//------------------------------//
// Summer Snow and Sassy Griffons 
// Story: Skyblaze 
// by Darkest Night 
//------------------------------//

	He had plans for today.  Lots and lots of plans.
Bursting out of his window even as he put his goggles on, he started his usual morning flight, careening along the wide avenues of Canterlot like a pegasus possessed, the regulars on the streets below simply holding their hats down as he streaked by and waited out the gust of wind that always followed him.  After doing ten laps along his usual routes, he turned up the wide thoroughfare that led to the main courtyard by the palace, turned as soon as he came out, and ascended at an angle until he was up against the steep mountainside.  He raced up the side of the mountain—more like a cliff than anything else, given how steep it was—weaving and spinning to avoid ledges and rocky outcroppings that broke up the smooth slope, flying all the way up to the permanent snowpack at the top of the mountain.  The air that high up was cold, thin, forcing his wings to work harder to maintain his speed.  He turned in a slow curve once he reached the featureless snow, knowing where he was going because he was one of the few pegasi that ever came up here, to the top of Canterlot Mountain.
The mountaintop wasn’t as featureless as most ponies believed.  It had quite a few really interesting things to see, from the Old Stallion In the Stone, a rock formation that looked remarkably like a curmudgeony old stallion’s disapproving scowl, to the treacherous Icicle Pass, a ravine gouged into the mountain on the south side that went halfway down to Canterlot that held the mountain stream that supplied the town with water, the water gushing out of a deep furrow just over the city and forming a waterfall that drained into a wide pool at the base of the mountain.  That pool then formed a canal that ran through the city, and then formed another waterfall when it reached the edge of the city and dropped into the abyss below.  There were several other feeder gulleys that were narrow, twisting, and treacherous, which Skyblaze figured were once other ways the stream flowed before it changed to where it was now. It was his attempt to race one of those gulleys that got him a broken wing last year, losing control as he tried the most dangerous one, the one that had the stream, and crashing into one of the towers of the palace.  Because it was the most narrow, twisting, and treacherous of all the gulleys branching off the ravine, Skyblaze had named it Doom Gulley.  There was also the Ice Cave, a large tunnel through the ice and snow near the top.  How it was formed he had no idea, but it was smooth and rounded inside, the tunnel circular in circumference and with gradual, gentle turns and twists, almost looking as if it had been melted out of the ice by hot water.
He’d never tried anything like this before, but he knew he could do it.  And he also had to work fast.  If any pegasus on the weather team saw him once he got started, they’d try to stop him.  He made a wide, looping turn over a flat area of the mountaintop, merging with his own red trail as he flew a perfect circle, then he sped up, going faster and faster and faster.  The wind started to follow him, whipping in a tight spiral inside his flight path.  If he was higher up, it would form a tornado, but when he did it right next to the ground, what it did was form a dust devil…or in this case a snow devil, or what he called a snow-nado, a tornado of snow.  Snow started to pull up from the pack under him, swirling around inside his creation, more and more and more, until there was a column of swirling, shimmering white spinning merrily inside his path.  He banked out really far to the east, his wingtips cutting a line in the snow under him as he swung around in a banking turn, then he created a shockwave of snow behind him as he accelerated with incredible speed, dragging snow behind him in his air wake. He started to spin in a corkscrew as he picked up more and more speed, grinning with anticipation and excitement, feeling the adrenalin, the cold wind whipping and biting at his ears and mane, the goggles over his eyes shimmering as the sun reflected off of them for a split second before it went behind his snow-nado.  He drove straight into the heart of his snow-nado in a corkscrew spin, piercing it with his body, and the snow within his snow-nado was sucked out by the spinning air wake behind him, the white of the snow mixing with the fiery red trail of light that proceeded him.  He kept his corkscrew spin going as he veered over the flat edge of the plateau near the mountaintop and rocketed down the side of the mountain, more and more snow dragged into the wide fan of swirling white behind him.  He raced below the snow line, avoiding the ledges and the outcroppings, then just as he reached Doom Gulley, he changed course so abruptly that the light behind him looked like a sharp corner rather than a tight curve.  He leveled out and slowed down, ascending over his air wake as it rushed under him, dragging a huge, long column of glittering snow off the mountain and over the city of Canterlot.
The snow slowed down once he disengaged from his creation, and when it slowed, it started to fall down on the city, sparkling and shimmering and scillinting in rainbow colors in the bright sunlight, staying frozen because of the cold air dragged down with it that would let the snow make it all the way to the ground before it melted.  He circled high over the city as he saw his unseasonable little snowstorm fall slowly and gently towards the towers and buildings below, circling lazily down and down, into his snow, spiraling down to all but frolic in the snowflakes, lost in the simple joy of it all.
There was no reason to try to hide.  Every pony knew who did it.  There was only one pony in all of Canterlot that had the nerve to do something like that.  He landed in the courtyard by the palace and spread his wings out to let snowflakes land on them, feeling the tiny little pricks of cold on his feathers, and looked up to watch them drift down.
Of course, there was a price for doing something like that.  The weather managers in Canterlot did not like some young firebrand going and upsetting their meticulous work, even if it wasn’t a real snowstorm, just snow pulled down from the mountaintop and allowed to fall over the city.  Besides, the snow falling out of a clear sky made it far more beautiful with the sunlight refracting off the snowflakes, like a million little rainbows drifting in the morning sky.
A shadow fell over him, and he looked up and to the side to see Princess Celestia.  She had her large wings out just like his, one of them right over his back, her face turned up to the sky as snowflakes drifted and danced around her white coat, over her beautiful wings, into her flowing multicolored mane.  He said nothing, just reveled a bit in the fact that he made her happy, until she leaned her head down beside his, her expression light and playful.  “Run,” she whispered, glancing her eyes to the side.  He looked that way himself, and saw a half-dozen pegasi from the weather team racing towards him, and they were not amused.
He vanished from the courtyard in a fiery trail of bright red without even a word, leaving an amused Princess Celestia in his wake.
It was a good thing he had to go all the way to Manehattan today.  He returned home and enjoyed the bright laughter of his siblings and the helpless chuckles of his parents as he got his saddlebags and loaded them with the gems they were trading for the rare star amethysts.  Rainsong burst into the shop and threw her forelegs over his back, laughing excitedly.  “Now that’s shenanigans!” she blurted, which made his family laugh again.
“The weather team is looking for me, so I better get my tail outta Canterlot,” he grinned.
“But that wasn’t a real snowstorm,” Rainsong protested.  “There weren’t any clouds!  How did you do that?”
“They don’t care.  I made it snow in summer, and they’re hopping mad,” he replied as his father locked his saddlebag for him.  “And that’s just snow from the mountaintop, I pulled it down and spread it over the city to let it fall.  Just use a tornado to get it up off the ground, the drag it down the mountainside.”
“It was beautiful!” Prism gushed.
“I never thought of doing that,” Rainsong said thoughtfully.
“It’s not hard, I’m sure you could pull it off,” he grinned.  “And if there’s two of us doing it, they’ll never stop us,” he added, which made her laugh.  “I’ll make my escape now, Mom, Dad.  I’ll stop in Ponyville for breakfast.  I don’t think the weather team will give me the chance to eat in peace,” he winked, then he turned and zipped out of the front door.
Ponyville was the closest town to Canterlot, and he had actually never stopped there…well, outside of overflying the town to see if he might spot Rainbow Dash.  She still lived in Ponyville, since a pegasus could live in any town near Cloudsdale if that pegasus was a Wonderbolt; the Wonderbolt training grounds and their young flyer’s academy were on the mountain directly underneath Cloudsdale.  It was only about half an hour away from Canterlot by wing, about the same distance as Canterlot was from Cloudsdale, with  Cloudsdale being about fifteen or twenty minutes north of Ponyville, and that was if he was dawdling.  He could probably get there in ten minutes if he was serious about it.  He circled down once he spotted a diner and landed, a nice little place with mushroom-like tables outside, and was happy to see that it was open.  They really seemed to have a lot of apple dishes on their menu, so he ordered some apple fritters.
“So, you trying to spy on the competition?”
Skyblaze looked over and saw Scootaloo landing right by him.  She was giving him an amused look.
“Breakfast,” he said, pointing at the waiter.  “I couldn’t get anything to eat before I left home this morning, and I have to go all the way to Manehattan today.  Ponyville’s the closet place that’s not far out of the way, and I’m hungry.”
“Manehattan?  I’ve always wanted to go there.”  He looked just to her sides, one after the other.  “What?”
“Your wings look like they work to me,” he said lightly as the waiter trotted off.  “If you wanna go to Manehattan, go to Manehattan.”
“Well, I don’t know anyone there, or where anything is.”
“Exploring is half the fun,” he replied as she trotted up to his table.
“What’cha going to Manehattan for?”
“Delivering for my parents’ shop,” he said, shrugging his shoulders to make his saddlebags move.  “I do it all the time.  Saves them money shipping things on the train.  And since I get to go all over Equestria, I love to do it.”
She chuckled.  “And you get lots of exercise,” she noted.
“I look it as flying endurance training,” he smiled in reply.  “How goes your routine?”
“I have it set, just practicing it.  You?”
“Same.”
“So, why couldn’t you eat breakfast in Canterlot?”
He chuckled.  “Oh, just being me.  I’d gone two whole days without crashing into anything, so I had to keep the city entertained.”
She laughed.  “So you really do crash a lot.”
“On a daily basis,” he admitted.  “But you don’t get better if you play it safe.”
“That sounds familiar,” she laughed.
The waiter brought back his breakfast far faster than he expected, and it smelled pretty good.  Scootaloo sat on the other side of the table as he started to eat, watching him a second, pushing her magenta mane out of her eyes.  “So what’s it like to deliver things?”
“It’s not as bad as ponies think,” he replied.  “I’ve been to every town in Equestria, except this one.  Ponyville is so close that it’s cheap to ship things on the train, so they don’t need me to deliver here.  Anyway, my parents don’t mind if I’m a little late getting back, well, unless I went out to pick something up they need, so sometimes after I deliver something I look around, check out the town, and if I go there a lot, I’ll see what’s changed since the last time I was there.”
“You’ve been to every town in Equestria?”
He nodded.  “I was in the Crystal Empire a couple of days ago, and Dodge Junction the day before that, and Manehattan the day before that.  Mom and Dad do business with ponies all over the kingdom, and I’m the lucky pegasus that gets to carry everything around.”
“What do they do?”
“They make jewelry,” he replied.  “I deliver the pieces they finish, and pick up the supplies they need to make it, if it’s something unusual.  You know, something they can’t get in Canterlot.”
“That does sound interesting.  Way more than I do around here,” she complained.  “I work on the weather team, just like most of pegasus ponies here.”
“You don’t have to, you know,” he told her as he wolfed down another apple fritter.  “Nothing says you have to work on the weather team.  My best friend’s parents own in a spa in Canterlot.  It’s really popular too, since they use wingpower to dry their customer’s manes and tails, and that makes them extra, I dunno, poofy.”
She laughed. “Poofy?”
“The Canterlot ponies have this idea that a pegasus-dried mane looks better, and there aren’t all that many pegasi in Canterlot.  So Rainsong’s parents’ salon does a lot of business.”
“They use their wings to dry hair?”
“It may not be flashy, but they do good business,” he shrugged.  “They had me try doing it once, filling in for Rainsong’s mother when she was sick with the feather flu.  Bad idea,” he noted.
She burst out laughing.  “Too much wind?”
“Oh yeah,” he nodded.  “The poor unicorn looked like she’d been run over by a tornado.”
Scootaloo laughed even louder, pounding her hoof on the table.  Skyblaze wolfed down the last of his apple fritters, then pulled a few coins from his saddlebag and set them on the table.  “Gotta go, was nice to see you again, Scootaloo.”
“You too, Skyblaze,” she replied as his wings picked him up into the air.  “I’m looking forward to kickin’ your butt at the competition,” she grinned.
“Promises, promises,” he retorted, then he turned and ascended, getting back on the path to Manehattan.
He was a little too preoccupied with practicing his routine while on the wing to Manehattan to worry about his time, going out of his way to practice cloudbusting on any poor innocent cloud that happened to be close enough to detour to it, and getting him a lecturing from a couple of pegasi who were herding one of the clouds he busted to join to others to form a rain shower.  He reached Manehatten just after noon, and flew directly to the Blue Diamond Exchange, which was on the docks.  The Blue Diamond Exchange did a lot of business outside Equestria, with the griffons and the horses of Saddle Arabia across the sea, and even more mysterious and exotic citizens of the world.  Gemstones were plentiful in Equestria, so the ponies of the exchange traded those gems for items of value and quality from other lands, since gems were not plentiful in those other lands.  It was also why Equestria often had dragon problems, them coming from the wild, unexplored lands south of the Badlands, since they would come to Equestria to eat the gems that were often just buried below the surface of the ground.  Many of the goods that came through the exchange ended up in Canterlot, like the popular and expensive rugs and carpets made by the Saddle Arabian master weavers, or silk from Pony-Ya used in fashions.
If it was rare, hard to find, or very valuable, odds were the ponies of the exchange could find it.
Skyblaze walked along a large room filled with ponies who sat behind desks, either writing in ledgers or inspecting goods, heading for the desk at the end of the room, where the earth pony Fair Bargain sat, a bunch of gemstones and bits spread across his desk.  Fair Bargain was a fairly well aged earth pony, coming up on being old, but he was still spry and active, with lucid brown eyes, a healthy beige coat, and a dark mane with just a few strands of white in it here and there.  He looked up as Skyblaze flitted up to him, his wings keeping his hooves off the floor—usual for him—and smiled expectantly.  “You’re a little late, at least for you, Skyblaze.”
“Yeah, I got a little delayed.  Do you have the amethysts?”
He nodded, opening a drawer and pulling out a small leather satchel.  He opened it and spread its contents on a clear place on his desk, showing Skyblaze a couple dozen light purple gemstones with white starbursts in the center.  Star amethysts.  He scooped them back in the satchel and closed it as Skyblaze landed in front of the desk, then unlocked his saddlebag and pulled out the canvas bag.  Fair Bargain opened it and spread that across the desk, inspecting the diamonds and emeralds one by one.  “Exactly as Silverchain described,” he nodded, then pushed the satchel of amethysts to him.  “You be careful, Skyblaze.  There were dragon sightings in the mountains near Manehattan, and you know they can smell gems from miles away.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve had to contend with a hungry dragon, Mister Bargain,” he said easily as he locked his saddlebag.  “But I’ll swing a little wide and give myself some distance from the mountains, just to be safe.”
“Good thinking, young stallion,” he nodded.  “Have a safe flight home.”
“I will,” he replied as he picked himself back up off the floor, turned, and flew out.
On the way back, he decided it was time to stop neglecting some of his far-flung friends out in Equestria.  He really had to get out to Twoshoes to see Gedwin and Gwendi.  They lived in a griffon village called Twintalon, which was just on the other side of the mountain where Twoshoes was located, nestled on the southern side of the Foal Mountains, which was a east of Canterlot.  The two of them were friends with several Twoshoes pegasi, so they weren’t uncommon sights in Twoshoes.  Twintalon was one of the few griffon settlements in Equestrian territory, home to about 60 griffons, a small enclave that had moved from their homeland a couple of generations ago, and Princess Celestia had allowed them to settle in the Foal Mountains.  Twoshoes had literally sprung up because of Twintalon, the griffons trading with enterprising pony merchants who set up shop close to them, so there was a lot of interaction between ponies and griffons there.  Gedwin and Gwendi were pretty okay as griffons went, maybe a little arrogant and boorish, but otherwise alright.  When he took trips to Twoshoes to pick up gems his parents bought from the prospectors there, he went up into the mountains to see them.  He was somewhat lucky that he was one of the few pegasi that the griffons of Twintalon didn’t mind hanging around.
Skyblaze intended to invite them to Cloudsdale for the competition, since they were two of his best friends.  He hadn’t seen them for a couple of weeks, his parents hadn’t done any business with any of the eastern Equestrian cities lately that required Skyblaze to fly there, then he was too busy preparing for the competition to drop by.  They didn’t know that he’d got into the competition, and he’d been so busy preparing for it that he hadn’t had time to get up there.
He landed on the single street in the tiny village of Twoshoes, situated on a plateau at the southern edge of the base of the Foal Mountains about halfway between Canterlot and Fillydelphia, the street milling with ponies who had moved there and four or five griffons who were visiting from Twintalon.  He wasn’t surprised at all when Gedwin landed in the street just beside him, and then Gwendi landed just beside her brother.  “Guys!” he said happily, bumping his hoof with Gedwin’s closed forepaw, then Gwendi’s.  Gedwin was a little larger than his sister, Gwendi’s beak was a little narrower and her eyes were a little more almond-shaped, but outside of that, the two of them looked very similar.  That was somewhat normal for griffons, he’d learned.  Though they looked the same to ponies, they looked very different to each other, and he’d been around griffons enough to see those differences.  Gedwin put a clawed forepaw on his shoulder, he put his hoof on Gwendi’s shoulder, and the three of them grinned at each other.  “What’s up?”
“Not much, hoofhead,” Gwendi grinned.  “You on an errand for your parents?”
“What do you think?” he retorted, shivering a little to draw attention to his saddlebags.  “How are you guys?”
“Fine.  We flew out to Canterlot yesterday to find you, but you weren’t there.”
“Why didn’t you just land and ask my parents?  They knew where I was.”
“We don’t know where your shop is, kadoink,” she added playfully.
“You coulda asked, you know,” he protested.
“Us?  Ask?  Who do you think we are, ponies?” Gedwin said arrogantly, then laughed.  “We heard the news, Skyblaze, major grats!”
“The competition?  Yeah, thanks,” he replied.  “That’s why I’m here, to tell you guys.  Guess it’s a moot point,” he grinned.  “I could also use something to eat.  I left Manehattan without lunch. I figured we could all grab a bite and catch up.”
“So, you gonna feed a couple of hungry griffons or what?” Gwendi asked.
He laughed.  “Always mooching a free meal off me,” he teased, and they all walked over to the little café in Twoshoes and took a seat at one of the outdoor tables.  Twoshoes only had four pegasi living there, the rest were all earth ponies, but the café catered to the griffons, who preferred to eat outdoors.  “How did you find out?”
“We heard from Stormbuck.  He’s in the competition too, he said your name was on the letter they sent.”
“Oh yeah, he was on the list,” he recalled.  Stormbuck was one of the four pegasi from Twoshoes, and the pegasi in Twoshoes knew the griffons of Twintalon Village, so that wasn’t much of a surprise.  “I was glad to see it.  That means that Twoshoes is finally gonna get on the map.  I think most of Equestria doesn’t even know it’s here,” he chuckled.
“Yeah, so we flew down there yesterday to find out why you didn’t come tell us,” Gwendi accused with a grin.  “I’ll have apples.  Lots of apples,” she told the waiter.
“Same.  Apples,” Gedwin added.
“Just bring a basket,” Skyblaze chuckled.  “I’ve been seriously busy the last week or so, between doing work for the shop and getting ready for the competition,” he said honestly.  “I’m amazed you’d brave coming to Canterlot, though.”
“Pshaw, griffons are fearless,” Gedwin said airily, which made Skyblaze laugh.
“Oh really?  you know, my parents want to meet you, so why don’t you put that griffon fearlessness on the table and fly back to Canterlot with me.”
“Sure!” Gwendi said immediately, before Gedwin could reply.  “I wanna see your shop and meet those friends of yours, Rainsong and Windrunner!”
“This’ll work out, I can introduce you to Rainsong, and you can meet my parents.  Rainsong has always been curious about you two.  I’m afraid Windrunner’s still in weather school, so he won’t be there.”
“We can go no sweat, but we can’t take too long.  We do have to fly back before it gets dark,” Gedwin warned.  “Mom and Dad’ll kill us if we’re gone all night.”
“No problem.  You guys are great flyers, we can get there in two hours tops.  I guess I can slow down for you,” he teased.
“Oh, it’s on now, pegasus,” Gedwin grinned.
“Soooo, what’s been going on in pony land beyond Twoshoes?” Gwendi asked.
“For me, same old same old,” he replied.  “Well, outside of getting into the competition.  I’ve been practicing for it almost every minute that I’m not doing deliveries for the shop.  That’s why I haven’t come down to see you guys lately.”
“We can understand that,” Gwendi said as the dusky brown pony waiter brought a large basket of apples and set it on the table, then took the bits Skyblaze offered.  He didn’t think much of it as the two griffons started wolfing the apples down without much in the way of manners…but they were griffons, their concept of manners was very different from the refined Canterlot unicorn.  He probably wouldn’t be taking his griffon friends to the fancier eateries in Canterlot, they’d cause a social scandal  Griffons were the rough and tumble sort, and the ponies of Twoshoes were familiar with them.  Their lack of manners just made them more fun to be around, in Skyblaze’s opinion.  “So, nothing major?” she asked, sending a few pieces of apple flying from her beak as she talked with her mouth full.
“Nope. How about you two?”
“Same old for us,” Gedwin replied.  “Still doing our challenge trials.”
“You’re still not done?”
“Nope,” he replied.  “There’s six of us doing them at the same time, so we have to wait for our turn.”
“How many have you finished?”
“Five for me, six for mister overachiever here,” Gwendi replied, nudging her brother.
“Cool, you just have two to go,” Skyblaze said to Gedwin.
“Yeah, the two hard ones,” he replied.  Griffons had eight challenges they had to pass before they were considered adults in griffon society.  The eight challenges revolved around aspects of village society and a griffon’s daily life, and they weren’t all physical in scope.  One of the trials was growing a garden and harvesting enough food to feed all the griffons on the village council for a week, and another was a demonstration of hunting skills.  Unlike ponies, griffons didn’t only eat plants, but they never hunted in Equestrian territory, for they understood the special relationship between the ponies of Equestria and the animals that lived there.  They restricted their hunting to outside Equestria, flying down to the wild area known as the Badlands for their hunting expeditions.  For their last challenge, a young griffon had to build his own lair, which he would then occupy as his home, moving out of his parents’ lair.  A griffon had to prove that they were educated enough in all aspects of village life to not be a burden on the village, able to live on their own and contribute to griffon society.  Griffons were very no-nonsense, and Skyblaze could appreciate some of their customs.
“So, the hunt and the lair building?” Skyblaze asked.
Gedwin nodded.  “I begin the challenge of the hunt next week,” he replied.  “Gwendi is still doing the challenge of the recital.”
“I botched it,” she admitted.  The challenge of the recital was an oral history test, for a griffon had to prove that she knew the history of the griffon race and the village in which she lived to be considered adults.  “I totally blew the entire Post-Stoneclaw Era.”
“Ouch.  At least that’s the only part you have to do over,” he said compassionately.
“Thank Ironfeather,” she said with an explosive sigh, sending more bits of apple across the table.  “So, I get another chance in four days.  I’ve been studying for it.  I should pass it this time, then I get in line for the challenge of the hunt.”
“Well, I know both of you won’t have any trouble with the challenge of the lair.  I mean, your parents are professional builders.”
They both laughed.  “Yeah, Mom and Dad taught us the family business.  We just have to pass the challenge of the hunt,” Gedwin nodded.  “We don’t hunt all that much, since we spend so much time learning how to build.”
“I’d rather eat apples anyway,” Gwendi said, and she proved it by shoving another apple into her beak.  “So, you brave enough to invite us to the competition?”
“You know I am,” he replied.  “I’ll need all the support I can get.”
“What, why?”
“Because Scootaloo’s in the competition,” he replied.  “She was trained by a Wonderbolt, so she’s the pegasus to beat.”
“Well that seems unfair,” Gedwin noted, eating another apple.  “What’s a pegasus trained by the Wonderbolts doing in a competition where the winner gets to train with the Wonderbolts?”
“It’s not like that,” Skyblaze said.  “The winner gets an automatic invitation to the Wonderbolt Academy for their one week training course.  You can still get in and take the one week course without winning the competition, it’s just that winning is an automatic invite.  They don’t just take whoever wins the competition and train them as a Wonderbolt.  And Scootaloo wasn’t trained by all the Wonderbolts. She’s a friend of one of them, Rainbow Dash.  She grew up around her, so Rainbow Dash taught her.”
“Oh, okay,” Gwendi nodded, reaching for another apple.  “So, want us to find this Scootaloo and break her wings for ya?”
He laughed.  “I can win on my own, thank you very much,” he replied.  “You guys should have applied for the competition.  I’d love to see a couple of griffons out there showing what they can do.”
“We’d embarrass the entire pegasus race,” Gedwin said loftily, which earned him a grin from Skyblaze.
“I’ve seen you fly, you’re not that impressive,” he teased.
“Did you hear something, sis?  It sounded like a mosquito,” he said to Gwendi.
“More like a gnat,” she replied teasingly.
“Gnats can bite very hard,” he warned, which made both of them laugh.  “But seriously, you gonna be there?”
“Yup, we’ll be there,” Gedwin promised.  “We’ll be rooting for both you and Stormbuck.”
“We’ll both need it,” he chuckled.
The three of them went through the entire basket of apples in short order, and since his friends didn’t have all day, they flew straight on to Canterlot.  Both of them were very, very strong flyers, with as much stamina as him, but also a lot of agility and grace, and they passed the two hours flying to Canterlot talking about their challenge trials, the upcoming competitions, and the scuttlebutt of what was going on both in Twoshoes and in Twintalon.  As soon as they flew over the edge of Canterlot, he descended and landed on Gem Street, quite a few unicorns looking in surprise as two griffons landed with him, then he took them into the shop.  His parents and siblings were a little surprised to see two griffons filing into the shop behind him.  “Mom, Dad, guys, this is Gedwin and Gwendi,” he introduced.  “They flew home with me to meet you.”
“Well, the griffons in the flesh, it’s good to meet you,” Silverchain said, advancing to the counter and offering his hoof.  The two of them shook it as they looked around.
“Wow, you weren’t kidding.  Your whole family are unicorns,” Gwendi noted.
“Would I kid about that?” he chuckled.
“We don’t hold it against him,” Prism grinned as she walked up to them.
“He may be the son of unicorns, but he’s all pegasus in here,” Shimmergem said, touching his chest with her hoof.
“Yeah, he’s definitely a good flyer,” Gedwin agreed, nudging him a little.  “For a pony, anyway.”
“Yeah, keep convincing yourself that you won that last race, Gedwin.”
“Gwendi helped you win,” he replied airily.  “She wanted you to feel good about yourself.”
“So, you’re off racing when you’re supposed to be making deliveries, are you?” Silverchain asked lightly.
“Buuu-steeed,” Gwendi teased.
“I do the racing after I drop off the packages, Dad,” he replied smoothly.  “Then again, it’s so easy to beat these two, the races never last long.”
Gwendi swatted him with her wing, which made his family laugh.
Skyblaze was quite impressed at how easily his family accepted his two rather rough-mannered friends.  He’d told them about them, though, warned them that griffons weren’t as socially cultured as Canterlot unicorns, so his mother especially was able to roll with the punches as Gedwin and Gwendi said a few borderline rude things and made some pretty direct and not entirely complementary observations about being griffons living in Equestria.  They stayed and chatted for nearly an hour, going upstairs to drink tea and eat some cake that his mother had bought earlier that day.
“We can’t stay any longer, we have to head back home before it gets dark.  It’s a good two hours back to Twintalon from here, and we have to be back by sunset,” Gedwin said.  “It was nice to meet you all.”
“It was our pleasure.  You can sit with us during the competition, we’d be honored to have you there with us, watching Skyblaze mop the floor with the other pegasi,” Prism said with a grin.
“Now you sound like a pegasus,” Gwendi grinned, which made Prism laugh.
“They do have some swagger, we’ve noticed,” Silverchain said, giving Skyblaze a sly look.
“We call it being too full of himself,” Gedwin replied.
“Flying isn’t for the timid.  It’s why griffons suck at it,” Skyblaze taunted, which earned him another swat from Gwendi’s wing.
They left the shop, and just when he figured Rainsong was going to miss the chance, she landed in front of the shop.  She gave the two griffons a surprised look, then smiled brightly.  “These must be Gedwin and Gwendi!” she said without even as much as a hello.
“Rainsong!  We were afraid we’d miss you,” Skyblaze smiled.  “Yes, these are them.  Guys, this is Rainsong, my best friend in Canterlot.”
“She looks just like you said she does,” Gwendi noted.
“She’s cute for a pegasus,” Gedwin agreed.
Rainsong grinned.  “Well, if Skyblaze told you I’m cute, then I guess I should be flattered,” she winked.  “He’s told me so much about you two!  I’ve always wanted to meet you, but sometimes it’s hard to get away.”
“He said you work in the weather department?”
She nodded.  “And since I never know when he’s going to Twoshoes, I never get the chance to get the time off to go with him.”
“I don’t even know when I’m going to Twoshoes or Manehattan or Fillydelphia or Baltimare half the time,” he chuckled, mentioning all three larger towns since Twoshoes wasn’t far out of the way when he went to the three coastal cities.  “Mom and Dad tell me where I’m going while they’re giving me what I’m delivering most of the time.”
“We don’t have much time, so why don’t you guys fly out with us?  We can talk on the wing, then you can turn around and head back before it gets dark,” Gwendi offered.
“Good idea,” Rainsong nodded, opening her wings.
The four of them rose up over Canterlot and then headed just north of east, along the mountain line, as his griffon friends got to know Rainsong.  He’d told them about her, so they had a familiarity with her, and it wasn’t long before her bubbly, charismatic personality had done its work.  Both griffons were laughing and carrying on with her as if they’d known each other for years.
“It’s getting pretty late, you two had better turn back,” Gwendi said as she looked at the sun, which was now very low on the horizon.
“Yeah.  You two will get back with time to spare,” Skyblaze said.  “So will we.”
“Okay then, we’ll see you in Cloudsdale at the competition if you don’t wander by before then,” Gedwin said.  Skyblaze drifted over and bumped his hoof with Gedwin’s clenched forepaw, then did the same with Gwendi.
“You better not embarrass us out there or we’ll pretend we don’t know you,” Gwendi threatened, a grin on her beak.
He laughed.  “Stormbuck would love that,” he replied with a wink.  “Tell him I said hi, will ya?  He’s a pretty cool pony.”
“We will,” they promised in unison.  “Was nice to meet ya, Rainsong,” Gwendi added.  “You’re even cooler than Skyblaze said you were.”
“So are you two.  I’m definitely gonna find the time to come over to Twoshoes real soon.”
“Lookin’ forward to it,” Gedwin said with a nod.  The two of them continued on, and he and Rainsong banked around and headed back to the west, back to Canterlot.
“So, what do you think?” Skyblaze asked.
“That what I’ve heard about griffons is all wrong,” she replied.
“For most of them, no it’s not.  But Gedwin and Gwendi are two of the coolest griffons you’ll ever meet.  They’re not as conceited as most griffons.  That’s why they’re so well liked in Twoshoes.”
“No doubt,” she nodded.  “So, what are other griffons like?”
“Way more arrogant,” he answered.  “Particularly with the unicorns and earth ponies.  They see anything that can’t fly as lower than them.”
“Ahhh, they’re like that.”
“Yup,” he agreed.  “But Gedwin and Gwendi aren’t like that.  They’re pretty cool.  Their parents are the griffons that build and repair the public buildings in their village, and they went down to Twoshoes to talk to the earth ponies, you know, compare building techniques, learn a few new tricks.  So they don’t see earth ponies quite the same way.  They appreciate what they can do instead of looking down on them because they can’t fly.”
“Okay, they’re getting cooler and cooler every minute,” Rainsong chuckled.
“I’ve only known them a few months, but I like them a lot,” he added.  “I met them the first time I went to Twoshoes to pick up gems for the shop.”  She gave him a long look.  “What?”
“I just realized something,” she replied.  “You know a lot more than I thought.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re the only pony I know that knows like every town in Equestria, and knows Princess Celestia, and knows all about the griffons, and knows all about flying.  When did you get so smart?”
He laughed.  “When Dad started letting me make deliveries,” he grinned in reply.  “Most ponies don’t think I’m very smart.  All they ever see is me laying at the base of some wall somewhere.”
She laughed raucously.  “That’s your fault,” she winked.
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” he admitted.  “Guess my unicorn heritage is showing a little.”
She laughed even louder.  “I guess something rubbed off on you,” she grinned.
“My folks will be glad for that much.”
They got back just at sunset, because they flew slowly so they could talk, landing just before it got too dark to see.  They landed in a safe place, the large courtyard by the palace, and walked along the street that led to both their houses.  They said their goodbyes at the corner of Gem and Moon Streets, Rainsong heading down Moon street to her house while Skyblaze turned onto Gem street, passing by street lamps being lit by themselves at sunset and extinguished themselves at sunrise, part of the old magic that infused many parts of Canterlot.  Then again, given so many unicorns lived in Canterlot, it was no surprise that there was magic hidden here and there in plain sight.
He’d lost the entire day to work and seeing his friends, but that was the best way to lose practice time.  He hadn’t seen his griffon friends in a while, and he was happier to see them than he expected.  Though he was friendly enough, he didn’t have very many good friends.  There were a lot of ponies that he knew, and some he knew better, but there were only four ponies and griffons outside of his family that he would call a good friend.  Rainsong was his best friend, had been since they were both foals.  Windrunner was also a very good friend, but he was younger than him and Rainsong, and he was currently in the last semester of weather school over in Cloudsdale, so Skyblaze hadn’t seen him for a couple of months.  Weather school was pretty demanding, and Windrunner devoted his every waking moment to studying, to the point where he lived in Cloudsdale so he didn’t lose time flying back and forth to Canterlot to attend school.  He’d get to see Windrunner at the competition, they’d have the day off to attend it. Gedwin and Gwendi were very new friends, since he’d only known them for a few months, but they were very good friends.  He and the griffons had just clicked the very first time he’d met them.
It wasn’t that he wasn’t friendly, it was just that he was different.  Since he didn’t go to magic school like most Canterlot foals his age, he didn’t know very many unicorns his age very well, and those that did know him could never get past his high-energy and mischievous personality, which was not how they were raised to behave in proper Canterlot society.  It only got worse because he and Rainsong were more or less segregated from the unicorns and few earth ponies in Canterlot by their school.  They left Canterlot completely for flight camp, and they stayed in the dorms in Cloudsdale for weather school until they were strong enough flyers to fly back and forth from Canterlot to Cloudsdale, something Windrunner preferred not to do.  Weather school was demanding, far more demanding than most of the unicorns in magic school realized, so he and Rainsong spent most of their time not in school studying.
It took far more skill than the unicorns understood to make the weather work so smoothly, and the concept that weather was easy was aggravated by the fact that the weather in Canterlot was almost always sunny, always beautiful, with only very light rain showers to keep the plants in town thriving and the occasional blanket of light snow in the winter purely for aesthetics.  They had no idea how hard it was to manage the weather everywhere else, where they couldn’t see it, and every pegasus had to have the basic skills to manage the weather anywhere else but Canterlot, where only the appointed pegasi on the weather team were allowed to do so.
So, the combination of the unicorns of Canterlot not really knowing that much about pegasi compounded with Skyblaze’s reputation in Canterlot for being out of control and a little bit crazy didn’t make it very worthwhile from a social sense to get to know him.  Prism avoided being pinned to him due to the fact that she was so amiable and sweet-natured.  They didn’t hold Skyblaze against her, but to her credit, she didn’t tolerate her friends making fun of him.  She thought he was a little too hyper herself, that he could seriously tone down his mischief, but he was her brother.  She knew why he crashed into things on a daily basis, where the other unicorns didn’t care to understand the full story.
Skyblaze didn’t mind all that much.  Rainsong was his best friend, Windrunner and the griffons Gedwin and Gwendi were very good friends, and as long as he had them, he could do without most of the rest of them.  He’d take three friends that truly understood him over twenty that only pretended to.
So, while he only had a few friends, the ones he had were good friends. And that was the best kind of friend to have.