//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Masters of the Sky // by klockwork //------------------------------// "Now, as I was saying: it all started in Manehatten after one of our shows while we were on tour, which we unfortunately had to halt for later after this, a few of us were going out for a quick midnight flight to stretch our wings when it all started..." ***Flashback to Manehatten*** "Are you sure this is a good idea?" Sweetie Belle asked. "Yes! I see no reason not too. Rainbow Dash will be so surprised to see us, and who knows what wonders she can show us in Manehatten, maybe we were supposed to be city ponies and we'll get our cutie marks here!" Scootaloo said ecstatically while doing small flips in the air. "Ya ah don't think ma big sis or Big Mac or Granny Smith will be happy bout this." Applebloom said. Her and Sweetie Belle were still nervous about ditching like this. Scootaloo had found a copy of Rainbow's trip forms while they were out on an adventure. Originally they were seeing if they had their cutie marks in accounting or pretty much anything statistics related. They were kicked out of the mayor's office fast enough anyways, but while in there Scootaloo had managed to snatch the copy. She then got the idea into the two other fillies heads that they should continue their adventure with a trip to Manehatten and see Rainbow. They had originally agreed in the spur of the moment because Scootaloo had mentioned finding their cutie marks in the big city, reminding Applebloom of Applejack's story, she pretty much agreed immediately. Sweetie Belle agreed because she didn't want to be the odd one out. They had originally forgot to tell anypony, and didn't remember till about an hour into their journey. They were almost to Manehatten and it had already gotten pretty late. They had no way of seeing the time but it was obviously almost midnight just from the light shown outside. They were almost there, but also extremely tired. They kept complaining to seemingly no one about how tired they were, and eventually agreed to take a quick rest. They had fell on the ground underneath a tree on the outskirts. "Hey, look down there." Spitfire said pointing towards the three fillies collapsed on the ground. "Think they need help?" She said concerned. "I don't know, but they must be cold out here, and there is no reason for them to be alone out here either." Fleetfoot said appalled by the scene. "We should at least go check on them." She continued her motherly instinct kicking in. "Of course." Spitfire replied as they had already begun a descent towards them. They hit the ground in only a few seconds waking up the three fillies at the same time. "Wha wha?! Who's there?" Scootaloo cried half startled and half asleep. "Oh my gosh..." She then said once she realized who was standing in front of them. "Hello girls, what are you doing out here in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere?" Spitfire asked them. "And I'm sure you know who we are, Spitfire and Fleetfoot, but also what are your names?" She continued. "Ah'm Applebloom, this is Sweetie Belle and she's Scootaloo." Applebloom said first. "We were just on our way to Manehatten to visit our friend." Sweetie Belle then added. "But, what are you guys doing out here?" "Oh we were just out for a quick fly, we couldn't sleep. Is there anyone else with you? Even if your going to visit a friend, there's no reason to walk from..." Spitfire stuttered for a second not knowing the answer to her own thought. "Ponyville." Scootaloo quickly said. "Ponyville, to Manehatten alone." Spitfire quickly continued. "Come on let us give you a lift." "Really! Wow! We get to ride with the Wonderbolts!" Scootaloo cheered. "Big fan eh?" Fleetfoot said. "You know, I feel like I've seen you three before, have we met somewhere?" "Ya, we met ya'll backstage after yer last show in Ponyville. You gave us all autographs!" Applebloom said. "I remember that." Spitfire said giggling a little, "I remember Soarin pointed you out and we went over before you went any crazier, seemed like you were giving that other Pegasus a heart attack." She said laughing more. "Me to, but even then. It felt like I knew Scootaloo before that as well... but I don't know I've seen a lot of fans." Fleetfoot said concentrating on trying to remember. "It's probably nothing, come on. Lets get you girls to your friends place safe and sound." Spitfire said as her and Fleetfoot picked up the flightless ponies and began to lift off. "As much as I wish I knew a Wonderbolt, I don't remember either." Scootaloo said a bit disappointing. "Although you might know our friend, Rainbow Dash. She won the young fliers competition back in Ponyville. Shes out in Manehatten on a convention." "Oh ya I remember her, she has some great talent. But if shes out here on work, I don't think she'd be all too happy to suddenly have three fillies show up at her door." Spitfire said thinking how high maintenance these three must be from her own experience. "Unless she told you to? Although if she did I'd think you'd have a guardian taking you three or something." She then added. "No, we were playing in the Mayor's office and found a copy of her trip form and thought it would be great to surprise her." Applebloom said. "Well, she might not. Work isn't the time for play, and I'm sure she won't have the time or room to see you three." Fleetfoot said. "I remember when I was a weather pony... Not the funnest job." She said remembering a bad story from before. "Come on, lets take you three back to our place, then we can get you home tomorrow when its safer and brighter and you aren't falling asleep on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere." Spitfire said. "REALLY! We get to stay with the Wonderbolts! This is the best plan ever!!!" Scootaloo cheered as Spitfire and Fleetfoot laughed a bit. They flew back to the Wonderbolts's place, which luckily was on the ground. They were staying in a special place that was an addition to the Mayor's buildings. It was reserved for special guests such as the Wonderbolts. The building wasn't as big as a mansion or probably where they really lived, since they would be out more than in, but it was still a very elegant place. They were told to be quiet and not go flipping through everything since everyone else was asleep. Once they got inside it the place was even more amazing. It had the five rooms with one kitchen, and a dining room, and the rest were living rooms and about 15 bedrooms each with their own bathroom. It didn't look that big on the outside, but on the inside it seemed much larger. Spitfire said it usually held more than just one party of people and that was why it had that insane amount of bedrooms. The two Wonderbolts were showing the three fillies to there rooms when they were interrupted. "Who's there?" A voice came from the room across the hall from them. "Its just me and Fleetfoot, we couldn't sleep and went out for a quick fly." Spitfire began as Rapidfire came out of his room. "And we found these three on the side of the road. Apparently they were walking here from Ponyville to visit their friend away on work. I told them they could stay here for tonight then we'd send them back tomorrow." She finished. ***Back in Real Time*** "Oh damn, sorry guys but I gotta jet. I'm already probably late for work!" Rainbow Dash said, right before she zoomed off, faster than usual just to show off for the Wonderbolts. Really she didn't have to go to work for about another hour. She just couldn't hold it anymore, she wanted just to go home and beat the crap out of her pillow or clouds to let out the jealously and anger she was holding. She still didn't want to let Scootaloo hear this though. "OK well, see ya, I can tell you the rest of the story later." Scootaloo called after Rainbow Dash. The crowd hadn't died down at all, in fact it had grew a little. Everypony was sitting down listening intently to the story, waiting for the moment when it all comes together. ***Back to the Flashback*** "Oh nice, what are our guest's names?" Rapidfire asked. "I'm Sweetie Belle." "Ah'm Applebloom." "And I'm Scootaloo." The three of them said respectively. "Well welcome girls. I'm sure you'll have a great time staying with celebrities." He said gloating a bit. ***Back in Real Time*** "Wait, Spitfire are you almost done with the story?" The mayor asked. "Uhh, no, in fact we're just getting to the good part." She said. Thinking to herself about how rude it sounded interrupting her like that. "OK, well then bring in the wagons!" The mayor called out. A few wagons carting in food arrived and began selling lunch to all the hungry ponies who were still intently listening to the story. It wasn't every day Spitfire came and told a story to your entire town. "Sorry for the interruption dear, please continue on." The mayor said before going down to a stand and buying a sandwich. "OK so where was I..." ***Back to the Flashback*** The six ponies awake had all said their good nights and went to separate rooms. The three crusaders decided to stay in one room to keep each other company though. "Can you believe it! We're sleeping in the same house as the Wonderbolts!" Scootaloo said ecstatically. "Ya I know this is amazing. I wish Rainbow Dash was here though, she would love this more than anypony. I wonder if she even knows there in town. Work sucks if it makes you miss out on amazing things like this." Sweetie Belle said. "The real thing we should be worrying about is how much trouble we're gonna be in once we get back home." Applebloom said pessimistically. "Quit your worrying! This is no place for worrying." Scootaloo said, also remembering that there was nopony who would even get mad at her back at her home. They stayed up just talking for a while about how amazing it was that they were actually there. Now that they were there, none of them actually wanted to go home. They wanted to go out and explore the city and get their cutie marks in the big city. They knew that the Wonderbolts weren't a daycare service for them and chances are they wouldn't want them running around a city like crazy monkeys and getting into trouble. Eventually they crashed from the exhaustion of the day. * "Wake up girls!" Called Fleetfoot who was standing next to the bed. "Come on, get up, breakfast is ready." She said shaking them a bit. The three of them yawned and stretched as they woke up and began blinking the sleep out of their eyes. "Did you say breakfast?" Sweetie Belle asked. "Ya, come one we got a great chef. I think he said he was making pancakes today." Fleetfoot replied. "Awesome!" Scootaloo said as the three of them began getting out of bed. "Thanks a lot for letting us stay here by the way." "Ya you guys are even more super duper awesome now!" Sweetie Belle said. "Um, what they said plus 10,000!" Applebloom said. "Oh no problem girls. Can't leave kids in the middle of nowhere." Fleetfoot replied giggling a bit. "We're glad too." The three fillies followed Fleetfoot out to the dining room. The room was empty, only Soarin, Spitfire, and the chef were up in the room. "Where is everypony?" Applebloom asked. "Probably still sleeping." Spitfire replied. "They're probably exhausted from yesterday. Me and Spitfire seem to have insomnia or something, and that's why we were out and found you, and Soarin is up, because..." She trailed off realizing she didn't know. "Because the food Gourmet, our chef, makes is the best ever." Soarin said yawning a bit afterwards. "I don't care if I have to miss out on sleep." He added. "Well you should. One day your just gonna pass out in the middle of a race." Fleetfoot joked. "Ya well at least I'll be full of this delicious stuff." He replied. The chef then walked into the room as if on queue bringing in six plates of pancakes, with 3 on each plate. "Eat up guys, I'm gonna have to jet though. The mayor said she wanted to see me for something." He said as he put down the food. "OK then, see ya later Gourmet." Soarin said as he quickly began eating. "Don't be late for lunch though!" Soarin said in a joking tone. The six ponies were nearly halfway through their meal when they heard a loud BANG come from the entrance. It sounded like somepony had just slammed the door. "SPEEDY WHERE ARE YOU?!?!" An unfamiliar voice screamed angrily throughout the house. "I KNOW YOUR HERE!!! YOU CAN'T HIDE ANY LONGER!!!" The pony seemed angry enough that he'd break down the building to find his victim. "Uhh who's Speedy?" Scootaloo asked calmly. "I have no idea." Spitfire said stunned. "Come on you three fillies should get out of here, doesn't sound like a peaceful diplomat has arrived to solve his problems." She added. "No! I wanna stay and help!" Sweetie Belle said stubbornly. "I'm good at helping!" "Ya me too... wait, wheres Soarin?" Applebloom said in agreement and then realizing Soarin's mysterious Disappearance. Fleetfoot and Spitfire were still in place, but no one saw Soarin leave. "I don't know. Maybe he went to see the angry pony at the door, he'll probably want help though." Spitfire said. "Now, please go back to your room." She pleaded. "WHERE IS HE?! COME OUT YOU PATHETIC BABY!" The angry pony shouted. The proximity sounded closer than before as he seemed to have become impatient waiting was coming to rip Speedy out of place himself. The colt quickly trotted into the room only to be tackled down by both Spitfire and Fleetfoot. In less than a second they had been able to intercept him, even when he was running at an extreme speed from adrenaline. The three began wrestling and fighting on the floor, the mysterious colt to get up, while the girls to hold him down. "Go get help! Just wake them all up! And then if you can find Soarin!" Spitfire shouted to the three crusaders while trying with all her might to keep him down. The Wonderbolt's were starred at flying, and they were finding out this skill didn't transfer to wrestling. "OK!" They shouted as they split up and began screaming and banging on everyone's doors until they heard the pony on the other side shout at them "WHAT!" and then they'd continue until they came out to yell at the disruptive kids in person, only to find out that there's a commotion going on in the other room. As soon as they rallied everypony they looked through all of the empty rooms and at the ceiling, in attempt to find Soarin. "Soarin! Where'd you go?" They continuously called out along with variations of it. They searched every room and every corner to no avail; Soarin wasn't anywhere to be found. They gave up and decided to return to the kitchen to see how the rest were doing. Back in the kitchen they found the Wonderbolts had managed to tame the beast. They were flying and holding him in the air, with one pony holding each leg and one holding the back of his head. He kept flailing nonetheless even though escape was impossible. "Who is Speedy and why the hay do you need him?! No one here is named Speedy!! This is everyone here minus Soarin, and Soarin is no where near close to sounding like Speedy!" Rapidfire was screaming back at the insane colt. "NO HE'S HERE I KNOW IT I HAVE PROOF! I WILL GET THAT DAMNED COLT FOR WHAT HE DID!! IF THIS SOARIN IS THE ONLY MISSING ONE, THEN HE IS THAT DAMNED COLT!!" The pony screamed ignoring part of Rapidfire's question. "We couldn't find Soarin anywhere. He must be a great hider or flew away somewhere." Scootaloo said as they re-entered the room. "SEE? THAT DAMNED COLT HAS FLED FROM HIS PROBLEMS AGAIN! HE IS PATHETIC! COME OUT AND FACE YOUR PAST SPEEDY!" The colt screamed. He wasn't calming down at all, if anything he was getting angrier every second that passed. "WHO THE HAY IS THIS SPEEDY?! WHAT DID HE DO THAT IS SO DAMNED BAD AND WHO THE HAY ARE YOU!!!!????" Fleetfoot screamed right back at the insane colt. "MY NAME IS LIGHTSPEED AND THAT SPEEDY RUINED MY LIFE! HE STOLE EVERYTHING FROM ME!" Lightspeed screamed. His voice was beginning to sound scratchy as if he was running out of energy to talk from all his yelling. "OK now just calm the hay down so we can figure all this out!" Spitfire said. "Fine. I will have my revenge, and nopony will stop me from it. If you knew what he did, you wouldn't try to stop me either." Lightspeed said calming down more. He seemed a bit happy to stop the screaming. The Wonderbolts let him down and he promptly began to tell his story and why he hates this colt named Speedy.