Saffron Ree

It didn't seem like forever anymore. Two years slipped by and I had my twentieth birthday without much fanfare. I kept studying all the extra stuff besides flying and spent all the rest of my time in the sky.

Well, when I wasn't at home. Goldy was a bit of a wingful, so I tried to give Dad a break whenever I could. "We'll be fine, Dad." Goldy was balanced on her hooves, on my hooves, while I was laying on my back.

"Riley—"

"Riley will be fine too. I have Sudden coming over later and we're going to be talking all about my exam. I promised Riley she could listen too if she's quiet." While Goldy wobbled and walked on my hooves, I moved with her so that she just wobbled around in place. She was adorable as heck. "If you make me tell you to go again, I won't. Then you'll have to stay here looking after Riley and Goldy instead of having a fun night out."

He looked at me like he'd argue, then Dad snapped his mouth closed and sighed. "Thanks, Saf."

As Dad turned for the door, I saw Goldy was charging her horn while looking at him. "None of that now." I reached a wing up and booped her nose—startling her so that her concentration broke and she stared at me in surprise. "Yeah, I booped ya. What're you going to do about it?"

What she was going to do about it was laugh and jump at my head. I didn't catch her in time, but it wasn't like I had a sharp horn or anything. What I did notice was a smell. "Of course you would just after Dad left."

Picking her up from my face with one wing, I tucked her against my side. "You got a stinky, don'tcha?" Her answer to this was to giggle. Carrying her to the nursery (the downstairs bedroom), I changed her quickly and got everything smelly stuffed away. "I didn't have to do any of this with Riley. I was just too small then and didn't really know what was going on anyway."

When she looked up at me, her big eyes gleaming with love and intelligence, I felt my heart melt. "Dinner's in another hour. Even your best look isn't going to make me break Mom's rules. Sorry." Her horn started to glow again, and before whatever she planned could happen, I lashed out with another boop. Only this time I missed.

With a loud pomf sound Goldy disappeared. I wasn't too worried, given I felt a 2-year-old-foal-sized weight settle on my back. "Huh. I wonder where she went?"

The giggling on my back, as I ignored Goldy and made a point of looking around the room, made me smile way more than it should have. "Is she under the basket here?"

I must have picked up everything in the room and looked under it before I heard the front door open and close. "Oh! That must be her now!" Goldy was laughing hysterically by the time I got to the door and looked out into the living room. Riley was looking at me like I'd gone crazy. "Have you seen Goldy? I was changing her and she got a spell off before I could boop her."

Since Riley was staring at my back, it was a bit of a giveaway that Goldy was there. She wore her most droll expression when she said, "Saf, she's on your back."

"Is she?" I turned around in a circle like a dog chasing their tail. When I was facing Riley again, I shrugged my wings. "She wasn't there."

Riley managed to look at me for nearly three seconds before her stern expression melted and she began giggling.

"What? I just said I couldn't find our sister! Where is she—?" I cut off short because I felt Goldy climbing up my mane and onto the top of my head. Rolling my eyes upward, I stared down her nose. "Oh, there you are!"

"You're crazy, Saf," Riley said once her giggles died down. "Mom and Dad out again tonight?"

"Yeah. Sudden will be over soon. She's going to be drilling me on formations again." Lowering myself to my belly on the floor, I let Goldy wobble and stumble her way off my head to stand beside me. When she started to march toward the toybox, I crawled over there too and spread my wings out to relax while she built a block tower around me.

A knock at the door some time later heralded Riley shouting, "I got it!" Which was good. If I'd moved my head, I might have made Goldy cry.

I could hear Riley's hooves stomp up to the door followed by her opening it. "Saf, it's Sudden. Come in. He's the pair of wings underneath the one-half scale model of Canterlot."

"Thanks, Riley. So, Goldy, do you have a pegasus under there?" Sudden's voice made me smirk, but I still wasn't going to destroy Goldy's tower. "Do you think you could move all the blocks so I can get him out?"

"Buh!" Goldy's reply was vehement, but then I noticed some light filtering down through the spire above me. It was Goldy's pale whitish aura lifting away blocks.

I was in no hurry. Goldy slowly unstacked blocks until I could see the light in the room through my closed eyelids. Then a tiny hoof poked me on the nose.

"Boo!" Goldy, her horn still alight, drew her hoof back from my face.

Sitting up, I watched as she started stacking all the blocks back with her horn, and when that failed a moment later, started using her hooves.

Sudden pranced her way over the couch and sat down on it. "She's only two and your parents are already letting her use her magic?"

"That's Moon Dancer's doing. Mom and Dad asked her about raising a unicorn, as well as the normal sources, and they liked Moon Dancer's way better. We don't try to hold back her magic unless we're doing something important—like changing her." I nodded toward her where she was trying to use her magic to move blocks but it was sputtering. "Moon Dancer already said she's a full year ahead of any other unicorn foal."

"Your parents trust her a lot? Moon Dancer that is."

I watched Riley run back upstairs and turned my attention back to Sudden. "Oh, yeah. I mean, she taught Dad how to do magic, and now she's teaching Riley. Hey, have you eaten?"

"Yeah. I picked up something before coming over. I didn't want to impose or anything. I know how cool your dad is at getting fish and stuff." She elbowed me with her wing. "So, get your food, get your little sister fed, and let's start getting this stuff squared away for your big day tomorrow."

The big day. Yeah, when the Young Fliers compete with other young foals in the Cloudsdale Young Fliers Contest. I'd have to be competing with foals years older, but I'd talked Surprise into letting me enter it. "Yeah." Standing up, I walked over to where Goldy was. "You hungry?"

Her head turned quickly to look up at me to reveal excitement in her eyes. "Ah! Ah!" She raised her hooves at me for a pick-up.

Reaching down with a wing, I scooped Goldy up and set her on my back. "Well, come on. I'll warm up a bottle for you and make a sandwich."

As I walked into the kitchen, I noticed Sudden looking at me strange. I was about to ask her what she was thinking when Riley came running down the stairs. "Yeah, yeah. You hungry too?"

"Yup! What're we having?" Riley reared up at the bench and tried to peek over the counter.

Riley had gone through a bit of a growth spurt. She no longer looked like a tiny foal, but more like a miniature version of Mom but with legs that still looked way too big for her body.

"I was thinking of some toasted sandwiches. What do you want on yours?" I opened the breadbox and started pulling out the loaf Dad had baked earlier in the day. I wound up making cheese, spinach, and egg for myself and some cheese and spinach for Riley. Goldy's bottle needed a little time in a pot of hot water to bring up to temp.

Busy as I was, I didn't miss Sudden peek around the door. When my eyes drifted toward her, she pulled back again. Okay, so whatever she was up to, I'm sure I'd find out soon enough. I got Riley and Goldy their meals and then sat down to eat mine.

There was always something energizing about eating protein-rich foods. Eggs and fish were my main two sources, but sometimes Dad got other things. The spinach was good, though a little less crunchy than I normally liked, but the cheese was hot and gooey—which was all that mattered.

"Uh! Uh!" Goldy's cry had my attention. I reached a wing out and tipped her bottle up a little higher. Her legs were strong, but she couldn't quite get enough lift (sitting in her high-chair) to get the last third of the bottle.

She was going to be better than me at multitasking, eventually. Having two hooves and two wings to grab and move things was great, but she'd be able to do it with just her mind.

Picking up the last of my sandwich with my free wing, I munched on it slowly, pondering how awesome ponies were and how cool it was to be one. It kinda hit me as funny that I thought that now, when I thought back to the start of all this.

I'd hated the idea of this. Of becoming a cute little pony like the toys my sister would brush endlessly. Ponies are people. We're not toys. We.

Yeah, I'm a pony.

"Saf? You've been staring at that last crust for like five minutes, and Goldy finished her dinner ages ago." Riley wasn't just talking to me, she was poking me in the side with her hoof.

"Yeah." I stuffed the last bite of my cold sandwich in my mouth, chewed, and swallowed it. "Just thinking about how annoyed I was coming here. It was so stupid."

Riley snorted and carried her plate to the sink. "Yup. You were such an idiot about it. You should have just gone with it."

"Goin' a little far there, but you're right. When I started flying, though, it was like a switch. Flying is what I've wanted to do my whole life, I just didn't know it until I could do it." I gave Riley's mane a good rub with my wing—which got an annoyed squeal from her—then I turned to Goldy and lifted her out of her highchair. "And you, all that work with your horn wore you out, huh?" She was asleep and dreaming whatever dreams tiny fillies have.

I carried her through to the nursery and set her down in her cot. She woke briefly as I put her down, looked up at me and smiled before closing her eyes again. Okay, so she had me wrapped around her tiny little hooves, but I could live with that.

Turning on the baby monitor, I slipped the alert bracelet around my cannon and left her to sleep. When I left the room, I noticed Sudden looking at me intently for a moment before her expression changed to curiosity. "What's up?"

"Nothing." Sudden sat up a little straighter. "So, let's go over formations again."

I hadn't really had much trouble at all with the written exam—the first part of the 3-part test. My head was full of the patterns I wanted to do for the solo flying section, however, because I wanted to be the Best Young Flier, and that meant showing off.

All the Wonderbolts had a signature move, each one tailored to the pony who flew it. It was the one bit of solo flair that they really engaged in. Nearly half of the nine judges were Wonderbolts—and I knew for sure they'd recognize their own stunts.

In front of me was some forty year old filly who stood way taller than me. She walked forward to the edge of the cloud and started her performance. The stadium had some clouds to buck and some hanging rings—all things for foals to show off their prowess with either basic cloud manipulation or pure flight skills.

She was, I had to admit, an amazing flier. She zoomed through an imagined race course like it was nothing, even arced up to buck the clouds away, but it wasn't until just near the end that I realized what she'd done—she hadn't used an ounce of pegasi magic.

Then, when she was gaining altitude, I could feel the pull of her magic. It wasn't just for show, but part of it was her making sure we all felt that she was now going to use her magic. A crash-dive seemed the order of the day. With her magic humming around her, she crashed through every cloud on her way back to the stadium—steering only with the tips of her wings and magic.

When the ground (well, the cloud that formed the ground of the stadium) rushed up to meet her, she snapped out her wings and stopped on a dime—and the ground. Okay, I needed to completely forget what she did so I could do my own thing perfectly.

"Up next we have a real young colt from the Young Fliers Program looking to make a name for himself! Fillies and gentlecolts, put your hooves together for Saffron Ree!"

I wasn't as strong a straight-line flier as the filly had been, but I was probably half her weight and had the same wingspan. There was a particular stunt that I knew sergeant Surprise loved—and was her signature move. If I were as old as the filly before me, I'd need magic to pull it off. But, with my wing-to-mass ratio…

With barely more than a casual flap of my wings I shot into the sky. It was such a rush to go up so fast and so suddenly that it almost felt like gravity reversed. For the next bit I needed just the right kind of cloud—which wasn't present. Tilting forward and on an angle, I started a high-speed spin that my wings kept adding more and more speed to. A hurricane of air was spinning about the one cool spot I'd noticed on my assent.

Cold, low pressure point plus spinning air got me a tornado that would sustain itself for a few seconds while I worked its energy into the right cloud. When I had it worked up enough, I shot out the top and bucked a cloud down into the spout.

The effect was immediate. The energy of the twister siphoned electrons from the cloud and into the cloud-floor of the arena. The tornado fell apart just as the cloud hit its critical point and I flew between that cloud and the ground at just the right moment as the blast of lightning shot down—and right through me.

With the crowd screaming in my ears, I let the green burn of plasma and coronal discharge from my primaries. Corporal Thunderlane's favorite stunt.

One by one I worked through each of the stunts. They weren't easy on the best of days, but stacked one after another left me fighting to hold onto each shred of my magic. A second use of the small thunderhead I'd created was used—at just the right angle—to make it look like I breathed lightning out of my mouth.

Last of all I had just one Wonderbolt left. She was sitting in the judge's box and I could see the eagerness on her face. She wanted me to try, and she wanted me to succeed. But there was no hope in hell that I'd make a Sonic Rainboom.

I had a plan, though, and I hoped it would fool her right up until the moment she realized what I was doing. All the previous stunts that'd used lightning had degraded my little thunderhead, but now it was time to give it a final kick.

Flying up high, making it look like I was going to try the impossible, I tipped forward into a dive. Speed was key. I needed to sluice through all the remaining clouds one by one and gather their moisture in my wake.

The clouds behind me were intact for now, but even they were moisture and, more, rushing through them like I had collected plenty of electrons on my wings. As I approached the thunderhead—with its intense positive charge—I could feel the electricity dancing all over me. I wasn't just a human anymore, I was a pegasus, and electricity was just another tool to me.

I never actually touched the thunderhead. Several ponylengths from it I could see the tracers leading toward me, and I could see my own stretching to meet them. I couldn't make a Sonic Rainboom, but—

The lightning tracers made connection and millions of amps of current poured into me. I wrapped it all with my magic and shoved it down my tail and behind—into the trail of water I'd scattered behind.

I couldn't see what my arc did, but I heard the echo of the loudest thundercrack yet as it slammed back toward me. Screaming with excitement, I smashed away the thunderhead and plowed down to the ground to drop to all fours—facing the judging stand.

Even now—standing on what should have been an electrically neutral cloud-floor—I could feel the coronal discharge dancing along the edges of my feathers. It didn't hurt, none of the electricity hurt.

And, still giddy and charged with enough electricity to run a house, I felt darkness creep in around me while a little voice shouted, "Out of the way! I'll help him better than you can!"

As the darkness tucked around like a blanket, I realized it was Riley's voice.

"Hey there. Glad you're waking up, the squad-flying bit is coming up, and we'd hate to not get a chance to fly with you."

The voice was familiar, but it felt like my head was full of cotton. I shook my head to clear the fuzz and realized I was sitting beside Rainbow Dash. Right, yes, Rainbow Dash of the Wonderbolts. I straightened up and looked at her, realizing I was sitting beside the judges box. "Uh, I passed out?"

"I mean, you did try to do every single Wonderbolts' best trick end to end and invented something so freakin' amazing I'm still getting chills about it. It was like a Sonic Rainboom made of electricity. Okay, it wasn't magic—like mine—but it was still pretty cool." She seemed pretty proud of something, and it took me way too long to figure out that it was I couldn't pull off her signature. "You know how this works, right?"

I nodded. Of course I did. Two Wonderbolts would each choose a foal to be their wingpony. They would perform a series of established flying maneuvers and judge the foal based on how well they nail it as a wingpony.

Pretty sure I aced the test, and by the sound of it I did super-well on the solo section, but this would be the hardest bit for me. "So, who do I get?"

"We're going to draw names from a hat. It's the only way to make it completely fair." Rainbow held a hat out toward me and gave it a jiggle. "Go ahead, might as well pick now."

I reached into the hat with my wing and pulled out a slip of paper. Holding it up, I saw Spitfire's name on it. This was not going to be easy, and when I passed the slip to Rainbow, she laughed.

"Hey, commander, you're up with Saffron."

"Who else you got, newbie?" Spitfire's tone was an equal measure of curiosity and scorn, or so I thought. I hadn't had enough time with her to know when she was only joking and when she was deadly serious.

Reaching into the hat again, I pulled out a second slip of paper. "Misty Flame." I passed it to Rainbow.

"Dizzy, you got second spot with the newbie." Rainbow put both slips of paper back in the hat and stood up. "I gotta go get the others to draw. I'd get your wings warmed up if I were you—you went and picked the two most skilled fliers in the 'Bolts."

"Yeah," I said as I stood up to start stretching, "but that means they'll make me show off more."

"Huh, good way of thinking about it. When'd you get your cutie mark?" While Rainbow spoke, I was too busy stretching to think too much about it, but a fraction of a second after she was done my brain picked up on something she said.

"My what?" I asked, turning to look at my flank.

It was a single wing with a thunderbolt behind it (the bolt was laying on its side. Looking at it, thinking about it, and even just knowing that it was there made me tingle from the bottoms of my hooves to the tops of my ears. I couldn't hear whatever Rainbow said next—nothing else in the world seemed to matter.

I had my cutie mark.

I really had my cutie mark.

My cutie mark was all about flying and lightning and flying and lightning! It was about flying!

"I've got my cutie mark." It sounded even better out loud than in my head, so I said it again. "I just got my cutie mark."

"That true?" A new voice. I barely registered who it was but a brief glance revealed a Wonderbolts uniform over yellow coat and wings with a two-tone blue mane. My brain didn't need far to go to recognize Misty Fly.

"Y-Yeah! I must have gotten it when I did that lightning finisher." I tried to bring more attention to her, but it was just so exciting to have my cutie mark. Quickly, I swung around to look at the other side. I had two!

"Do you need a minute, newbie, or are you ready to fly?" Spitfire asked.

My head snapped up and forward and I had to wrench my thoughts away from my cutie mark. I was about to fly with the two best fliers in Equestria, one of which would have the say-so about me joining the full Wonderbolts. "Yes, ma'am!"

"Well, come on. We'll slowly fly one lap, then when we pass this box again, we start going for real. Keep your wingtip just behind mine, keep up, and don't throw—Dizzy'll have your other wing. Come on." And, just like that, she launched into the air.

Dizzy, Misty Flame, was looking at me. "This is the point where you take off and take your spot in the formation, then I trail from you."

It was standard stuff, but even as my brain processed it I realized I should be in the air. Not using any magic would be key to lasting as long as I could, and even with whatever kick Riley had given me, I couldn't afford to just black out mid-flight.

Spreading my wings, I brought them down hard and sent myself shooting skyward. Something, though, was way different. I shouldn't have been moving as fast as I was, but it seemed light the air just wanted to make me fly faster and faster and faster!

"Slow down! Ponyfeathers. That cutie mark must have really juiced you up. I can feel magic dripping off your wings. You're not doing that, are you?" Misty Flame asked.

I managed to slow down a bit, but it took a lot of focus to get to a speed that wouldn't see me shoot past Spitfire like she was standing still. "I'm not doing anything with my magic! Is this—Is this how it'll be from now on?!" Pulling in at Spitfire's wing, I felt Misty drew in at mine by the air-currents she disturbed. We were flying even and steady.

"Yeah! Welcome to the flying cutie mark club!" Spitfire didn't even turn her head to look and see I was there. "Those stunts you pulled off earlier, with all your magic, those were pretty impressive—but we do that kinda stuff without using magic, and with a bit of work you can too! Keep it tight, fly steady, and let's put on a show!"

That's when it hit me. This whole thing wasn't about being the Best Young Flier. Spitfire didn't care about that at all. She just wanted to put on a good display of flying. It made more sense now that she was the leader of the best flying group in Equestria.

So we flew through an actual Wonderbolts routine. I screwed up a pile of times, but the important bit was getting back into position and not losing Misty when I did. It wasn't so much the flying that was hard, but keeping my focus on all the cues Spitfire would give when making her turns.

"Alright, we've tortured you enough! Let's wind this up and glide back to the ground!" A moment after saying it, Spitfire pulled into a deep bank that required me to actually gain a little altitude while speeding up just to keep our wings aligned. Beside and behind me, Misty had to work twice as hard to do the same, but we all eventually evened out as the ground approached.

Performing my flare just as Spitfire did, I drew up into a landing still in position at the edge of her wing.

Spitfire slowly folded her wings and rolled her shoulders before turning to look at me. "Now that was some good flying. Have you done many formation drills?"

"Yeah. Nothing like that, though," I said.

"Naturally," Misty Fly said, "since what we just did is an actual flight plan for our next show. You were flying in my spot, you know?"

"Maybe he wants to fly in your spot, Dizzy?" Spitfire poked Misty's shoulder, a big grin on her face. "Anyway, we've seen all we need to from you, Saf. Head to the showers and cool off your wings slowly. You don't want to get a cramp."

I knew all that, but it was still good advice. Snapping my wing up to my forehead, I held the pose until Spitfire returned my salute. "Thank you, ma'am." I turned and ran to the shower block and rushed inside.

"Ahhhh!" I couldn't hold it in. My cutie mark, completely nailing all my stunts, and I got to fly with Commander Spitfire! Cranking on the shower, I couldn't stop from dancing all the way through it.

It was hard to focus on getting clean, but the habits I'd built up made me check my coat, my mane, my tail, and finally go over my wings to ensure there was no damaged feathers.

Punching the cooldown on the shower, I felt the water slowly change from blood-heat down to the same temp as the air. It was the best way to avoid getting sudden cramps, and I loved the showers here for having it.

Turning off and stepping out of the shower area. There was a standard issue air-drier that I stepped up to and turned on.

"Hey, you were the colt after me, right? Saffron Ree?" a female voice asked.

Snapping out of my daze, I looked around to see the filly who'd done her stunts before me. "Yeah, you can call me Saf. That was some cool flying you did."

"Thanks, Saf. You were pretty amazing yourself. I was trying to go with the whole showing off my non-magic flight thing, but you just doubled-down on the magic with yours—and without a cutie mark." She walked over to sit in the middle of the long room of lockers. "I'm Skyclipper."

I switched the machine off and turned around to face her. Her eyes widened while I was halfway around, and I realized what she was staring at. "Yeah. Turns out doing a crazy flying stunt can earn you a cutie mark."

She spread out her wings and turned slightly to show her hip—Skyclipper had a cutie mark of two feathers crossed. "Lucky. Mine's related to flying, but my skill is in looking after feathers. I just thought—"

I don't know why, but it upset me that she was selling herself short. "Really? Not related to flying? A ton of flying is in preparation and keeping your feathers in good shape. You know I wasn't even born a pony? It took me ages to learn how to fly, and a ton of that was just taking care of my wings."

"You weren't born a—Wait! You're that ambassador's son, right? The one who—who entered the young flier program. Okay, now I feel a bit foolish, but look at you! You got a flying cutie mark!"

"And so did you." I gestured with my wing to her flank. "Heck, yours is even better that mine. I can do all kinds of crazy stunts, but it's all solo. Yours is like the ultimate team flier cutie mark."

She stared at me for a moment—that is, she had to stare down a little at me. Tilting her head to the side, she opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by a hoof clopping against the floor at the entrance to the locker room.

"Couldn't have put that better myself. Skyclipper, Saf, you probably want to come out and listen to who won." Surprise was standing there with a tight grin on her face. When we looked in her direction, she turned and walked out.

"I hope you win, Saf. You're pretty cool." Skyclipper turned and walked to the door while I just stared at her. "Well, come on. You heard Sergeant Surprise."

Trotting to catch up, I caught up with her just outside and we followed the loud voices making a speech. Spreading our wings together, we circled up a bit and spotted where the other competitors were.

"Now we're all assembled, I can stop making up things to talk about and pass you over to Commander Spitfire!" Soarin sounded relieved, and wiped his brow with a foreleg—which got a laugh from everypony.

Stepping up, Spitfire looked around all of us. "I look around the competition this year and it scares me—a pile of you are going to be coming for my job soon enough, and I don't know if I'll be able to stop you from taking it. First, everypony, let me hear it for every competitor today!"

All the Wonderbolts lifted their wings in salute, but everypony else (including us) stomped our hooves and cheered. I noticed, now that we were all in one place, that there was some bigger ponies in our group. I hadn't seen any of them fly, but they were probably closer to Mom and Dad's age.

As the Wonderbolts snapped their wings down, a hushed silence fell over the crowd. "The first award, for Best Young Flier, goes to—Cloud Seed!"

One of the older mares jumped to her hooves and did an excited dance in place before she rushed up to the front. "Ma'am!"

"You'll be joining the Wonderbolts as its newest trainee, Cloud. Stand beside me while I announce the other awards." A gasp went up at Spitfire's pronouncement. From what I knew, there hadn't been more than one award before. "We have three extra awards today. The first is Best Technical Display, and it goes to Skyclipper."

Her gasp beside me made me look at Skyclipper. She looked stunned. "Go on, get up there!" I nudged her with a wing.

Trotting to the front, Skyclipper didn't seem to know where to stand. In the end, she stood before Spitfire.

"The dedication to your solo routine, the excellence of your perfect angles and magic-less maneuvers, was almost enough to have you standing where Cloud Seed is. Your team event was where you really shone, however. You fit my right wing like you were born there, and that's why you deserve the Best Technical Display award!"

Somepony had passed Cloud Seed a trophy, and she passed it on to Skyclipper.

"Stand beside Cloud." Spitfire looked back at our group. "The second award is for Best Magic Display, and I don't think anypony here can deny that what Saf Ree did at the end of his solo performance, let alone the rest of that display, was well worth that."

"Wait, me?!" Others around me pushed me forward and shoved me to the front so that I stumbled all the way up to Spitfire. "Me?"

"Yes, Saf, you. You made our job hard. We were all set to give you the third award, Best Blank-Flank, but then you went and got your cutie mark during the event. So here you are for using some of the finest pegasi magic manipulations we've seen while mimicking everything up to a sonic rainboom. Congratulations, Saf."

Cloud reached out with a trophy for me, that I took from her without being able to think straight. I mean, on some level I knew I wouldn't win Best Young Flier, but getting an award for competing with pegasi up to thirty years older than me? Woo! "Thanks!"

"You deserve it. That was amazing." Cloud sounded excited, but then she had won all this. She was going to get to train with the Wonderbolts—I'd be excited too.

I couldn't help but blush and shuffled down to the end of the row beside Skyclipper.

"And that leads to our final award for Best Blank-Flank. Stormrider, congratulations!" Spitfire's shout prompted a foal a little smaller than me to come running out of the crowd. She looked around like she had no clue what was going on. When she spotted Spitfire, however, she whinnied in excitement and pronked over. "Not sure if I've ever seen so much energy in somepony so small. Congratulations, Stormrider, I can see big things coming for you!"

The giggle that left Stormrider made me smile to a ridiculous degree. She stood on the end with her trophy and literally didn't seem able to stop bouncing in place. Spitfire was right about the energy—she'd just flown two big events and was practically buzzing for more.

"That's all we have planned for today. Congratulations to everypony who competed—I hope you and your parents will join us for the presentation next week in Canterlot, where I'll personally be showing off these amazing four ponies to Princess Celestia herself!" Saluting again, Spitfire stood straight as a die. "Dismissed!"

It might have been meant to inspire everypony to scatter, but all that seemed to happen was all the competitors just bundled together and started talking loudly. By the way Stormrider was turning to me, her mouth opening, I figured we weren't going to be any different.

"Ohmygosh! You were amazing out there! When you did that lightning channel at the end, I couldn't believe how perfectly you arranged those arcs! It must have been a bajillion amps running through you!" What didn't surprise me was that I couldn't see Stormrider actually inhaling between sentences—like the words just poured out without stopping.

"Okay, hold up on the chatter you four. We need to arrange for you to attend that presentation. I promised the princess a big event, and she's going to get one." Spitfire passed out envelopes to each of us. "These contain your invitation and an Equestria-wide ticket to bring you and your families to Canterlot for the event. I have arranged for Cloudsdale to be moved there—so if you live here, that should make things easy. Any questions?"

I raised my right wing, and when Spitfire pointed at me I asked, "Are we putting on any stunts for this?"

The reaction in Spitfire's eyes reminded me of seeing explosions in movies. She grinned about as wide as I've ever seen her and nodded. "If you four want to put something together, in a week, I'll make room for it."

"Hey, why don't we give these to our parents now and go for a fly together?" Cloud Seeder asked.

I looked around and spotted Riley and Dad standing off to the side. "Where will we meet up?"

Stormrider giggled and pointed up with one wing. "Just look up. We can circle around until we're all back. The thermals here are amazing!"

Skyclipper shoved her right wing forward. "We should form a group. The Best Young Fliers. Cloud, of course, is our squad leader."

"That'd be kinda cool. Since you're not exactly in competition with us anymore, it means you can lead us." It was kinda silly, but also awesome. All four of us were good fliers, though all for different reasons. I shoved my wing out and on top of Sky's.

"Hey, bring those wings down here!" Stormrider was jumping to try to get his wing on top of mine. When I lowered my wing, he finally got it there. "How old are you, anyway?"

"20. Almost 21. Don't sweat the height, man, you'll grow into those wings." I looked up at Cloud Seeder. "What about it, squad leader?"

She was bigger than all of us—even bigger than Sudden Turn. Shoving out her wing, Cloud held it on top of Storm's. "Alright. I don't know if we're starting something new or what, but I think it'd be cool if we did. Like, if they're going to give out a bunch of awards each five years, I think we should help the best of the best get better, and maybe offer to help the others, too. So, here's to the Best Young Fliers."

It was an infectious speech and it had all of our blood pumping again. Jerking our wings up with Cloud's, we all shouted, "Yeah!"

Breaking apart, I turned in the direction I'd seen Dad and Riley and trotted over. It was strange to think I was literally walking on cloud vapor, but the weirdness of it faded over the last two years. Stopping at the front of the stands, I held out the letter Spitfire had given me. "Hey."

"You were amazing, Saf! When you did all that lightning stuff, you should have heard how everypony gasped!" Riley jumped at me—her growing size adding more weight than I would have been able to deal with if not for the jolt of earth pony magic she'd revived me with earlier. When I caught her with one wing, I felt a new buzz of vitality.

I squeezed her before tossing Riley up and onto my back. "You don't need to keep juicing me up, but thanks."

Dad took the letter and read it. "Well, we don't need these tickets, but you better believe we'll be there." Using his magic, he tucked the letter away. "But tonight we need a celebration. Why don't we all go out for dinner?"

"That sounds great, Dad. Hey, Riley?"

"Yeah, Saf?"

"You up for eating at a pegasus-catered place?"

She bopped me gently (for an earth pony) on the back of the head. "Silly, they all have non-pegasi dishes on the menu."

Shaking my back a little, I wasn't trying to toss her off—not that she'd fall off even in a negative G turn. "Still, I like to make sure you're cool with it. Mom and Dad can—"

"The restaurant I have in mind, Saf, doesn't exactly do menus, but if we send them a request, I think they'll get something special for your big day." Dad used his magic to pick up Riley and carry her over to him. "Are you ready to head back down?"

"I need to hang with some new friends first. I'll be down as soon as we're done." I tilted my head to look up and behind, and spotted Cloud already circling. That's when it hit me that she was and adult if her size was any indicator. "Bye!"

Barely hearing Dad and Riley shout goodbye to me, I almost freaked out at how fast my wings lifted me up. What took a bunch of magic or flapping, now only took one little flick of my wings to launch me.

In no time I moved into wing-second position at Cloud Seeder's side and slowed just enough to continue the lazy turn with her. "Hey! So, uh, if you don't mind me asking, how old are you?"

Her laugh surprised me. "Fifty seven, Saf. Aren't you a bit young to looking at mares yet?"

And once again I can be thankful to pony fur and chill air at high altitude that hides blushes so well. "Just curious. Besides, maybe I am old enough to start looking, but I've already looked enough, sorry." It startled me to say. Had I really said that? Turned down a mare just because I had a thing with Sudden? I guess I did.

"Huh. Not the answer I was expecting, but good for you. I'm not really in the market, anyway, not with wanting to put my all into being a Wonderbolt."

It was odd that I felt like I had time to be in the market, even if I wasn't in the market. But then, being with Sudden was a constant learning experience. She was a Wonderbolt already, so when we talked half the time it was Wonderbolts stuff and flying. "I can do two things at once."

She turned her head to look at me a bit funny, but then burst into laughter. "Saf, you're a pretty clever kid. Maybe I should try doing two things at once."

Stormrider and Skyclipper flew up, the former taking Cloud's other wingtip and the latter coming in on mine.

"So," I asked, "what are we doing?"

"Flying!" Cloud Seeder tipped her right wing, which made me tip as well and Sky follow my lead. On her other side, Storm arced higher and then came down with her wing into the banked dive.

Our formation wasn't perfect, but we held together well enough that we could just enjoy ourselves and put on a bit of a show. I could see ponies below, when our angle was just right, staring up at us and waving, but I guess that was all part of doing two things at once—my main attention was on Cloud and how she was flying.

We kept at it until the sun had moved a noticeable amount across the sky. It had gone from afternoon to late afternoon, and even with Riley's last boost I felt beat. When Cloud banked and brought us down to the clouds, I let out a happy sigh.

"Okay, you just proved why you all got your awards. Meet back here tomorrow at midday, so we can talk about what we're gonna do for our stunts next week." Cloud Seeder saluted us and shot back into the sky.

"That was a lot of fun to just fly. You're pretty amazing, Saf." Skyclipper beamed at me. "I didn't have to watch Cloud at all—you were on her wing like glue."

"Ugh!" Throwing her wings up, Stormrider shook her head. "I kept falling out. I just can't keep up like that without using magic. You all have flying cutie marks, and here I am—"

"Hey"—I tossed a wing over her back—"I didn't even have mine at the start of the day. You'll get yours soon, and with how well you fly—you bet it'll have something to do with flying."

She looked up at me with a wide grin, spread her wings, and zoomed off.

"Wow, Saf, that was pretty amazing." Skyclipper used her wing to ruffle my mane. "I'll catch you around tomorrow, 'kay?" Before I could respond, she spread her wings and zoomed off too.

Alone now, I tried to think of everything that had happened. I couldn't help but turn my head and look back at my cutie mark. "This is the best day ever."

We'd spent every day planning and testing out stunts. The effort of flying fast and hard didn't bother me in the slightest, though. It was like my wings were always charged with limitless amounts of magic—even when they weren't.

It was the night before presentation, and I was buzzing like crazy as I read through the flight-training book we'd put together. Each stunt of the routine was in the book, and I was not going to be the pony who screwed up.

"I don't think I've ever seen you studying a book so much." I had no idea when Sudden Turn arrived, but she walked over and jumped up onto the couch beside me. "What is it?"

Slipping a bookmark I'd made from one of my own feathers in to save my spot, I turned the book over so she could see the cover.

"'Best Young Fliers Flight Manual'?"

"Yeah. Cloud Seeder, Skyclipper, Stormrider, and me made a kinda club. Our first mission is to put on a cool show for everyone tomorrow." Leaning back on the couch, I flipped the book open again with my left wing while I stretched the right one out and around Sudden's shoulders.

"Hey, uh, Saf?" Sudden's voice sounded more serious than amused at our little group or curious about what we were doing.

"Yeah?" When I turned my head back to the book, I felt her lips press to my cheek. My left wing twitched and I dropped the book. My right wing, though, was still around Sudden's shoulders.

"Forgetting the thing tomorrow, how are you feeling?"

"Weird. Like, I noticed Cloud the other day. She brushed off my comment about asking how old she was as if she didn't have the time to date—and implying I was too young. Thing is, I think it might have started." I looked to my right, but not at Sudden. My wing seemed to have a mind of its own and, right now, that mind was set on Sudden.

That's when it hit me. "Puberty."

"Bingo. Welcome to not understanding what's happening for the next ten years or so. Although, you kinda do." She sounded too cheerful—way too bucking cheerful. "And you have a partner in crime."

With my book lost and a mare talking craziness at my side, I only had one option. I slumped against her and let out the longest groan ever. It was perfect, even somewhat musical in the middle. "This sucks."

She moved, unfolded her own wing, and wrapped it around me to hold me there. "Saf, it may seem unbearable, but I'm told that hugs help."

Sudden had a point. Cuddled against her, even if I couldn't stop thinking of wanting to do more than just hug, helped. "Alright, but is this really going to last for ten years?"

"Well, what was it like for you? How long did it last? Did it change as you went?"

I groaned, my mind wandering back. "Yeah, it did change. Lasted from about when I was thirteen to about seventeen. Some weeks it was unbearable not having someone to—"

"Fuck?"

Narrowing my eyes, I nodded. "But it's not that bad. I just—I really want to hug."

"And what are we doing now?"

"Hugging, and it's great, but—" I was about to go on when she turned chest-forward to me and her other wing latched around my back. Then her forelegs closed around my neck and pulled me against her. My heart raced and my brain just completely shut down.

"How's this?"

"This is something I'll be dreaming about tonight, I just know it." Despite how cynical I forced myself to sound, I found my traitorous wings closing around her back and one foreleg slipping free of her wing to hold her too. Holding her helped me even more—probably damned me just as much. "Thanks, Sudden."

"Saf! Goldie needs her diaper changed!" Riley's shrill shout got closer and louder.

I jerked back from Sudden and tried to ignore her giggles. Picking up my book, I noticed Riley come in from the kitchen—probably from the back yard—with Goldie on her back. "She stinks."

"Well, yeah. But to her, you stink." I put the book back down and picked up Goldie instead. Riley was 200% right.

Riley groaned in a way that satisfied me that my joke had gotten through to her. "Ugh. Saf, you're worse than Dad sometimes."

I walked to the changing room and set Goldie on the table. "Hold your noses, because someone's dropped a bomb." Booping Goldie on the nose got a wave of giggles—and then I opened the diaper.

"Sweet Celestia, Saf, is that normal?!" Sudden's shout made me roll my eyes.

It wasn't exactly hard, but keeping my feathers clean made changing her a bit harder than it would have been as a human, but I'd gotten enough practice at it. It could have been worse—Mom could have been stuck with the job.

Cleaning Goldie wasn't too much work, not with the magic cleaner Dad had gotten. In all, I had her wrapped up in a clean diaper and the stinky one in the bin in no time. "There you go, Goldie. How's that?" I tickled her chin until she giggled, then lifted her onto my back.

Turning, I saw Sudden with a horrified look on her face, covering her snout with one wing and Riley's with the other. "Give her a break, she can't help it."

"That doesn't change the fact, Saf, that your little sister is the stinkiest stink bomb in Equestria," Sudden said.

"I wouldn't say she's that bad. I mean, Riley might be a bit pungent at times, but—" I had to duck a cushion Riley threw my way. I needn't have bothered. A brilliant gold aura of magic caught the cushion mid-air.

Turning my head, I reached a wing up to boop Goldie and distract her from her magic. "Got your mojo going, have you?"

One of my loose feathers floated around Goldie's snout. When it touched her nose, her eyes widened and she sneezed. The pillow fell out of her now non-existent magic grip and Goldie started to cry.

Sudden and Riley both seemed shocked at the turn of events. Climbing up onto the couch, I hooked Goldie into the curve of my wing and sat down with her cradled against me. "You don't need to cry, Goldie, it's alright."

"Buh?" Her huge eyes looked up at me with surprise, and then she broke into the biggest grin I've ever seen.

She was so adorable I had to tickle her tummy with my free wing, which made her giggle a bunch.

What surprised me was when Sudden put her wing around my shoulders. She was bigger than me, and had a greater wingspan, which is why it was probably a lot more comfortable than when I'd done the same earlier. "So, what's up with this club, Saf?" She passed me the book with her free wing.

"We're just trying to help each other get better at flying, though we also want to help others get better too. We all want to be Wonderbolts, and that means working together." In my wing, Goldie closed her eyes and curled a little tighter against me.

"Dammit, Saf, you're going to be an amazing Wonderbolt."

"Ugh. You two are getting way too sappy. C'mon, Goldie, you need to sleep and I need to go throw up," Riley said, walking over and shimmying beside me.

I put Goldie on her sister's back. "Thanks, Riley."

"Just don't make me regret it." Walking slowly, Riley made her way to the stairs and then started heading up.

"Watching the two of you together never gets old." Sudden reached out to the book I'd been reading and pulled it over before us. "Until I became a Cutie Mark Crusader, I didn't really get what siblings were. Then, when I joined the Wonderbolts, it was like I had dozens of brothers and sisters."

My brain was filling with questions, but when I opened my mouth only one fell out. "I'm not, uh, a brother?"

The whole world stopped as Sudden turned and looked at me. "Saf, you know the answer to that, but—I've found guys tend to need a bit of a push to actually tell themselves what they already know." I couldn't move, I couldn't think, all I could do was watch as her face came closer and then her lips touched mine. It was soft, brief, and the most affirming thing in my life to date. "Does that help?"

I leaned against her side and stretched my own wing around her back—just under hers. "Yeah. Now, I need to study a bit more to get these stunts just right for tomorrow."

"Okay, let's see what you're doing." Opening the book, Sudden started going through the routine.

The Wonderbolts were putting on their show. There was smoke clouds and thunderous shock waves caused by their stunts, and I almost managed to forget absolutely everything about our own act as I watched them. Gold, rainbow, another gold, two-tone blue, and purple—the mane/tail colors of the pegasi performing the end stunt as they soared down toward us and then arced up. Only, of the five, Rainbow Dash seemed to gain even more speed from the stunt, and then she skipped like a stone.

A huge shock wave of rainbow light spread out from her skip—a sonic rainboom.

Seeing the effect up close, my own imitation of it hadn't been anywhere near as impressive. I started trying to work out how best to tighten up my stunt to better show off my lightning handling, when Cloud Seeder buffeted me with her wing.

I looked up at her. "Huh?"

"You ready?" Cloud asked.

Right. I needed to make the wind we were going to use. It would need to be careful—we didn't want everypony to know our tricks. Sudden had taught me this one last night, so I hoped it would work. With my wings still folded at my side, I called the breeze down on us from above and directed it up again at a forty-five degree angle.

The moment the air touched us, all four of us spread our wings and shot into the sky as a tight V formation. Cloud was dragging all three of us along with her extra wingpower. We took sharp banks left, right, then in a huge loop. It was easy to keep part of myself focused on her while I prepared our next bit of magic.

A halo of sparks started dancing through my feathers as I dried the air out and forced the charge to build. When I had a good amount, I sent an arc of electricity over to Cloud, then from Cloud to Skyclipper, and then I pulled it from my other wing to Stormrider.

With the hum in my ears growing more and more intense, I focused on a point ahead and on the ground. There was nopony within a safe circle around it thanks to a few Wonderbolts who were standing casually nearby.

Stormrider's own charge started to flow over to me, merging with mine and spreading out over our group. We had coronal discharge trailing over our feathers and tails now in a huge purple arc behind us. Fresh ozone poured from our wings until we were directly over the huge grounding pole. We dumped speed into altitude, arcing up into a stall before tipping down as a group.

We didn't need to pump our wings. We were like four stooped falcons with our wings barely out. As we got closer to the ground—each of us adjusting our rate of descent with just the tips of our wings—I could hear the humming growing louder and louder.

The moment I felt a streamer start to stretch out from me toward the ground, I had to push my will through it. Cursive writing was never my strongest method of writing (I preferred texting when I still had thumbs), but this pattern was an important one. Directing the streamer around in twists and turns took almost a hundredth of a second.

Then I pushed the streamer down to earth.

The crack of lightning echoed across Canterlot and shook the ground itself. We hovered there, above the crackling remains of the word Wonderbolts, with our wings spread and burning still more magic to just hover.

I hadn't noticed, but the five Wonderbolts from earlier circled around and flew just under us with their smoke generators running.

Cloud nodded and pointed a hoof toward where the Wonderbolts had landed. "Okay, let's glide down through their wake. You can see the smoke is calm, so it should be safe."

We did, still keeping close in on Cloud's wings. Our glide brought us to the ground slowly, but we still beat the Wonderbolt squad—or maybe they just timed things just right. As soon as we touched down, they swooped in to land behind us.

The crowd of ponies here for the event went wild and cheered. It felt so good to be part of this that I almost fell over when I tried to walk. "Wow!"

"You can say that again! I've never built up that much charge before." Stormrider pranced along at my side. "How'd you get so much buildup?"

"Dry air," I said. "The drier the better. We were literally ionizing the air itself to gain charge. I've been studying some physics stuff from Earth, and it seems to work well enough here."

Cloud nodded from my side. "You said you could build up a lightning bolt without a cloud, so I figured you could. I still want to know how you drew a sign in the sky with lightning. I bet Commander Spitfire will want to know that one, too."

"Yeah, Commander Spitfire does want to know that one." Walking over to us, Spitfire pulled back her hood to reveal her face. "Great show."

Getting praise from Spitfire was something to be really proud of. I'd heard stories from Sudden about how dedicated the Wonderbolts' commander was to perfection in her command. That made me realize that it was Cloud Seeder that was the real target of it. "Thanks," I said, "maybe I could show you how I did it while we chat about my pre-acceptance to the Wonderbolts?"

Spitfire barked a laugh and shook her head. "We'll see, Saf. For now, relax and let's mingle a little. I want to show off the best young fliers in Equestria."

"I didn't think you'd be able to do that writing." Sudden Turn practically thudded against me. "And I think I annoyed the commander by not telling her what you guys were planning."

Cloud stopped on my other side and looked between us. "You know Sudden Turn? Wait, is she who was helping you tighten up your bit?"

One day I would be tall enough to stretch a wing up and over Sudden's back while we were both standing—and make it look casual. Today wasn't that day. "Yeah. I figured if I was going to get a little help with things, why not get it from the best?"

"Just how many Wonderbolts do you know, Saf?" Cloud asked.

"After today, he'll know one more." Sudden looked at Cloud with a smirk.

The way Cloud beamed in happiness was damn near the cutest thing I'd seen all day. She looked ready to prance, but then looked back. "Hey, Storm, Sky, you two coming with us?"

"I think I might go make sure my parents aren't making a scene," Stormrider said.

"Yeah, I might go find my parents too." Skyclipper looked around a bit before waving to us with a wing. She managed to slip into the crowd of ponies gathering to talk to the Wonderbolts. There was another kind of pony here, though. They were kinda standoffish compared to everypony else.

What I completely missed was a princess blindsiding us—mostly because she slipped up beside Sudden. "Ugh, I hate that all these nobles are here," Flurry said.

"Flurry, you are a noble," Sudden said.

"Well, kinda, but not like them." Though she didn't point with her wing and didn't nod toward them, I knew exactly who she was talking about.

There was about a dozen ponies that all wore suit jackets, had ties, or (for the mares) dresses that even I could tell were out of style. "Couldn't you just ignore they're here?"

"See, that would work for you, but Flurry is a princess of eligible age. That means that any stallion who fancies himself a prince would walk over hot coals to get in her favor." As Sudden spoke, Flurry looked more and more annoyed by the facts being laid out.

"I should just get a fillyfriend and be done with all of them." Flurry turned side-on to the nobles, who were now looking our way. "You think that would work?"

"Uh, wouldn't that just mean it would be the mares chasing your tail?" I asked.

"Yup," Sudden said, "and there's more of them. They're also a little more persistent than the stallions."

The way she said it tipped me off to something that I couldn't help but poke at. "Wait, you deal with this too? But you're not a princess."

"Saf, Sudden is one of the best up-and-comers in the Wonderbolts. She's old enough that a noble trying to pick her up isn't seen as cradle robbing, so young and old, she has eyes on her." Flurry spread a wing over Sudden's back. "Though, Mom said there is somepony who a certain pegasus has a thing for."

When her head turned to me, I knew that gig was well and truly up. I opened my mouth to reply, but Sudden beat me to it.

"Can you blame me? You saw the magic he was doing. He's not just smart and a good flier, he has talent too." Spreading her wing over my back, I felt Sudden's feathers grip me and pull me against her side.

"Yeah, I know, but what I'm trying to get across is that people outside of your family and friends are starting to notice that and those people are backing off from you." Sounding a little annoyed, Flurry let out an expansive sigh. "I need to find a stallion."

"Have you looked at some of the studs that have come from Earth?" Sudden asked.

It was hard not to preen myself at hearing that, if not because Sudden was hugging me in public. Was having actual romantic feelings now such a big thing? Well, okay, it probably was. I'd gotten a bit distracted with my thoughts because I realized that both Flurry and Sudden were looking at me like a teacher who'd spotted a sleeping student. "Uh, sorry. I get a little distracted when my fillyfriend hugs me."

Flurry snorted and shook her head. "You'd make my uncle Thorax drunk with that kind of talk, though it is pretty cute."

"Oh, I haven't seen him since I joined the Wonderbolts. How is he?"

"Trying to run a nation on Equestria's border, make friends with everycreature, and survive his own instincts. The usual." Flurry looked a little lost in thought for a moment. "Wait, I don't even know if he's come to Canterlot in the last few years. He should really be introduced to Clair."

"Work stuff, right?" I asked.

"Yeah. Can't help it, brain always focused on this now. Don't you know, I'm probably, maybe, possibly going to wind up ruling something in a few thousand years if Mom gets bored."

Yeah. That's one way to put the world in perspective. I was annoyed because I was a too young to be considered a full adult by anyone in this world (except Sudden), and here was Flurry who was going to have all these great negotiating and politics skills that she can't use for longer than humanity has had its current civilization.

Hell, I might live longer than the USA has even been around. Life was complicated.

Ruffling my wings, I looked around for the food table and spotted one that was covered in seafood. "I might go grab something to eat, all that magic use takes its toll."

Author's Note

Twilight Velvet: In our world, it was once valued with gold and other precious metals; now we wrap our sandwiches with it. What is the current status on aluminum processing in Equestria? Might make for a good business opportunity.

"It would have been highly lucrative. Emphasis on past tense. Princess Celestia and the president's office have both contacted me—as being the first business to straddle both worlds—to establish a protocol and rate control for importing and exporting money and material. This has required me to assay both markets. As products become requested or offered, my researchers apply a value to it for each side—or a restriction code—and it is traded at the proper rate." Somehow, Twilight Velvet looked both excited and sad. "There is oversight at both governments, of course, but so long as I am permitted to charge a conversion fee—I would be a lunatic to attempt to take advantage of this."

So I do this "Ask X" thing. X can be any character within the story. You can ask them anything and they will definitely, hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories, and they will answer the best question in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right character to answer. Try to keep it to one question per post!

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