//------------------------------//
// Practice, practice, practice 
// Story: Skyblaze 
// by Darkest Night 
//------------------------------//

	With a look of total determination, Skyblaze was not about to let that alley beat him three days in a row.
He entered it exactly where he wanted to be, making the first turn, doing a spin to avoid clipping his wing on a flower box, made the second turn and did another spin to avoid a window sill, then made the third turn, the tips of his wingfeathers brushing against the far wall as he careened around the corner at nearly full speed.  This time he was dead center in the middle of the narrow alley, his wingtips brushing both sides as he rocketed through the narrow passage, then burst out into the courtyard with a red streak behind him and completely in control of himself.  He gave a hoofpump of celebration as he made a looping circle around the palace, seeing Princess Celestia down in the garden for her morning walk, and she looked up at him with a light expression as he curled around her palace, staying outside the perimeter of the fence.  The Royal airspace was out of bounds for just about every pegasus in Canterlot, with only a few rare exceptions…like Princess Celestia’s pegasus guards and an overly zealous young pegasus that tended to crash in her garden quite a bit.  He made a complete circle of the palace and lined up to go right back down the alley, intending to try it from the other side.  But he veered off suddenly when his father Silverchain appeared in the courtyard, trotting at a fair clip towards the palace, pulling out of his steep descent and doing a tight curving turn in the wide courtyard, coming all the way around as he slowed down and pulling up beside his father.  “Good morning, Dad,” he said as he slowed to a matching pace, his wings keeping him aloft.  “Out for a walk?”
“I received a summons to the palace,” he said with a shake of his head.  “And what were you doing?”
“Oh, just looking for a good place to crash, you know me,” he replied lightly, which made his father laugh despite himself.  “Sounds like you’re going to get another commission.”
“Her Highness does bring us challenges we enjoy,” he said in reply as they crossed the courtyard, approaching the side gate.  Princess Celestia decided to come to the gate herself, opening it as the two of them got close, her two unicorn guards standing to each side.  “Your Highness, good morning,” he said, both of them bowing to her.
“Good morning, Silverchain. Skyblaze,” she smiled.  “Please, come in.”
“If you don’t mind, your Highness, I’ll leave the business to Dad,” he said.  “I have a lot of practice I have to get to.”
“Of course,” she smiled.
“Go back to the shop first, son, you have a delivery to make before you can go practice.”
“Sure thing, Dad.  See you this afternoon.”
“Be careful,” he said, which made Skyblaze laugh as he turned and flew back to the shop.
The delivery was actually fun, because Skyblaze got to go to the Crystal Empire.  That was the most distant part of Equestria, over six hours of flight just to get there, and it gave him time to go over his routine over and over in his mind, working out every little detail.  By the time the towering spire of the Crystal Palace came into view, he had everything all worked out in his mind.  The delivery was to the palace itself, so he landed in front of it and was brought inside.  Skyblaze was fairly lucky that he’d met and talked to three of the four princesses of Equestria face to face, since the work his parents’ shop did was sort of along the lines of royalty.  The only princess he’d never spoken to was Princess Twilight.  So, when he was brought into a large office holding Princess Cadence and her husband, Shining Armor, he wasn’t nervous at all.  He found that the princesses weren’t as regal as many thought them to be.  All three of them that he’d talked to were very approachable, as long as he minded his manners, and he certainly wasn’t shy or nervous talking to them.  Cadence was the most informal of the three, however, and he attributed that to the fact that she was very young, not much older than him.  “Why, Skyblaze,” she called, coming over.  “It’s good to see you again.”
“You too, Princess Cadence.  I have a delivery for you, from our shop,” he said, unlocking his saddlebags. “I was told to bring it directly to you.”
“Ah, yes,” she said as he pulled out a fairly tall box.  “Thank your parents for me for finishing it quickly.”
“I will,” he said as she opened it.  Inside was her crown.  He gaped a little, and she laughed as she picked it up with her magic.
“A certain some pony broke it last week,” she said, glancing over at the large unicorn stallion.
“And whose fault was that?” he challenged, which made her laugh as she settled it back on her head, just behind her horn.
“I heard you entered the Young Flyer’s Competition,” Cadence said as she fidgeted with her golden tiara a bit before settling on a position.
“Yes ma’am, but it’s gonna be a rough go,” he replied.  “I’m not sure I’m going to win.”
“You’re a great flyer,” she said.  “I’ve seen you fly around Canterlot.  You’re very talented.”
“More like notorious,” Shining Armor said lightly.  “I remember once scraping you off the north wall of the palace.”
Skyblaze laughed.  “Well, yeah, maybe, but Scootaloo is in the contest,” he said.
“Really?  Scootaloo?”
He nodded.  “I’m up against a pony trained by a Wonderbolt,” he said, fretting a bit.
“That seems a little unfair,” Shining Armor noted.  “Especially since the Wonderbolts are the judges.”
“I don’t think they’d cheat in the judging,” Skyblaze protested.  “It just means I really have to be on top of my game, and that’s just the way I like it.  I’m really looking forward to it now,” he told them.  “If it’s not a challenge, then it’s not fun.”
Cadence smiled at him.  “I’m sure you’ll do great,” she told him.  “How are your parents?  I haven’t seen them since I moved here.”
“They’re doing fine, and I’ll tell them you think of them, your Highness,” he answered as he closed and locked his saddlebag.  “I hope you don’t mind if I head back to Canterlot.  I have to get some practice time in before sunset.”
“I’m sure you’re hungry after that long flight.  Why don’t you have lunch with us?  I know you know everything going on in Canterlot that Princess Celestia doesn’t think is important enough to tell me,” she winked.
He laughed.  “Well, I guess so, your Highness.  I’d hate to be thrown in the dungeon for saying no.”
She whacked him lightly with her wing.  “Don’t give me any ideas, now,” she warned.
So, after a completely unexpected lunch with Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor, Skyblaze got a later start back to Canterlot than he expected.  He’d actually enjoyed himself at lunch, getting to know Cadence and her husband pretty well, and finding that, like Princess Celestia, they weren’t afraid to let their hair down a little bit…at least in private.  His interactions with Princess Celestia while behind the walls of her palace, usually involving him recovering from a crash in her gardens, had shown him that much about their ruler, and it actually just endeared her to him that much more.  It made her seem less like an aloof, distant icon and more like a pony.
Because of the distance and his late start, it was late afternoon by the time he got back to Canterlot, too late to really get any practice in.  He returned to the shop and saw that his siblings were out, only his parents there, and they were about to close.  “Did you just get back?” Shimmergem asked.
He nodded as he hung his saddlebags up on the peg by the counter.  “I got a little sidetracked at the Crystal Empire.”
“What happened?  Were you checking out the jewelry shops?”  He did that for them from time to time, to get a look at the competition.  Truth be told, he did a lot of exploring and looking around in the towns he visited, and not just jewelry shops.  He knew quite a bit about every town in Equestria except Ponyville, even the tiny villages that weren’t even on the train lines, like the tiny, secluded village of Twoshoes.  Ponyville…well, the fact that it was so close was why he’d never really gone there.  For one, his parents hadn’t ever had a delivery for him to Ponyville, it cost almost nothing to ship things on the train from Canterlot, and for another, it was right there.  If he wanted to go to Ponyville, it was all of fifteen minutes away.  The fact that it was so accessible actually made him never go there.
He shook his head.  “I got invited to lunch,” he replied.  “And if I said no to Princess Cadence, you’d skin me.”
Shimmergem laughed.  “Yes I would, the palace is our most important customer,” she declared.  “So, she invited you to lunch?”
“Her and her husband did, yeah,” he replied as he stretched his wings, then lifted back off the floor, hovering in place as was his habit, but staying well away from the work benches.  “I’ve talked to her before, so I think she wanted to get to know me.  I really like her husband,” he chuckled.  “He may be a captain of the guard, but he’s pretty down to earth.”
“Princess Cadence is a sweetheart,” Shimmergem smiled.  “I’ve had quite a few conversations with her.”
“She remembers you two, she asked how you’re doing.”
“That’s so nice of her,” Shimmergem smiled.
“You going to go practice?” Silverchain asked.
“It’s too late,” he replied.  “I think I’ll just do a little work on my routine on paper tonight, and get a jump on it tomorrow.”
“You’ll have time, we don’t have anything for you to deliver tomorrow,” Shimmergem told him.
“Sounds like a plan.  I’ll be upstairs if you need me,” he said as he turned and flew towards the stairs in the back of the main room of the shop.
He actually spent some time on the floor, sitting in front of his desk without flying as he took everything he thought about along his trip to the Crystal Empire and put it to paper, drawing several diagrams of his planned routine, which helped him visualize everything for when he did it for real.  Using a quill plucked from his own wing between his teeth, he drew diagram after diagram, working out how best to maximize the visual effect of what would start as a deceptively simple routine, but then end with his signature move, something no pony except Rainsong had ever seen before, the Tornado Twist.  That was the lynchpin of his routine, and something he hoped would so wow the Wonderbolts that would be judging the contest that he’d beat what would no doubt be a really strong performance by Scootaloo and take the victory.  He had no doubt that Scootaloo was so good that she had her own signature trick, and there was no telling how the other contestants would up their games to compete against Scootaloo, so he expected this competition to be fearsome.
It would be the best Young Flyer’s Competition ever, and he was determined to win it.

He had a lot of work to do today.
He was up with the sun, doing his usual warm-up by streaking back and forth through Canterlot, zigging and zagging along streets he knew, lancing between the buildings but high enough over the street so that he was no danger to any pony on the ground, going so fast that a gust of wind proceeded his passing by.  After doing five laps through his usual courses, more than usual, he then veered off his known routes and raced blindly though the narrower, more crooked streets, relying on his reflexes to take the corners.  He navigated the unknown streets with just a few scraped wing feathers, bursting out into the main courtyard, doing a barrel roll in celebration of not crashing for two days in a row, two days short of his record.  He looped around the palace and waved to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, who were walking along the gardens, then ascended over the buildings to fly directly back to the shop.  He went downstairs from his room and ate a quick breakfast just as his family started to wake up, and he headed out to his favorite practice area, a large open field in the valley below Canterlot, a little ways south of the area that Rainsong was tasked to manage the weather.
He got the preparations done first.  He went out and gathered up all the loose clouds, from big ones to small ones, then set the ones he needed later in a row to the side.  He made rings out some of them, then set others out in a very wide, spacious pattern.  Since Rainsong was busy with her weather today, he randomized things as best he could by placing the rings by whim without looking at their numbers except for the first ring, which he placed at the very far end of the ring area and behind four other rings, which would force him to weave through them to reach it.  He placed the clouds he’d bust over them, much higher up, which would give him the altitude he needed to go straight into the Tornado Twist.
He’d added a few flourishes to his routine.  Doing the rings in a specific order but randomly placed was a twist to a basic staple, so that was good enough.  He was going to bust the clouds by taking each one out differently, and he was also going to toy with a few of the clouds, flying around them to shave them, do a cloud toss to make two clouds collide and then bust them both right in that second of impact, spice things up a bit.  He was also going to delay starting the Tornado Twist by circling around the stadium to build some speed and heighten the tension a little after busting the last cloud, the objective to be to fly so fast that the red streak that followed behind him whenever he got going really fast joined to itself and formed a red ring above the stadium, from which he would lance into a dive to begin the Tornado Twist.  After all, his first two phases were relatively basic as flying stunts went, things any pegasus learned in flight camp or weather school, and while they would show off his natural strengths, his agility mainly, it would make his finale that much more surprising.  To go from simple things like flying through rings and busting clouds straight into an extremely different and difficult trick like the Tornado Twist, it was his hope that it would make his personal trick even more awe-inspiring, and he was going to need it given that he had no doubt that Scootaloo had her own tricks hidden in her mane.  After all, since she’d been trained by Rainbow Dash, she had to have her own unique stunts.
All morning, he worked on the first two phases of his routine, saving working on the Tornado Twist for later.  After all, that he knew how to do, so he needed to work on transitioning from the rings to cloudbusting smoothly, then transition again from cloudbusting into the Tornado Twist.  He got the rhythm of it as the sun climbed high into the sky, able to shift immediately from the rings and straight into cloudbusting, running out of clouds and pretending to bust them, then moving from that into the circle that would be his staging maneuver to get into the Tornado Twist.
He took a break for lunch, flying back up to Canterlot and joining his brother and sister at the diner down at the corner called Taste of Equestria, their favorite lunch destination, a surprisingly simple affair in the usual pomp and circumstance of Canterlot, nextdoor to Donut Joe’s, another deceptively simple shop that concealed the best donuts in Equestria.  Though they didn’t talk as much as they used to, since he spent his time out flying deliveries and they were devoted to the family business, he nevertheless loved his siblings and enjoyed spending time with them.  There was the usual good-natured teasing that went on between them, mainly between him and Prism, while Gold Ring had been the voice of reason in an overly energetic pegasus colt’s occasionally mischievous youth.  Gold Ring had often turned him away from his wildest notions, and saved him from getting in a whole lot of trouble.  He was calm, steady, wiser than his years, and had the patience to deal with a colt that couldn’t sit still longer than a moment before he started getting antsy.  Prism did often lament that Skyblaze got to travel all over Equestria, and enjoyed the stories he told of the many cities he got to visit.  She particularly grilled him over eating lunch with the Princess of the Crystal Empire, since like any young Canterlot unicorn mare, Prism had an interest in high society.  Their parents and Gold Ring weren’t quite as interested in being among the social movers, but every young filly had daydreams of attending the parties and events in Canterlot and rubbing shoulders with the cream of the social class.  Prism was no different, but she had actually attended a few of those social events.  Prism was just starting to work her way up the social ladder.
“I wish I could have lunch with Princess Cadence,” she sighed, pushing her thick mane of dark blue hair back over her horn, which had a very large streak of red through it.  She wore it in a loosely curled, tumbled style, and a poof of it hooked behind her horn that often drifted down to cover her eye.  Her tail was very full and thick, curly and a touch poofy at the end, and it was her one true vanity.  Her coat was a smooth, rich pink and always meticulously groomed, as neat and spotless as the triangular spectrum of the seven colors of the rainbow cutie mark on her flank.  “I met her once at a restaurant and she talked to me.  She was very nice.”
“Yeah, she is,” Skyblaze agreed as he took a big bite out of his salad.  Where his siblings could use their magic to eat in the civilized Canterlot manner, Skyblaze only had his hooves, so he wasn’t quite so cultured as they were.  “I guess I could ask her if she’d stop by for tea the next time she’s in Canterlot, at least the next time I’m in the Crystal Empire.  Who knows when that’ll be.”
“If I have my way, tomorrow,” she winked.  “I think I can talk Mother into buying some more of those crystals they have.  They do make some spectacular jewelry.”
“I have to practice, don’t send me off the to Crystal Empire,” he protested.  “That’s an all-day trip!”
Gold Ring chuckled.  His coat was a burnished bronze color, but his mane was raven black and kept short and easy to manage.  His cutie mark was one of the more interesting ones that Skyblaze had ever seen, because it was trio of interlocking gold circles in a triangular pattern on his flank.  Because his coat was bronze in color, it made his cutie mark a little difficult to see at certain angles, and much like Skyblaze’s unicorn parentage, it had been the object of a little teasing when Gold Ring went through magic school.  It was easy to mistake him as a blank flank when seen from a distance, or when it was really bright outside where the bronze of his coat merged with the gold of the rings.  “How did the practice go?”
“I’m working the last kinks out of my routine,” he replied.  “I made some changes because Scootaloo’s in the competition, so I have to seriously wow the judges if I want to win.  She’s the pony to beat, hooves down.”
“And your special trick?”
“I’m gonna practice it after lunch,” he replied.  “I still can’t do it perfect every time yet, but I have a couple of weeks to get it down.”
“I hope it’s really special,” Prism said.
“I hope so too,” he said ruefully.  “If I can’t pull it off, I at least hope I can fail so spectacularly that it gets me some bonus points for difficulty.”
They both laughed.  “You certainly have that reputation in Canterlot,” Prism winked.
“They only notice the failures, they don’t see the successes,” he grinned back.
After lunch, he went back down to the meadow, cleared all the clouds out of the way, then got down to business.  He practiced his move all afternoon, over and over and over again, from full run-throughs to partial attempts to work on specific aspects of it.  He spent nearly an hour just making the tornado to get it just right, the right height, the right width across the top of the cone, the right windspeed inside that made it the easiest to shape.  He then went on to the shaping part, spending quite a while just holding it in the column form before trying to twist it, getting a feel for how the wind inside changed once it was taken out of its conical shape, getting completely in tune with his creation, to where he could feel the slightest shift of the winds inside on the wingfeathers that ghosted across the surface.  He then worked on the twist, not forming a ring every time, just turning it, twisting it, curving it, feeling how the winds changed when the straight column was curved, how it got more and more difficult to control it as it was bent more and more.  It was at that point where he lost control most often, when he twisted it into a circle, and while he didn’t get it right every time over the afternoon, ending up being hurled either up into the sky or down towards the ground a dozen times, he learned a little more with every attempt.
By sunset, Skyblaze was completely exhausted, so tired he had to sit down in the meadow for a bit and rest his wings, which drooped a bit at his sides from all the hard work  Rainsong descended down and landed beside him.  “Hey Skyblaze.  How did it go?”
“Pretty well,” he replied.  “You’re still working?”
She sighed.  “Just finished up.  They missed a rain shower over by Fillydelphia when some genius sent their clouds to Baltimare, so every pony’s been trying to get everything back on schedule,” she replied.  “I’ve been hauling clouds over there so they can do a storm to make up for the lost rainfall all afternoon.  I was about to go home and saw a tornado, figured it was you,” she winked.
“Who sent the clouds the wrong way?”
“No idea, but it wasn’t me,” she chuckled.  “Sooooo, wanna grab something to eat?”
“Why don’t you come eat dinner with us?”
“Sure, I never say no to your mother’s cooking.  She’s better at it than mine,” she admitted, which made Skyblaze chuckle.
“Your mother makes great pies.”
“It’s just everything else she can’t cook very well,” she retorted, which made him laugh.  “Ready to go?  I’m starving.”
“Yeah, I’m rested enough to get back up to Canterlot,” he said, his wings starting up and pulling him off the ground.
Rainsong was often enough of a dinner guest to have no problems fitting in at their table.  She sat beside him at the table and enjoyed some carrot and sweetgrass cassarole, one of his mother’s favorites, and caught up with everyone.  She wasn’t just his friend, which was why she was so accepted at the table.  She often went out to the parties with Prism, not that she enjoyed high society, but she did enjoy being with Prism and wearing fancy dresses.  Rainsong was a bit of a tomcolt in some ways, but she did love frilly filly things.  She and Prism planned their next party, an art luncheon and suarè hosted by one of the high society unicorns, while Skyblaze pondered the day’s practice, particularly his work on the Tornado Twist.  He felt like he’d made real progress today, even if his success rate for a full attempt dropped to 71%, but that was mainly because he was experimenting a little to try to find the best way to do the trick, trying out different approaches rather than sticking with the way he knew worked…just didn’t work every time.
It was his thoughtful expression that probably prompted his father to speak.  “Don’t make too many plans for tomorrow, Skyblaze,” he warned.  “I need you tomorrow.”
“Where am I going?” he asked.
“Manehattan, there’s a shipment of rather rare star amethysts ready for us.  I got a Pegasus Express letter about it just before the shop closed.  I’d rather something like that be carried by you rather than shipped by train.”
“No problem, Dad.  Where am I going to pick them up?”
“At the Blue Diamond Brokerage,” he answered.  “You’ll be taking some fire rubies and some diamonds, we’re executing a trade.”
“No problem, Dad,” he replied.  It wasn’t the first time he’d carried something expensive, rare, or valuable…and in the air, there weren’t many things with wings that could catch him if they had thievery on their minds.
“Star amethysts?  What are those?” Rainsong asked.
“They’re a very rare gem.  They’re like regular amethysts, but they have a white starburst pattern in them.  Princess Celestia sent a new commission, I think we’re making something for Princess Twilight.  Amethysts are her color.”
“I think it’s so exciting, you do so much work for the palace,” Rainsong grinned.
“It wasn’t always that way, Rainsong,” Shimmergem chuckled.  “We worked very hard to make the shop worthy of doing commissions for the Princesses.”
“And when are you going to introduce me to Princess Celestia?” she asked Skyblaze.
“Just do it the way I do it, Rainsong, crash into the gardens not long after sunrise, when she does her morning walk,” he replied, which made Rainsong laugh.  “I think the constant threat of pegasi crashing in her garden makes her daily walk exciting.”
“I don’t see why she puts up with your shenanigans,” Shimmergem said with an amused look.
“Speaking of shenanigans, I haven’t crashed for two days.  Surely Canterlot thinks that something is wrong.  I think I have to do something about that,” he replied absently, which made them all laugh.
“Don’t you dare, Skyblaze!” Silverchain warned, though his expression made his words completely insincere.
“And what kind of shenanigans did you have in mind, friend?” Rainsong asked lightly.
“Oh, make sure you’re awake around sunrise tomorrow and you’ll see,” he replied.