
"H-h-hundreds?"
"With the way balloon rentals have been going lately, maybe even thousands!"
*Meep*
With a frightened yelp, the shy, yellow pegasus dashed with alarming speed to the large potted fern right at the hallway entrance, and buried herself headfirst waist deep into the soil.
"You're not very good at pep talks, are you?" Honey deadpanned.
"Hey, all I'm saying is this has pretty much become a no-win situation that nopony is ever going to let her forget if she messes up, especially with the photographers that are going to be there."
"Photographers?" Blossomforth queried. "As in, for newspapers?"
"Not just newspapers. Magazines, pamphlets, documentaries, you name it! Somepony blows it in a competition this big, give it a week, and EVERYpony in Equestria and outside of it will know who's the biggest disgrace to ever be born with a pair of wings!"
"E-every...pony? Disgrace?" Blossomforth felt a ball of nervousness grow in the pit of her stomach This was starting to sound more like some kind of Equestrian Hunger Games than some flight competition. Losing couldn't be that serious, could it?
"No pony would want to associate themselves with loser like that. You'd probably get fired from your job afterwards, run out of town, maybe even put in jail for such an appalling performance, you'd lose everything and nopony would ever let you forget it for the REST. OF. YOUR. LIFE."
Blossomforth made a beeline for the large plant. "Scoot over," she told the half buried occupant before she herself mimicked her actions.
Twilight turned to the cyan pegasus with annoyance. "Rainbow Dash, I think you're greatly exaggerating this-"
"And that's just all the shame somepony will get from the media! I can't even imagine what all the someponies in those VIP boxes will have to say about this. The governor-general of Cloudsdale always attends the annual competition. Heck, I hear Princess Celestia herself is coming this year!"
Twilight's lips froze in mid sentence. Princess Celestia would be there. And...and if Blossomforth does put on a horrific performance...right in front of her...
"It'd be more than just awful, it'd be an insult! What would she think of her? Her family? Her friends?"
Her friends...her friends...her friends...
"She'd probably think her friends weren't being very good friends, letting her get coerced into a situation that would make her an embarrassment when they could have done something to prevent it-"
"-that they didn't respect her-"
"-that her friend was being negligent in her friendship studies-"
"-she'd probably have them reprimanded-"
"-give that student a pop quiz to see if she wasn't being negligent and end up failing her-"
"-or whipped-"
"-maybe even disown her as her student-"
"-and banished!"
"-and send me back to magic kindergarten!!"
With a pop and plunge, a lavender unicorn joined the ranks of the hide like an ostrich club in the now very crowded potted plant.
"...annnnnnd there goes Twilight," Trixie confirmed. "Perhaps you'd like to comment on how cello careers could be affected by a flight competition scandal next?"
"Oooookay, I think I can see where this is going." Honey got up from her seat to leave. "Excuse me, I need to make a call..."
With that she disappeared from the group's view. Rainbow Dash finally settled down, taking the vacated seat. "Look, I don't want cause a panic, but that's pretty much Fluttershy's answer to every problem. And apparently it's also her old buddy's answer too."
"Fear is more often than not the substance that fills the void of anonymity," Octavia calmly spoke.
"What was that?" the cyan pegasus asked with a cocked head.
"I believe she means that the reason they're so scared is most likely because they have no idea what to do or what will happen exactly," Sherbet answered. "So adversely, if we were to make a plan on how to address the problem instead of just thinking about the problem, they would probably become less scared."
"Oh." Rainbow sat there for a few moments letting it sink in. "Then why didn't she just say that in the first place?"
Octavia sighed. "It takes all sorts I suppose..."
"Alright, enough gab," the rainbow-haired mare said, disregarding the gray earth pony's last quip. "Fluttershy dragged me into this, Blossomforth dragged you guys into this, so we might as well work together. Any ideas what to do first?"
"That's obvious," Trixie stated with a look at the three upward tails sticking out of the large pot. "We've got to harvest some pony-turnips."
"Eh, if I try to pull Flutters out, she's just stick her head back in and I'll have a lovely buck bruise to show my efforts," Rainbow said.
"If we wish to draw them out, it would be best by their own will," Octavia surmised.
"In that case, Trixie has a pretty good idea for Twilight Sparkle." with a glow of her horn, Trixie pulled a large reference book off the shelf, flipped it open, and with the teensiest tiniest motion, reached for the very edgiest miniscule corner of a page and-
*rip*
"Who damaged book ASF284, History and Achievements of the Modern Stonemason?!" Twilight's head shot out of the pot, a couple stray roots tangled in her mane.
"And voila!" the magician stated proudly. "Auntie Sherbet, would you do the next honors?"
"My pleasure." And with that, the orange businessmare procured a jar of potpourri from off from one of the reading stations, and blew on it towards the buried pegasi as she lifted the lid off.
A lone petal touched the rump of Blossomforth, and she sprouted out even faster than Twilight, sniffing anxiously. "Is that a mignonette, rosemary and lemon balm fragrance I smell?" She sniffed again. "With just a hint of cypress wood?"
"Two down, one to go," Trixie said, turning to Rainbow Dash. "Well? She's your friend. Know what makes her tick?"
"Oh, that's easy," Rainbow dismissed with a flick of the hoof that ended up resting on her chin. "Problem is, where on Equus are we going to find a bunny in a place like this?"
"Hey, Twilight. The camomile tea's ready!" Spike had taken half a step into the foyer with a tray of fine china and a kettlepot when a blur of yellow encompassed him.
"Ohmygoodness, a baby dragon!" the shy pegasus squealed. "Oh, I've never seen a baby dragon before. He's sooo cute!"
"Well, that could work too," Rainbow said with a grin as Twilight reached out with her horn's aura to catch the tray.
"Uh, hi?" Spike ventured.
"Oh my, he talks. I didn't know dragons could talk. That's just so incredibly wonderful I-I just don't even know what to say!"
"Twilight, your new friend's weirding me out a bit," the little dragon called from over her crouched shoulder.
"Just go along with it Spike," the librarian replied, her attention focused on pouring the tea. "This is pretty much the happiest she's been so far since we met her."
"So your name's Spike. I'm Fluttershy." The mare played with his frills a bit before squeeing again. "Wow, a talking dragon! And what do dragons talk about?"
"Well, what do you wanna know?"
"Absolutely everything."
A purple eyebrow was raised. "And now it's just passed into creepy," he muttered to nopony in particular. Then, with a shrug, he decided to make the most of his newfound popularity. "Well... I started out as a cute little purple and green egg... "
Meanwhile, Blossomforth sat down to enjoy a nice refreshing cup of tea. "So, what were we talking about again?"
"We're talking about how you and Fluttershy are going to be performing at competition," Sherbet explained.
"With as little freak out fiascoes as possible," Trixie added.
"Yeah, sorry about that," the white pegasus and lavender unicorn simultaneously apologized. Only Blossomforth continued though after a brief look at each other. "Guess herd mentality kinda got to my nerves for a moment. Unnnn...dropping out wouldn't be too much of a shame would it?"
"Are you kidding me? NOpony's dropped out of the Best Young Flier's Competition since Little Winglet forty-seven years ago, and I think we all know what happened to-MMMPPH!"
Rainbow Dash found herself with a mouth full of orange slices.
"We just got them to come out," Sherbet whispered into her ear. "I'd choose my next words carefully and delicately."
"I really don't understand the whole anxiety issues with your flying now that I think about it," Twilight pondered. "After all, you did such a great job regarding the whole tornado incident."
"That was just for weather duty," Blossomforth admitted. "It's my job. I didn't need to do anything fancy, just fly around in a circle. And I certainly didn't need to do it in front of a ton of ponies expecting a good show! I mean, I don't hate flying, I like it as much as any other pegasus at times. But I'm also not special at it either. This is nothing like the water tornado delivery, that was a group effort for which I had a whole team to rally behind, I'm by myself here with this stunt flying contest! How can I, a perfectly ordinary pony, hope to compare well against so many extraordinary athletes? I don't know first thing about performing or where to even begin!"
"We can begin..." a pith helm wearing pegasus announced as she walked in from the entrance, "by teaching you the basics in aerial stunt flying. And from there, we'll wing it."
Fluttershy turned her attention away from Spike and gasped as she took notice of the newcomer.
"And that's when Twilight finally stopped wetting the bed...hey, I was just getting to the interesting part!" Spike said as Fluttershy slowly walked away from him and crept closer to the legendary flier, finally reaching the limit of her awe as she delicately huddled behind Blossomforth's backside.
"You're...you're..."
"My friend gave me a buzz, said she needed some help getting a couple rookies ready for a debut performance. Nice to meet you, Fluttershy."
"Uh, who the heck are you?"
You could almost hear a needle scratch as all eyes turned to Rainbow Dash, who's face showed nothing but confusion and suspicion.
Honey was the first to push her jaw back to chin level. "Um, I'm sorry...you...don't recognize me?"
"Should I?" Rainbow's head quizzically cocked to the side.
"R-Rainbow Dash," Fluttershy exclaimed softly, "that's Daring Do!"
"Who?"
Honey could not help but suddenly burst into a fit of giggles. "I-I'm sorry," she gasped between laughs, "but you cannot believe how long it has been since I have heard that particular turn of phrase directed at me! You're telling me that you haven't heard or read any of the books about my excursions?"
Rainbow blew a detached raspberry. "Read? Bleh, I so don't read. I'm a world-class athlete, what would I need with books? Reading's for eggheads like her." She spared a glance at the librarian. "Heh, no offense, but reading is undeniably, unquestionably, uncool."
Now everyone else was giggling, even Fluttershy, to Rainbow's annoyance. Twilight seemed to be a little miffed at the egghead comment though.
"And just what pony told you that?" Sherbet asked with an amused look on her face.
"Oh, Rainbow...this again?" Fluttershy spoke in an all too apparent motherly tone. "Everypony loves a good book once in a while. They're nice and interesting and you can enjoy them without ever having to leave the comfort of your cozy, safe home."
"Who doesn't like to read a whizzbang tale every now and again?" Trixie laughed. "Why, some of Trixie's best bits come from story-telling!"
"A pony who won't read has no advantage over one who can't," Octavia mused. "It would appear you are actually the odd one out in this case."
"Reading isn't just for 'eggheads'," Twilight coolly argued. "There are all types of books, just like there are all types of ponies."
"I stand by my words," the stubborn and slightly indignant pegasus restated. "There's a reason books are shaped like squares."
Honey took a moment to fly up and browse the many shelves before finding what she was looking for. Yanking a large green book from the middle row, she swooped down and shoved it into the non-reader's hooves.
"Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone?" Rainbow read aloud from the cover.
"First in the series," the explorer explained. "Granted, it's more fiction than truth, but I got a feeling you're going to like it."
"Fat chance," the athlete scoffed. "I've got better things to do than waste my time sticking my nose into a bunch of pages. Not only do I now have to whip my buddy into non-humiliating shape, I've still got my own Sonic Rainboom to practice!"
"What's a Sonic Rainboom?" Twilight asked.
"Eh, an old urban legend among the pegasi," Honey explained. "If a pegasus can reach a speed faster than sound can carry, the resulting shockwave that would follow reacts with the light of his or her contrail, refracting and creating a mile wide spectrum ring. There was a big buzz about one happening some ten years back, but nopony had any proof."
"Hey! It's not an urban legend! And there was proof!" Rainbow puffed up pounded a hoof against her chest. "I'M the proof! That was me that day! I'm the one who did the Sonic Rainboom!"
"You?" Blossomforth was wide-eyed. "Woah, that's incredible!"
"Wow. If you pulled that off for the competition, you'd win the crown for sure!" Twilight stated.
"Yep, I'm just that awesome." Rainbow Dash flicked her trademark mane. "Twenty percent cooler than everyone else. Ain't nopony got a chance against the Dash!"
"It's like looking at a pegasus Trixie..." Spike whispered to his unicorn guardian with a cupped claw.
"Just be glad it's not another Lighting Dust..." she whispered back.
"Could we see it?"
Rainbow Dash suddenly flopped down on the ground again. "Huh? What?" she stammered at Blossomforth.
"The Sonic Rainboom! Could you show us? I'd love to see it!"
Rainbow quickly scrambled back up, her pupils shifting to the corners of her eyes while her tail flicked in a flighty manner. "Uhhh...well...maybe later. Shouldn't we be focusing on getting Flutters and Blossom into contestant worthy states?"
"Fair point, the competition is in three days." Honey proceeded to escort the pair of nervous fliers out. "Looks like we're going to have to take the crash course in aerobatics if you'll pardon the saying. There should be plenty of space in the park to get started."
The rest of the mares then proceeded to follow. "Well Spike, looks like we've got another series of training sessions to support," Twilight said as she scooped the dragon up on her back.
"It's like we get a new situation every week," he noted.