//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: The Best Young Flyer Competition // Story: The Hidden Adventure // by viscolorus //------------------------------// Storm was leisurely flying around the castle when he bumped into one of his old friends, Soarin’. “Yo! Soarin, whassup?” Storm called out as he swooped down to the baby blue colored pegasus. Soarin’ looked up and saw his old flying buddy. “Hey look, it’s Storm!” Soarin said to nopony in particular, “Nice wings by the way.” “Thanks!” Storm said as he landed, fluffing up his huge wings, “So what brings you here?” “I heard that you were back in town so I came to catch up,” Soarin said, throwing a hoof around Storm’s neck, “I mean, the last time I saw you was ten years ago!” “I guess,” Storm admitted, “Okay, let’s head out to our favourite burger shop down the road and we’ll talk there.” Soarin’ shifted his hooves nervously and said, “Yeah, about that… I can’t really do that.” “Why not?” Storm asked, he had never known Soarin’ to refuse going there before. “Well you see…” Soarin’ began, “I recently joined the Wonderbolts about a year ago.” “You joined the Wonderbolts?!” Storm asked, his eyes nearly popping out of his head. He and Soarin’ had always been huge fans of the Wonderbolts ever since they were just colts. “Yep,” Soarin’ said sheepishly. Then he quickly added, “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to join without you! It just that you were in the war and-” Soarin’ was interrupted by a flying hug from Storm. “I’m so glad for you!” Storm exclaimed, hugging Soarin’ so hard he could not breathe. “I… need… air…” Soarin’ gasped. Storm released his hug and apologized. “So now you understand,” Soarin said, sighing, “It rocks, being a Wonderbolt and all but it sucks being too famous. I can’t even fly down the street without being chased by a mob of fans, trying to get an autograph.” “Hmmm… it must be if it’s that bad,” Storm said thoughtfully, “So how about the royal mess hall?” “Sounds like a plan!” Soarin’ said and the two ponies started off down the hallway, racing to their destination. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ “And I flew right out of their camp avoiding magic bolts left and right like ‘Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!’.” Storm said, using his hooves to describe his actions. “Cool…” Soarin’ said as he spooned a mouthful of carrots into his mouth, “Man I wish I was there with you.” “And I wish I was there when you entered the Wonderbolts academy,” Storm said wistfully as he took a big bite of his broccoli and cabbage sandwich. “I wish we could talk more,” Soarin’ said, “But I have a meeting to attend.” “It’s okay, we can catch up another time,” Storm said with his mouth full. “Yeah, but I have meetings and appointments lined up to no end this week,” Soarin’ groaned, “And my only free day is next Thursday and that’s been taken up as I have to judge the best young flyer competition.” “Hey, I know!” Storm said, swallowing his food, “How about we catch up during the competition?” “Aren’t you entering the competition?” Soarin’ asked. “Nah, I don’t really have any tricks to perform,” storm said, taking another gargantuan bite out of his sandwich, “I prefer raw speed to anything.” “Then you won’t get into the Wonderbolts,” Soarin’ stated matter-of-factly. “Well, I’m not really a team flier anyway so my chances are less than nothing,” Storm said, “If anything, joining the Wonderbolts was a dream to me and I assume to you to, right?” “It was,” Soarin’ said grinning, “Until I actually joined them.” “Yeah you lucky dog,” Storm said a little jealously. “So we meet at the best young flyer competition?” Soarin’ asked. “Sure!” Storm confirmed, finishing his sandwich. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ “Awww… really?” Storm asked with pleading eyes. “Really,” Dusk said firmly, “I really need to train with Shining Armor today.” “Hurry Dusk, we need to go!” Ashley said, even for a baby dragon, she was a real stickler for punctuality. “But can’t you go to the best young flyer competition with me?” Storm said, pouting. “No means no,” Dusk said firmly, “And stop making that face, you look like retarded. Just get Cliff or somepony else to go with you.” “But Cliff has and still is obsessed with pounding the stupid oak!” Storm said exasperatedly, rolling on the ground. “Come on!” Ashley said, “We have to go now Dusk!” “Hey, what time do you have to be there anyway?” Dusk asked suddenly. “Two thirty, why?” Storm replied, picking himself off the floor and dusting himself. “It’s already two.” Dusk said flatly. “Oh horseapples!” Storm yelled before flying off, leaving a cloud of dust behind. Storm felt the wind whistling past his ears as he flew at Mach speed to the stadium. “C’mon wings, fly faster!” He said to himself as his wings beat the wind like there was no tomorrow. He felt his muzzle get pushed back by the wind as he flapped faster and faster. His wing tips turned from white to light blue, then the blue turned into electricity. Soon, he began leaving behind him a spiral of electricity, the same move he did by accident during the war that earned him his cutie mark. He saw the stadium on the horizon but continued to fly at the speed he was going. His wing muscles protested in pain but he ignored it and kept going until he accidentally crashed into a passing cloud, leaving a ‘Storm’ shaped hole in it. He tumbled in the air, turning his wing tips back to normal, and somehow managed to land upright on the top of the stadium. He flew down into the relatively empty stadium and saw Soarin’ waving to him in the judge’s panel. He flew over to meet him. “Hey Storm! You made it!” Soarin’ said, jumping up and down like a little foal. “Wouldn’t have missed this for anything.” Storm said, wiping a few beads of sweat from his forehead. Soarin’ turned and motioned to a yellow mare with a fiery mane. “This here’s Spitfire,” Soarin’ introduced. The pegasus waved casually at Storm. Then Soarin motioned cream stallion with a light blue mane. “This is Wave chill.” The stallion grunted and showed little interest in the new pegasus. “This here is Storm, my childhood friend,” Soarin’ said, throwing a hoof around Storm’s neck. “Pleased to meet you.” Spitfire said in a very official voice, “Soarin’ has told me many great things about you.” “And about you too!” Storm said enthusiastically, “He told me you were made captain within two years of your joining the Wonderbolts!” Spitfire turned to Soarin’ and said, “Now Soarin’, I believe I told you not to disclose that information to just anypony, right?” “But he’s my childhood friend!” Soarin’ protested. “Okay I’ll let you off the hook this time,” Spitfire said. She turned back to Storm and commented, “Nice wings.” Storm turned and looked around the stadium, it was now filling up with pegasi either here to see the action or cheer for the competitors. Even Princess Celestia was there in the royal box. Then, he saw four mares approach a spot, but what was unusual about them was that one was a unicorn and two others were earth ponies. “How is it possible that ponies other than pegasi can walk on clouds?” He thought to himself, “A spell maybe?” Then he realized that the unicorn was none other than Twilight Sparkle. “Well lookie here,” He thought, grinning, “Dusk sure missed the jackpot on this one, better rub it in his face so that he never misses anything with me again.” He made a mental note to talk to Twilight after the competition. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ “And so that’s how I joined the Wonderbolts,” Soarin’ finished his story. “Soarin’! Pay attention to the performance!” Spitfire commanded, glaring at him, “We came here to judge not chit-chat!” “I know Spit but all these performances are so boring.” Soarin’ said exasperatedly. “I thought the consecutive barrel rolls by number seven was pretty good.” Storm admitted. “That’s old hat,” Soarin’ said, “I could do that with my eyes closed.” “You probably could,” Wavechill said blankly, “But still these pegasi are still young so give them a chance.” Soarin’ just sighed and looked on as the last entrant entered the stadium. But there were two ponies, not one. Storm recognized the both of them, one of them was the cyan blue pegasus with the rainbow colored mane and the other, although heavily disguised by thick make up, was the other unicorn, except she had humongous multicolored butterfly wings. “Damn,” Soarin’ said as he looked over to Storm, whose jaw was wide open, “And I thought that your wings were big.” “Yeah…” Storm uttered, looking on. Soarin’ turned his attention back to the match and saw the cyan pegasus try out her tricks as some awful classical music began playing. At first, she began by strafing through some cloud pillars which she did quite perfectly, until she biffed it into the last pillar and slammed face first into the hard cloudcrete border. Then she began spinning three clouds, which would have been pretty cool if had she not accidently shot one of them at the Princess. Then she shot upward into the sky. “Is she going to do a Sonic Rainboom?” Storm asked, looking at the rising pegasus. “Don’t be silly,” Soarin’ said, “Nopony except the previous Wonderbolt captain has performed that trick for a long time, let alone a young mare.” “Hey, what’s she doing?” Storm asked, pointing at the unicorn. She was flying higher and higher into the air. Then she spread her wings and the sunlight shone through her wings and down onto the stadium, showering it in a myriad of colors. “That’s pretty cool,” Soarin’ admitted. Suddenly, the unicorn’s wings disintegrated into thin air. Then she began to fall. “Horseapples! She needs help!” Storm shouted but the Wonderbolts were a step ahead of him, they shot after the descending mare but they all received a hoof to the face, stunning them. “Oh no no no no no,” Storm uttered, he prepared his large wings for flight and was about to take off when a cyan bolt cut across the air in the stadium. “Wha?” Storm said as he saw the cyan mare streak down towards the falling ponies. Her face was pulled back by the wind as she stuck her front hooves out. The sound barrier started to form around her. Then, she broke it, creating a defening ‘BOOM’ and leaving behind a circular rainbow blast. The mere sight of it took the breath away from the spectators in the stadium, including Storm. The mare, pushed forward by the speed from the trick, managed to save her unicorn friend and the three Wonderbolts. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ “Hey, you alright?” Storm asked Soarin’ as he trotted in. “Yeah I think so,” Soarin said, rubbing his head “Ahh… my aching head. That unicorn hits hard!” Storm let out a small chuckle then asked. “Hey, so wanna hang some other time?” “Yeah I guess,” Soarin’ replied, “I need to thank that mare that saved me.” “Hey~ you got the hots for her?” Storm teased. “N-No!” Soarn snapped back, blushing. Storm just laughed it off. Then he remembered what he wanted to do. “Hey I gotta go say hi to somepony. Bye!” Storm said. “See you around then,” Soarin said as he bid farewell. Storm took off and flew around the stadium looking for Twilight. He eventually found her and her friends taking off in a hot air balloon. He followed them and flew down to them when they had landed. “Hey there!” He called out as he landed. The six ponies turned to see him, the yellow pegasus hiding behind Twilight. “Ummm… who exactly are you?” Twilight asked. “Yes, who are you handsome?” The white unicorn asked, batting her eyelids at him. “Just a friend of her coltfriend,” Storm continued, pointing to Twilight. “A coltfriend?” All six ponies exclaimed, turning to Twilight. “I-I d-don’t have a c-c-coltfriend,” Twilight stammered, flustered at the random statement from the colt. “Sure you do,” Storm said casually, “Don’t you remember him? Dusk?” “Who’s Dusk?” The pink earth pony asked, bouncing up and down. “I don’t know,” Twilight replied softly. “You really don’t remember him?” Storm asked, a worry building in his heart. “I guess not,” Twilight replied. “Oh well then,” Storm sighed, then he spread his wings and said, “If you want to find me, my name is Storm Whipper, a pegasi guard of the Princess.” And with that he took off for the royal castle, wondering how Dusk would react to the news.