He was up with the dawn, and outside before the sun was fully over the horizon.
And as usual, he was careening around Canterlot as fast as he possibly could, getting his exercise in during the earliest morning hours, where he disturbed the fewest number of ponies…and most of them were used to him doing it by now.
He ran his usual route twice, twisting and turning through the streets of Canterlot, and almost as if he couldn’t leave it alone, he again tried the treacherous alley that had thwarted him the day before. He wove through sharp corners at high speed, leaving a red trail behind him that turned and twisted, zigged and zagged as he slalomed through the narrow, crooked streets of that old part of town, and then he approached the alley. He gritted his teeth and took on a look of pure concentration as he remembered his mistake the day before, but he also went even faster because he had an idea of what the alley was like…and that cancelled out his familiarity with the alley. He managed the entry easily, spinning a few times as he avoided flower boxes, and then made that final turn, making sure not to drift too far to the right…and ended up overcorrecting and going to far to the left. He scraped the edge of the building just as he came out into the courtyard, which sent him spinning wildly out of control. The ground and sky spun wildly before his eyes but he didn’t panic, quickly sorting out his rotation and countering it, pulling out of his spin, then trying to pull out of his descent…and again, not quite making it in time. The fence and wall of the Royal palace was right in his face, making him pull up in a frenzy, and he almost made it, clipping his back legs on the top of the wall. That sent him flying again, cartwheeling in the air, and slamming into the side of the palace upside-down. He stayed right there for several seconds with a few dusky red feathers drifting down to the grass under his head, as if he’d hit the wall so hard that he’d stuck to it, but then he slowly slid down the pristine white wall to the ground, his back legs and tail hanging over his head and his wings twitching as he tried to clear the cobwebs out of his mind, trying to see more than a big blur of green and white and red in front of him. Something grabbed hold of him and pulled, sliding him away from the wall, his tail and back legs resting against the wall, and he looked up blearily as he got his senses back.
“Again, Skyblaze?” Princess Celestia asked with an amused sigh.
“Did I make it?” he asked in a woozy voice, his eyes not exactly wanting to work.
“If you were trying to crash into my garden again, my daring little pegasus, yes, you made it,” she replied with a smile down at him.
He looked up at her as his eyes focused, then he blew out his breath. “Nuts,” he complained. “Please don’t tell my Dad, your Highness.”
She chuckled softly. “Today will be our little secret,” she winked. “Now off with you. I have some important business today.”
“Yes ma’am,” he replied as he shakily got to his hooves, fanned his wings a few times to make sure they were in proper working order, then took off and got back over the fence, Celestia’s gentle gaze following him as he flew back home.
After returning to the shop and eating breakfast, he picked up his saddlebags and headed out for Dodge Junction. It only took about an hour to get there from Canterlot, a very easy flight, but getting around Rockhound wasn’t easy. He was an old slate gray earth pony with a wild gray mane, a pick on his flank for his cutie mark, and his passion was prospecting for gems. He didn’t use magic like unicorns did, he found gems using years of skill, able to find the kinds of gems he wanted, whatever the ponies who bought them from him needed. It was almost uncanny how he could out-perform unicorns using magic to find gems, but he did just that.
It only took him about half an hour to extract himself from one of Rockhound’s yarns about times gone by, all but flying away as he tried to remember where he was in the story with a hasty apology about having to be back in Canterlot by lunchtime, and he raced his best time back to Canterlot with his saddlebags loaded down with emeralds. He managed to beat his best time by just under a minute, streaking in the door to the shop in a gust of wind. “Made it!” he declared, seeing that his mother was alone in the shop, working at her bench behind the counter. “A minute off my time!”
“Welcome home, son,” Shimmergem called. “Did you get the emeralds?”
“Yes, Mom,” he said, using his wings to hop over the counter, trotting over to her. Due to the wind his wings created, he wasn’t allowed to fly near the benches in the shop. She used her magic to open his saddlebag, a gentle pink radiance covering the emeralds that floated up out of his bag.
“Very nice,” she said. “Nice. Oh, that’s a good one,” she continued, inspecting each one before setting it in a basket by her bench. "I must say, this shipment was worth every bit,” she finally declared as she emptied out his other bag. They’d already paid Rockhound for the gems, and Skyblaze just had to go pick them up. “I can get right to work on the piece they’re for.”
“I’m gonna go eat lunch and go practice,” he told her.
“Be careful,” she warned.
Lunch was always “fend for yourself” in the Stardust shop, the family going to eat by turns so some pony was always there to wait on customers. His father and siblings were probably down at the diner at the corner, their favorite place to eat lunch, a place called Taste of Equestria. He flew by while checking the tables, and sure enough, they were at the far table by Gold Street, which was wide and had quite a bit of traffic moving up and down. He landed by the table as his three family members used their magic to eat, floating the food up to their mouths. Skyblaze had to use his hooves for that, doing it the old fashioned way, at least where they could see. He tended to eat right off the bushes and trees when he detoured from his deliveries to snack on apples and berries he spotted, when he was hungry. He was familiar with the locations of most of the wild apple and pear trees and the berry bushes along the routes he took to get to every town in Equestria. “Back already?” Silverchain asked.
“I managed to take advantage of Rockhound taking a breath to run,” he replied, which made Gold Ring and Prism laugh.
“He’s not that bad. I think some of his stories are interesting,” Prism said.
“Yeah, but after you’ve heard them all ten times over, it gets old,” he answered as he raised a hoof to attract the waiter.
“Are they good emeralds?” Gold Ring asked.
“Mom thinks so,” he answered. “She said she was going to start work on whatever they’re for.”
“It’s a new line of clasps and broaches. The Grand Galloping Gala is right around the corner,” Silverchain said. “We need to get our new pieces ready for the gala attendees.”
“Speaking of important events, you received a letter from Cloudsdale this morning, brother,” Gold Ring said. “I put it on your table in your room.”
“Really? Alright!” he said, and just as the waiter got there, he turned and raced off, ascending to the level of his attic window after making the turn up Gem Street and all but diving through. He skidded to a stop in front of his side table, where a gold-sealed letter was resting. He tore it open and opened it, and saw that it was the official notification of the date and time of the Young Flyer’s Competition. It gave him his number, and a list of the other competitors and the town which they represented. There were 14 other competitors this year, chosen from towns all over Equestria, and it listed their names and town of origin. Skyblaze was the only pegasus representing Canterlot, where Manehattan had four different pegasus ponies competing. The only part of Equestria not represented was the Crystal Empire, but that was because they had no pegasus ponies that lived there full time, just the weather pegasus ponies that managed the weather. Skyblaze was given the number 4, meaning he’d be fourth in line, and his eyes widened as he recognized another name on the list.
Scootaloo. Number 9.
Scootaloo! He knew of her! She was from Ponyville, and from what he’d heard, she was Rainbow Dash’s good friend. She’d grown up around Rainbow Dash, and there was no doubt that Rainbow Dash had taught Scootaloo some of her skills as a flyer.
If he could win the competition, if he could beat Scootaloo, then it would really get the attention of the Wonderbolts! After all, he’d have beaten the personal protégé of one of their own!
She would be going after him, she was 9th and he was 4th, which meant that he had no idea how good she was. That meant that had to completely blow the judges away with his routine, impress them so much that they would give him the cup. It did mean that Rainbow Dash wouldn’t be judging since her personal friend would be competing, but the other Wonderbolts would be, and there was no doubt that she’d be there to watch Scootaloo compete.
The chance to get the attention of the Wonderbolts, and the chance to meet the Rainbow Dash, all in one day? How much better could it get?
Suddenly, his routine wasn’t good enough. The rings, yeah, that was okay. Doing his signature Tornado Twist, that was good too, but he needed more. He needed a second phase of his routine to go in the middle, make it a little longer, show off a different aspect of his skills as a flyer. The rings would demonstrate his agility, his precision flying, where the Tornado Twist would show off his ability to do something unique. He needed something to show off his speed—
Cloudbusting! They always had small clouds high over the stadium for the performers to use in their routines, in case they needed them. He could do some cloudbusting, showing his speed in being able to go from cloud to cloud without doing really tight turns, just pure, flat-out speed. He could do the rings to display his agility, go up and bust some clouds to show off his speed, and that would put him in position to go straight into the Tornado Twist, since he always did that move from a high position, diving down to where he started the tornado so he could have lots of momentum built up. He pulled down his routine diagram and looked at it, looked at a picture of the stadium, and saw that it’d work.
A knock at his window got his attention. He turned and saw Rainsong there, hovering in the window, her yellow wings flapping almost casually to keep her in place. “Your family said you were in here,” she told him. “What’s up?”
“I got my official notice from the competition committee,” he said, holding it up. “And guess what?”
“What?”
“Scootaloo is in the competition!”
“Who’s that?”
“She’s from Ponyville, Rainsong! She’s one of Rainbow Dash’s friends! If I can beat her, I’ll really get the attention of the Wonderbolts! After all, I’ll have beaten a pegasus one of the Wonderbolts trained herself!”
“If that doesn’t make her mad at you,” she winked. “But you’d better be on your game. If this Scootaloo was trained by Rainbow Dash, then she has to be good. Really good.”
“I know, that’s why I’m changing my routine,” he told her immediately, turning back to his table. She flitted into his room and landed beside him, looking at his diagram. “I’ll do the rings first, then I’ll go up and do some cloudbusting, show them how fast I can go when I’m not turning. That also puts me up high, so I can dive straight into the Tornado Twist without a lull in my routine,” he told her.
She nodded. “That’s a pretty good plan,” she agreed. “You are pretty good at cloudbusting.”
“I know it’s a basic move, but the key of it’ll be how fast I can go from cloud to cloud,” he said.
“Sometimes the basics are the best,” she nodded. “And it’ll throw off the other competitors. When they hear you’re going to fly through rings and then bust clouds, they won’t think you’re very good. Then you do the Tornado Twist, and totally blow every pony away.”
“Just hope that that doesn’t happen literally,” he said, which made her laugh.
With Rainsong’s help, he redesigned his routine to add the cloudbusting phase, then he went out with her and got in some practice at it over her forest, since they’d pushed some excess clouds into her region along with the regular cloud shipment for a scheduled rain shower and she needed to get rid of some of them. Goggles down, Skyblaze rocketed from cloud to cloud that she’d marked for busting, all but making them explode as he punched through them, zigzagging through the sky to get all the clouds. When he finished, he zipped up and landed on a rain cloud that Rainsong was moving over the forest. “That was a lot of clouds,” he noted.
“Yeah, they always dump them on me, cause no pony lives out here,” she replied, her tongue between her teeth as she urged the cloud into position with several others, creating a nice large shower that she then set to drift slowly over the forest.
“You should just push them so they’ll drift back,” he grinned.
“And start a turf war with the Ponyville and Cloudsdale pegasi? No way,” she protested. “There’s a ton of them and only one of me.”
“Well, that does make a difference,” he chuckled as he crossed his front hooves on the cloud. Rain clouds were always cool and relaxing. “Looks like you’re gonna be busy for a while.”
“Yeah, sorry, but work calls, ya know,” she grinned. “I’m not a slacker like you.”
He stuck his tongue out at her, which made her laugh. “Eh, I need to go take the form back to Cloudsdale anyway. I have to turn in the last of the paperwork for the competition.”
“Oooh, I always love to go to Cloudsdale,” she said. “Now I wish I didn’t have all this work to do.”
“And you’re stuck here. Guess it pays to be a slacker,” he grinned, then he took off and raced for home before she could swat him.
He returned home and got the last piece of paperwork for the competition, then flew to Cloudsdale. It was almost due west of Canterlot and it only took about half an hour to fly there from home. Cloudsdale was the main pegasus city in Equestria, and it was made entirely of permanent clouds. He’d dreamed of living there when he was a colt, of moving to Cloudsdale, but then he came to the town for flight camp and found out that some dreams were best left as dreams. He’d suffered a whole lot of teasing when word got out that he was a Canterlot pegasus born to unicorns, who could just barely fly, which made his three months at flight camp to be not everything that he dreamed it would be. Rainsong and Windrunner made it tolerable, there for moral support, and there was a measure of sweet revenge in it when he won the field day competition, standing proudly in front of their instructor and receiving his gold wings. It was even better because all those pegasi that teased him for his family and his weak flying skills had to watch the pegacorn as they called him get an award that proved that he was a better flyer than the lot of them.
But they hadn’t eased up on him much since then. In fact, that only seemed to make the Cloudsdale colts and fillies even madder, that some pegasus from Canterlot beat them out for the top flyer award. He was probably the only pegasus that didn’t live in Cloudsdale that had a reputation there. They called Skydaze now, because word had gotten out over his almost daily crashes back home. They didn’t know that he was crashing because he was pushing himself to the limit every day, getting better and better. They simply latched onto the fact that he did crash with daily regularity.
He landed in front of the large columns of the main hall of Cloudsdale, where the competition office was located, surrounded by nothing but pegasi no matter which direction he looked. That was very odd to him, since Canterlot was almost completely dominated by unicorns. But, he didn’t feel out of place. He knew enough about pegasi that he didn’t feel out of place when surrounded by them, thanks to Windrunner, Rainsong, and her family, one of the few pegasus families that lived in Canterlot. But, it was a little weird, he could admit. He really knew more about unicorns than he did about pegasi.
It also turned out that he wasn’t the only one in the competition office. Like him, several other competitors had arrived to turn in the final form that came with the letter. He didn’t know any of them, since they were all from different towns and he was the only pegasus from Canterlot in the competition. A few of them were talking among themselves as they waited near the counter, but they weren’t waiting, probably just getting to know each other. He put his form on the counter—like everything pegasi dealt with, it was treated so it wouldn’t fall through the cloud that made up the counter—and the older mare pegasus with a shocking pink mane picked it up. “Skyblaze Stardust, right?”
“Yes ma’am,” he replied, as he heard some snickering behind him.
“Looks like everything’s in order. So, you need twenty numbered rings and some small clouds for your routine?”
“Yes ma’am,” he nodded.
“We’ll make sure that everything’s there for you,” she told him as she put the form behind the counter. “And you’re all ready. Be at the stadium three hours early on competition day.”
“I will ma’am, thank you,” he said, then he turned and saw two young stallions from flight camp, grinning at him malevolently. Three young mares and two stallions he didn’t know stood off to the side.
“If it isn’t Skydaze!” one of them said swaggeringly. “I can’t believe you actually got into the competition!”
“Guess they need some comic relief,” the other said.
“Rings? Clouds? That’s foal stuff!” the first taunted.
“Then I guess you don’t have anything to worry about, do you Cloudjumper?” he replied calmly as he moved to go around, but the larger of the two deliberately blocked his way. “Besides, who was the one that left flight camp with the gold wings?”
“You cheated for those, and everyone knows it!” he said angrily. “You had your unicorn parents pull strings to get the teacher on your side!”
“I never had to cheat to beat you two,” he said flatly. “Rainsong beat both of you in flight camp, and she’s a Canterlot pegasus too.”
The two of them got really angry about then. “That’s enough of that, all of you,” the mare behind the counter called sternly. “Cloudjumper, Thunderhoof, move. You are blocking the door.”
The two young stallions glared at him, but they did move aside. “We are so gonna kick your butt in the competition,” Cloudjumper promised.
“Guess you’re gonna lose another competition to me,” Skyblaze said as he almost pranced past. “You should be used to it by now. And to lose to the pegacorn, that’s what’s really embarrassing,” he added tauntingly as he left the office.
He didn’t pay the two another thought as he trotted back outside, but someone else did follow him. “Hey, wait up!” one of the young mares that had been watching called just as he opened his wings, getting ready to take off. She had a ruddy orange coat and a short-cropped, thick mane and long tail the color of magenta. “I just wanted to tell you that those guys weren’t speaking for all of us,” she told him.
“Like I care what they think,” he replied immediately as he looked back at her. “They lost the gold wings to me in flight camp, and they’ve never lived it down.”
“What do you mean?”
“They spent the entire camp teasing me because my parents are unicorns, then they lost to me in the field day competition,” he replied honestly.
“Wow, your parents are unicorns?”
He nodded. “My whole family is. My like six times great grandfather was a pegasus, though, so here you go,” he said, wiggling the tips of his wings ostentatiously.
She laughed. “You’re not the first I’ve met. Pound Cake is a pegasus, but his parents are earth ponies. You going home?”
He nodded. “I had to totally redo my routine because of who’s in the competition, so I need to go practice.”
“What do you mean?”
He turned and looked at her. “Scootaloo is in the competition,” he said seriously. “She’s from Ponyville, and she’s totally the pony to beat. So I have to completely rethink my routine, make it so awesome that I have a chance against a pony that was trained by a Wonderbolt.”
The young mare gave him a surprised look. “How did you know that?”
“The letter had all the competitors on it and their home towns, so it doesn’t take a genius to piece it together.”
“No, how did you know that I know Rainbow Dash?”
He gave her a startled look. “You’re Scootaloo?”
She laughed ruefully. “Yup, that’s me,” she grinned. “Nice to meet ya.”
“Well I feel totally stupid now,” he complained, which made her laugh again.
“Don’t sweat it. But it’s nice to know that someone’s so afraid of me that he’s gonna redo his entire routine,” she winked.
“Guess that means you’re the main competition. Good to know,” he told her, looking down at her with a challenging smile.
“Yeah, like you’re any competition,” Cloudjumper taunted as he came out of the building.
“I’m certainly not worried about you two,” he said dismissively. “I’ve already seen what you’ve got, and it doesn’t scare me.”
“Flight camp was a long time ago, Skydaze,” Thunderhoof said with a dark scowl. “And you don’t have your mommy and daddy unicorn here to buy your win, do you?”
“Anywhere, anytime, you wimps,” he retorted. “I can fly both of you dizzy.”
“That sounds like a challenge to me,” Cloudjumper declared. “I bet you couldn’t beat us in a race.”
“If I actually thought you were worth racing, I’d race you from here to Ponyville and back. And I’d give you a ten second head start,” he said tauntingly.
“Loser has to quit the competition,” Thunderhoof said in a pugnacious tone.
“And you have to beat both of us,” Cloudjumper declared.
“That’s not fair!” Scootaloo protested.
Skyblaze made a snort of indifference. “I guess I would give you a twenty second head start, just to make it fair,” he said.
“So the pegacorn thinks he’s all that, does he?” Cloudjumper scoffed, flexing his wings as Skyblaze landed.
He folded his wings, then laid down on the cloud. “Well?” he said, tapping his hoof absently on the cloud.
The two of them gave him a suspicious look, then turned and took off, flying at pretty impressive speed towards Ponyville. He watched them go as Scootaloo and a few others watched him, then he yawned and stretched lazily. “Welp, guess I’d better get home,” he said finally as he stood up.
“Are you crazy?” Scootaloo protested as he opened his wings. “If you lose—“
“Did you hear me take the bet?” he asked pointedly. “They just assumed that I agreed to the race. I just said I would give them a twenty second head start…and I would have, if I was going to race them,” he said lightly. “I never said I agreed to it. And now they’re off flying to Ponyville, which gets them out of my mane and keeps them busy for a little while. Celestia knows, they need it,” he remarked as his wings pulled him up into a hover just over the clouds.
Scootaloo gave him a strange look, her brow furrowing a couple of times, then she burst out into helpless laughter. “You tricked them! Awesome!”
“I have nothing to prove to them,” he replied simply. “See you later, Scootaloo. You better bring your best game at the competition, cause I’m gonna win,” he declared with a bright smile.
“In your dreams! I’m gonna win!” she replied with a grin.
So, it was with a little foalish satisfaction that Skyblaze took off and headed back to Canterlot, musing at how mad Cloudjumper and Thunderhoof would be when they got back, thinking they’d won, only to find out that Skyblaze had never bothered to race them in the first place. Cloudjumper and Thunderhoof had been the two main antagonists when it came to teasing him, never giving it a rest, and no matter how well he did or how badly they did, they always blamed anything and everything they could think of for their shortcomings, completely unable to accept the idea that he could beat them fairly. So, sending them off to Ponyville thinking that they’d beaten him in some bet that would take him out of the competition was eminently satisfying.
And meeting Scootaloo face to face, that was just an added bonus. He knew what she looked like now, so he’d know if it was her if he saw some pegasus doing some pretty amazing tricks out in the open sky between Canterlot and Ponyville.
He couldn’t deny one thing, though. Scootaloo was cute.