A Week In The Life Of Wing Nut

Friday

The alarm clock wakes all three of us at once with its terrible noise.

"0600!" Vertigo yells.

"Eehhhhhh!" I yell back. Aerodrome remains silent.

"We have to be at the stadium in an hour and a half!" She continues to yell.

"Leave it to you to be thinking numbers and yelling things the second you wake up." I say to her. Aero groans loudly, clearly annoyed at how noisy we are being. I lie still for a minute, before gently brushing Aero's hoof off of me and climbing out of the bed. Vertigo is already up and packing her saddlebags full of papers, and also our feather and coat paint. She's clearly just as excited as me about today.

The three of us walk down to the lobby and we take a seat at an open table. The breakfast area seems to be filled with ponies who are getting up early to be the first at the fair. Vertigo is practicaly vibrating in her chair with excitement. Aero and I are eating more premeasured bowls of cereal, wearing our goggles on our heads, and listening to the same TV as yesterday.

"...Crystal Fair being set up now. There are carts rolling in, stands and tents going up, and stores all over either decorating or closing."

"This day is going to be great." Aero says.

"Every day is going to be great." I add. "Soon you'll be my wife." Vertigo sighs impatiently and Aero looks at me lovingly.

"Let's go!" Vertigo yells at us, making everypony in the room look at her. "We have to be at the stadium in an hour and ten minutes."

"Yeah, Yeah." I say as I take another bite of my cereal.

"Why aren't you eating?" Aero asks Vertigo.

"Eating is for the weak." is all she says.

1. We've just arrived in the green room. There are multiple other teams already here, some of them I recognize. Then I see a pony in a light blue and yellow jumpsuit.

"Wonderbolts..." I growl.

"Well, if this show is a competition, we've already lost." Aero declares sadly. "They're the fan favorite, whether they're the best or not."

"Maybe we'll beat them this time." Vertigo says hopefully.

"Maybe." I say, not really believing myself.

Vertigo unpacks the black and yellow paints and places them on the floor in a quiet area of the room. Aero and I head over to them, dip the tips of our front hooves in, and begin to apply the larger, less important splashes and lines. Five minutes later, our white coats are left untouched for the most part, but under our eyes we have a black and a yellow stripe, our feathers are now black with a yellow stripe, the base of our wings are a yellow fire-esque pattern, and we have black painted lower legs with a yellow stripe through them.

"I love this paint." She says to me. "It looks fantastic on me."

"What about me?" I ask.

"Nah. It doesn't go with your mane." she tells me jokingly.

"That sucks. I guess I'm going to look bad until the dye fades out in a few days."

Shining Armor walks into the room suddenly, and everyone bows.

"I told you guys to look at me as a manager." he says dissapointedly. Everypony bowing rises and gathers around him attentively. "I just wanted to let you know that the show will start at 9:00. The spectators will be seated starting at eight, so please be back in here by then." The entire room seems to nod simultaneously. "That is all." The room begins to buzz with excitement again, as the group disperses and Shining Armor approaches Aero and I.

"Is there a problem?" I ask nervously as he stops in front of us.

"No. Quite the opposite actually." he says, smirking.

"My wife, Princess Cadence, has a special ability to sense and spread love." he begins to explain. "When she was walking around downtown yesterday, she saw you two through a shop window shop deciding to get married. She recognized you from the roster of flyers at the festival today."

"I think I may have seen her too." I respond.

"Huh?" Aero asks.

"She was behind you. Outside the shop."

"Oh." Aero says.

"Anyway, she thought you two were adorable together and wanted to invite you over to the palace for dinner tonight."

"The palace?" I stand in disbelief. "As in, the palace at the center of the entire empire?"

"Yeah." Shining Armor answers. Aero doesn't say anything.

"I... I'll accept." I stutter. "But, we don't have any nice clothes on us at this time. They're all back in Manehattan."

"That's okay." He says to us. "I don't expect you two to have planned on being invited to the palace for dinner."

"We weren't." Aero replies, smiling hugely. Aero and I look at each other, silently confirming that we both want to go.

"We'll come." she answers. "That would be great."

"Great!" he exclaims. "The dinner is at ten o'clock. Cadence will be so happy that you said yes! ...I have to go now. I'll probably see you before then." he happily declares as he trots off towards the room's exit.

"There's nothing that could make today any better." I excitedly say to Aero.

"I can think of one thing." She responds, with a seductive smile.

"I thought the male was supposed to be the pervert in a relationship." I laugh. She stares at me and continues to smile.

1. Change of plans. We are now going to walk out on to the field, every team together, and line up along the edge of the stands. And so we are doing it. As we enter the tunnel to the field in bunches, I hear the ponies in the stands cheering and stomping for us. There are a lot of spectators at this show, based on the volume of the crowd. As we walk out of the tunnel and out on to the field, I see the crowd. There are tens of thousands of ponies sitting in the stands. Over half the massive stadium is filled.

"Oh, my Celestia!" I yell, seeing the crowd as we begin to line up, behind the Wonderbolts and in front of some red and gold team.

"Welcome to the first ever CRYSTAL FESTIVAL AIRSHOW!" the announcer yells over the speakers, causing the crowd to go mental. "Based on the statistics from the ticket counter, we have found out that almost half of the Crystal Empire's entire population is here at this stadium right now!" The voice yells.

"The more you know!" Another, deeper voice sounds over the speakers.

"Anyway... that's incredible!" The first voice yells again. "Over sixteen THOUSAND ponies, crystal, earth, unicorn, and pegasi, are here today for this airshow. I think we've probably got some alicorns in there too."

"This is the largest crowd we've ever performed for!" Aero yells at me.

"I know! WOOOOOOOHHHH!" I scream, rearing up onto my hind legs. the Wonderbolts looking over at me like I'm crazy. I don't care. I'm over them right now.

"We've got ten teams performing here today, and five solo flyers." The announcer with the lower voice begins again. The crowd begins to quiet down a bit. "These flyers and teams have been hoof-picked from the farthest reaches of Equestria to come here and fly for you. They will be flying in order of best, to best of the best."

"Lets hear one more cheer for our flyers today!" The other announcer calls. The audience as well as several of the flyers cheer, scream, and stomp in response.

"If we're doing this from worst to best, and we're right next to the Wonderbolts..." I turn to Aero. "Does that mean we're considered the second best team on the continent?" Aero stares at me excitedly.

"I think it does..." she trails off. Both of us stare straight ahead at the stands in front of us.

"We're not going to wait another moment! Let's get this started. The first team flying today will be the 'Airdancers' team from Vanhoover." A group of 8 ponies wearing flashy ballroom themed outfits begin to walk out towards the center of the field. They stand in a square shaped formation, grab a partner, and wait to begin.

"This team has won 16 medals for precision in the air, and performed in every city in Equestria at least twice. This is their second time in the Crystal Empire." one announcer says.

"Let's begin!" The higher voiced announcer yells. A waltz begins to play over the speakers, and the pegasi in the middle begin to dance along to it.

At the first crescendo in the waltz, the stallions throw the mares into the air, and instead of doing a small jump and coming back down, they launch straight up and fly in huge arches towards the center of the formation. Then they land back down in front of different partners and continue to waltz, still in time with the music. They continue this pattern for several minutes, changing up the jumps with flips, momentary formations, swirling patterns, and multiple times where everypony on the team takes off and flies around for a period. They always come back down, maneuver, and take off in time with the music. When they land for the final time as the music ends, the crowd begins screaming and cheering crazily.

"I can see why they won precision awards." I say to Aero.

"Every maneuver was right on point." she replies, "You know. Time wise?"

"Yup." I laugh at her strange agreement.

"The next team in the lineup today is 'Fly On', a big time team from small time 'Hollow Shades', just West of Manehattan." the announcer says. "Their skill is reflected in how they became noticed, coming out of such a small and obscure forest village." the other announcer says.

A team of 4 in green and white flight suits trot over to the center of the field and stand in a single file line. They launch into the air simultaneously and are already in a formation. They fly in snakelike patterns, one behind the other for most of the show, zigzagging around, performing scissors, and flying loops all together. They break it up in the middle with an aerial game of leap frog, swapping positions and changing the point flyer out. They end the show with a vertical spiral and land back in the same points they started. The crowd cheers throughout the 20 minute performance.

As they return to the lineup, the crowd dies down and the announcers begin to speak again.

"That was a great performance!" The high voice cheers.

"I agree, you know that reminds me of an airshow I saw when I was a colt." the lower voice says. I still recall seeing the pegasi fly through the air, doing all kinds of crazy flips and stunts."

"I love going to airshows!" The high voice responds. "Next in line we have the 'Baltimare Bluecoats'!"

The crowd cheers happily as a group of 5 pegasi with navy blue flight suits and red manes and tails march towards the center of the field, stopping in a column shape. I can't help but notice that the flight suits have a red vest design on the front and tailcoat style tails on the back

"This group from, well, Baltimare" The lower voice begins. "Was founded as an air defense force for Baltimare after Luna's banishment. They have kept their traditions, yet retired from military service after the peace treaty was signed."

"And here they are!" The other announcer yells.

The five of them launch in to the air, one at a time. Each pony that takes off flies in a circle over the line, and when they pass over, the next landed pony in line takes off and joins up behind them. Once all of the ponies are in the air, they bank over the heads of the audience and alter their formation from a staggered column to a vee. Their performance consists mostly of formation flying into difficult maneuvers. They do loops, formation rolls, inverted flying, a delta break, then they do it all over again in a tight diamond formation. When they land after half an hour of crazily difficult flying, the crowd is going insane again.

"Nice performance guys!" one announcer yells.

"Yeah!" the other one joins in. "I especially liked that part where you did the thing in the close-knit formation!" At this, one of the team members looks at the announcer's box and shrugs confusedly, to the amusement of the crowds.

"Hey, Mare!" A voice sounds from the stands behind us. Everypony that heard the voice turns to at least glance at the source.

"Oh, god." I mumble to Aerodrome.

"The waiter again..." she mumbles back as we turn to face the issue.

"I saw you in the paper!" he yells proudly to her. "Aerodrome is such a beautiful name!"

"Thank you!" she yells back unenthusiastically.

"So, I'm excited to see you perform!" he says as if they knew each other well. "It will be good to finally see you in action!"

"Next up, we have the 'Windriders'." The announcer says. Aero and I shush the stallion behind us and turn to watch the show. "They perform only gliding maneuvers. They flap to get up into the air, then they lean forward and glide the entire show!"

"Their performance today may earn them a sponsorship and some shiny new uniforms! Good luck!" The other announcer comes in.

A team of 4 flyers in sky blue suits with cloud patterns walk out and begin to flap straight upward. They hover for a moment at around 30 meters up, some classical music starts over the speaker system, and they begin moving. they all glide gracefully into loops, flips, banks, and the occasional speed boosting downward spiral.

"Are you excited about the show?" Swift Quill interrupts again. Aero and I slowly turn around to look at him.

"Do you want something?" I ask him.

"Shut the buck up!" he responds angrily. "Nopony cares about what you have to say." Aero is now looking at him with astonishment and saying nothing. "Oh... Aerodrome? you're in love with this loser?" he asks her.

"1V1 me skrublord!" I yell back at him in response, barely stifling a laugh.

"I think I will." he says, giving me a threatening look. "How about you joust me in the tournament today at two? The winner gets the beautiful Aerodrome's hoof." Aero bursts into laughter at this.

"Do it." she laughs to me.

"You're on. I'll battle you for my fiancèe's affection... sure." I say as I bust out laughing too. At the word 'fiancèe', he loses some of his confidence and stomps towards the stadium exit resentfully.

"Wow" I laugh, turning back to look at the performers. The wonderbolts quickly look away and pretend that they weren't watching me.

After somehow ten minutes of gliding, the pegasi land gracefully, and they charismatically wave to the audience.

"The 'Windriders!'" an announcer yells excitedly. The crowd replies with stomping and yet more cheering.

"I could probably glide that long. That's easy." I jokingly boast.

"Well, you have huge wings." Aero retorts. "They don't."

"I was joking."

"I know."

The announcers talk for around ten minutes, saying nothing really important except that the next team is 'Down Low' from Las Pegasus. A team of 3 wearing absolutely nothing, making them look like just a bunch of mismatched pegasi, walk out into the field. They launch without letting the announcers talk any longer. They only get around three meters off the ground after take off, and they remain almost that low for the entire show. They have a very Wonderbolt-esque routine, perfoming a lot of maneuver tricks, only they remain under a strict ceiling of ten meters, and they remain at a high speed.

"I'll bet they crash a lot." I say to Aero, getting tired of standing still.

"Probably, if they stay that low at that speed during every single practice."

"Do you remember when we were young, and we were at flight school in Cloudsdale, I was doing that landing excercise, and I crashed into the instructor and sent him flying off of the cloud?" I laugh, suddenly being reminded of it by the performance.

"Yes." Aero looks at me and smirks. "You crash too much."

"No, I don't."

"You've always crashed into everything. All your life.

"Shut up."

1. We are the next team up. So far we've had the 'Airdancers' from Vanhoover, 'Fly On' from hollow shades, 'The Baltimare Bluecoats' from Baltimare, the 'Windriders', 'Down Low' from Las Pegasus, one unnamed griffon team from the Griffon Homeland, and the 'Cloudbouncers' and 'Red Team' from Cloudsdale.

The announcer begins. "And now, second from the top on our list of teams..." I put on my headset for the speaking section. "We have 'The Sky Ninjas', also known as the 'Flying Sky Ninjas'. A much less serious, more laid back attitude kind of team from Manehattan. They have over seventy awards for entertainment value in airshows, and believe it or not, they've only been performing for five years." The crowd goes crazy over this announcement, or maybe they're still excited about the last team. I don't know. Aero and I prance out to the center of the field, turn to face the announcer's box, and stand side by side, ready to begin.

"This is a great team, you kn-" one announcer says.

"Thank you." I interrupt dumbly over the same speakers as them, momentarily flicking on my headset. "Ok, this thing works... Hi." I say as the entire stadium laughs. "...Can we go now?" I ask, Aero laughing next to me.

"THE FLYING SKY NINJAS!" the other announcer laughs into the microphone, signaling us to go.

Aero and I run for a while, then lift up into the air together. We instantly begin a loop, going up, over, and back around. We level out just a few inches above the fake grass at twice the speed as we started at. We lean upward, and gain a little altitude before delta breaking and splitting in to opposite directions. As I bank around starboard to face Aero, the audience begins to cheer again, apparently we looked good on the break. I roll as I pass underneath Aero at high speed, then we both lean upward into hammerheads. We stall towards each other, tuck in our wings, and hug until we are too low for comfort. The crowd loves it. We level out just barely above the ground, and fly off in opposite directions, heading back in the same directions that we broke off into before.

The crowd is doing a constant cheer as we go into immelmanns to face each other again. We turn away from the announcer's box and fly out and over the perimeter of the stadium walls, quickly racing around to the opposite side from where we left the stadium, staying out of sight as we do. Aero Buzzes the announcer's heads from behind, startling them, and begins her solo. I watch Aero fly a series of very difficult flips and spins, going up and down and up again as I orbit the field slowly. She dashes towards me, and in turn, I dash back towards her.

I pass under her at lightning speed, doing 5 yaw rolls as I go, finally leveling out and leaning upward into an up and over. And up and over it was. I feel the momentum push me up, all forces release me, then gravity takes over and pulls me back down. I fly inverted right in front the faces of the announcers and also one side of the crowd, as I bank around, I remember to look straight ahead the whole time. At the end of the bank, I turn and dive towards the middle of the stadium, perform an upward corkscrew, and hover for a moment with my hoof above my head. Aero flies almost right into me, bumps my hoof with hers, and I turn around and launch myself forward after her.

We fly around for a minute, allowing me to get back into a line formation, and turn back towards the center of the stadium. We both begin flying in barrel rolls, using the empty space between us as the pivot point. Five rotations later, we level out and I land carefully on Aerodrome's back. The crowd cheers and laughs contentedly as she swings back and forth with me riding on her.

"She didn't want to do this!" I say over the speakers, generating more laughter from the crowd.

I jump off of her back, fly straight and halt. She dives downward, stops, looks up at me with obviously fake yet comical confusion, and yells at me over the speakers.

"I thought we were taking the dive next!" she yells.

"This performance's quality just took a dive!" I respond. Even more laughter. "...Thank you, we'll be here 'till Sunday!" I say.

Awkward pause.

The two of us dash upward into the sky, causing the crowd to transition from laughter to stomping and more cheering. We fly up, belly to belly, then lean back and break off in opposite directions again. We fly in outward arches and back towards the ground. We reverse the arches, fly back upwards, level out, and pass each other. Following the pass, we both bank around, away from the announcers again, and we join up in formation. After a moment of gaining altitude, Aerodrome leans back and flies upwards over my head in a slow, small loop. I count to two and begin a much faster, larger loop. This brings me up and around right into Aero's flight path. As I pass her from behind, we grab each other's front hooves, open our wings to slow ourselves down, and fall bellies down towards the fake grass. Three quarters of the way through the fall, we lean our flanks downward, line up our back hooves, flap forcefully up, release each other, and level out right above the ground with arches. I slow down quickly and perform a backflip right before I stop, finally landing. Turning around, I see Aero also complete her landing. The crowd goes mental.

"Wooooooooh!" Aero yells into her mic. The crowd quiets down slightly to hear us. "I was the best!"

"What about me?" I ask, trotting past Aero and back towards the team lineup.

"You were a'ight." she responds, turning off her headset. The crowd cheers and stomps boisterously.

"That was the best show of the day right there, ponies!" One announcer cheers. "Lets hear it again for the 'Flying Sky Ninjas!'" The audience gets louder than ever before. The Wonderbolts look slightly nervous as we return to the line.

"Beat THAT!" I say to them as they prepare to go up.