What In Equestria Is The Best Young Flyers Competition?

Sunset licked her lips nervously as she stood in front a large cloud shaped church. She’d be lying if she said the building was ugly. Church wasn’t really a thing Sunset went to.

Sunset trotted up the stairs and her hoof rested on the thick wooden door. With an inhale, she put all her strength into opening it and trotted inside, looking around curiously at the rows of pews and a box in the corner.

Sunset trotted to it, opened the door and sat down on a chair, shutting the door behind her as a slot in the wood between the room she sat in opened.

“Forgive me Father for I have sinned,” Sunset muttered as she moved her hoof to forehead before to her chest, left shoulder back to her right shoulder and she sighed. “I asked a friend last night to do something that goes against everything she is as a pony. I feel horrible.”

Sunset felt a bit uncomfortable and the the priest tugged on his collar. She only really knew the whole confessional thing from Twinkleshine.

“This friend means a lot to you?” The priest asked and Sunset nodded.

“She’s my best friend. I love her a lot. Platonically, of course. I asked her to lie for me and I know how much she despises liars. I should have kept my big fat muzzle shut,” Sunset slumped over and the priest raised an eyebrow.

“If she is close to you like you are to her, I’m certain she will forgive you Princess. A true friend will understand. Say three Hail Marys and five Our Fathers. May the Lord be with you,” the priest said and Sunset bowed her head slightly and crossed herself again.

“Thank you Father.”

Sunset stepped out of the room and admired the paintings around the church as she slowly turned in a circle. Being an artist herself gave her an eye for talent and she stepped closer to one.

“Beautiful,” Sunset muttered quietly and she stretched out her body. A clock dinged and she whipped her head to look at the large grandfather clock in the corner. “Oh crap. I was supposed to meet Mom and Silver Spanner at the weather factory for a tour.”

Sunset shot out of the church, galloping down the cloudy street towards the towering factory in the distance that was pumping out a few clouds and a rainbow was pouring out over the edge of Cloudsdale.

“Sorry!” Sunset shouted as she slide under a pegasus stallion. “Excuse me, coming through!”

Sunset continued galloping fast enough that would make an earth pony proud. Even a few pegasi gave her an impressed look as she jumped and soared through the sky.

“Waaaaaugh!” Sunset screamed and she barely landed on her hooves. “Sweet lord.”

Sunset was glad she decided to take Silver Spanner up on her offer to go on morning runs with her. There’s no way she would have been able to keep running like this prior to becoming friends with the unicorn.

Silver Spanner sat on a bench outside the factory with a bored expression. Celestia trotted behind her as Sunset skidded around the corner panting.

“Sorry I’m late. I was busy,” Sunset panted as she rested her forelegs on the bench. “I was uh doing something personal.”

“Okay then,” Celestia commented and her horn flashed a bright gold as a fiery red crown appeared and rested ontop of Sunset’s head. “We’re on a royal visit. You will wear your crown.”

“Yes mom,” Sunset leaned up to nuzzle Celestia and the tall alicorn returned the gesture. “Wanna try a rainbow?”

Silver Spanner gave her a confused look and Sunset grinned, gesturing to the pool of rainbow liquid next go them.

“Is it good?” Silver Spanner inquired and dipped the tip of her hoof in the rainbow liquid, examining her stained hoof. “Woah.”

“It’s an experience,” Sunset chuckled and dipped her own hoof in the liquid. “Go ahead, we do it the same time.”

Sunset waited for Silver Spanner to lick her hoof first and watched her eyes widen as her face turned red and she swore steam shot out of her ears.

“What the fu-?!” Silver Spanner hung out her tongue. “It burns! Oh wait.”

Silver Spanner scrunched up her muzzle in disgust as she tasted the most sour taste ever imaginable on her tongue. It quickly changed to something cold and she tasted vanilla ice cream.

“Hah huh,” Silver Spanner panted and rested against the pool. “That was horrible.”

Sunset laid on her back laughing as Silver Spanner glanced at her slowly, her eyes falling on her rainbow hoof.

“You knew that was gonna happen?” Silver Spanner asked suspiciously and she narrowed her eyes as Sunset nodded with a red face. “Well, I think it’s only fair you try it.”

Sunset’s hoof levitated a light gray and was shoved in her mouth and she gagged as Celestia watched out, picking up her crown with a smirk.

“It hurts!” Sunset cried and Silver Spanner grinned. “Okay, I deserved that one.”

“Damn right.”

Silver Spanner laughed and her eyes focused on a wall with spray paint and she slowly stopped laughing. Silver Spanner was depicted with Sunset on the wall with a smile on their faces.

“Wow,” Silver Spanner whispered in awe and she stepped to it. She knew Sunset was talented based on the last painting she saw, but she didn’t expect to look around and see herself. “This is incredible.”

“Yeah, it is,” Sunset agreed with a smug smile. “Flanksy spent a lot of time on this one. And I bet she’s sorry about an incident that happened the other night.”

“I bet Flanksy’s friend forgives them as well,” Silver Spanner mused and rested a foreleg on Sunset’s side. Silver Spanner tossed in a nuzzle and cracked her neck. That stupid pain in neck that had been bothering her was gone now. Probably because sleeping with your head at an awkward angle wasn’t always the best idea.

“I imagine Flanksy would be happy to know that if they were here,” Sunset conceded after a moment and Celestia looked between the two.

“I presume you have run into this Flanksy before?” Celestia questioned and the two unicorns shared a look.

“No,” Silver Spanner answered finally and scuffed her hoof against the soft surface. “Never met him or her.”

She felt terrible for lying to the Princess of all ponies, but if it meant keeping Sunset safe she’d grudgingly do it it again.

White Lightning stretched out lazily on the couch with a book held in her lap as she kept one eye on the small white blue racing around her.

“Is Sprinkle Medley going to be joining us?” Cotton Cloudy jumped in front of White Lightning and she gave a startled yelp. “Ooh, what about Rainbowshine and Merry May? And Milky Way. I like Milky Way, he and Raindrops give me candy when they see me but I wasn’t supposed to tell you that so don’t get mad.”

“Yes sis they will be joining us,” White Lightning rolled her eyes. “They always do at the competition, you know this.”

“They didn’t last year,” Cotton Cloudy retorted and glanced at her older sister. “Merry May never showed.”

“That’s because she was going through a break up with her boyfriend and was busy shoving ice cream and chocolates down her muzzle,” White Lightning answered and picked up her book again. “And then she complains about gaining weight and it all going to her flanks. Ridiculous.”

“Colts are gross,” Cotton Cloudy stuck out a tongue and White Lightning chuckled. “Well, except for Cloud Cover. He seems nice.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. Can we go flying? You promised you would take me out,” Cotton Cloudy fluttered her wings and White Lightning glanced at the clock. “Pleaseeee?”

“Fine. Let’s go,” White Lightning stuck a piece of paper in her book and closed it. “Dad! Mom! Cotton and I are going out!”

“Okay. For the love of Celestia, fly safe!” Her mom called back from the upstairs. White Lightning bit back a snarky comment. “And look both ways when crossing the street!”

White Lightning tossed the filly on her back and trotted out the door with a frown as Cotton Cloudy wrapped her hooves around her neck.

“Can you teach me all those fancy tricks you do?” Cotton Cloudy asked and White Lightning glanced back at her sister.

“A barrel roll isn’t all that fancy sis,” White Lightning chuckled and Cotton Cloudy shrugged.

“Anything you do is fancy to me.”

Cotton Cloudy nuzzled her sisters neck and White Lightning gave a content sigh as Cotton Cloudy gave her sister an admiring look that made White Lightning melt like an ice cube left out in the sun. Or ice cream.

“All right,” White Lightning knelt on the cloud and nudged Cotton Cloudy off her back. “You try first and I’ll judge you. Remember, you want enough altitude to properly conduct the barrel roll. If you do well, I’ll show you how to do a loop.”

“Okay. So I go now?” Cotton Cloudy asked and White Lightning nodded.

“Yes, now. You’re not gonna be a Wonderbolt if you question orders like that,” White Lightning nudged her with a wing tip. “Take off.”

Cotton Cloudy fluttered her wings and flew away as White Lightning sat down and watched with a raised eyebrow. Cotton Cloudy reached what she hoped was a decent altitude and looped back towards White Lightning as the older pony started rolling her hoof and Cotton Cloudy nodded.

Cotton Cloudy did a slow roll and White Lightning clapped her hooves together with a smile as Cotton Cloudy tried to land in front of her and went skidding across the cloud face first into a bakery.

“Ow.”

White Lightning bit the middle section of her sisters tail and dragged her out, spitting out her tail and Cotton Cloudy turned around to stare up at White Lightnings impassive expression.

“Landing needs work and you wobbled coming out the roll, but it was decent work. All in all, good job and keep working on it.”

“Okay. Do I get to watch you now?” Cotton asked eagerly and she wagged her tail excitedly as White Lightning smirked before nodding. “Yay!”

White Lightning took an inhale and shoved herself off the cloud fast enough to make Cotton Cloudy shake for a few seconds.

White Lightning felt the wind blowing her mane aside and she closed her eyes for a brief second. Flying high and fast was all she lived for. There’s no point in getting somewhere slow in her eyes.

She opened them and stared down at the blob of ponies before focusing on her sister sitting on her marefriends lap pointing a hoof up at her with Merry May trotting in a circle behind them.

She flew back overhead of the three before nose diving hard at them, pulling out to do an backwards loop over their heads close enough to see the wind blowing their manes aside and Cotton Cloudys cheers.

She landed, shaking off the droplets of water she got from flying close enough to some clouds as she went about fixing her mane with a grin.

“That was awesome!” Cotton Cloudy flung her forelegs around White Lightnings neck. “Can I ride on your back next time?”

“We’ll see kiddo,” White Lightning rubbed her mane and smiled. “Sprinkle, Merry. What’s up?”

“Not much. Just stopping by to make sure you,” Sprinkle Medley poked a hoof into her chest. “Remembered your promise to buy your ticket for the Best Young Flyers Competition. I have my bits here and so does Merry. We’d do it, but we’re still on weather duty right now.”

“Yeah sure. I’ll go now,” White Lightning gestured with a hoof. “Looks like our flying lessons are over for now sis. Merry, can you take her home?”

“You got it,” Merry nodded and leaned down to nuzzle Cotton Cloudy. “If you keep it a secret and be good, I’ll get you ice cream.”

White Lightning pretended not to hear her as she whistled innocently. Spoiling her little sister was something all of her friends had taken a fondness to doing and she wasn’t gonna stop them. She was guilty of the same thing multiple times.

She kissed her sister on the forehead and watched the filly trot off talking to Merry May as the green mare nodded along.

“And remember, no joke books,” Sprinkle reminded her sternly and kissed her on the muzzle. “You taste like clouds.”

“Comes with flying. No joke books, got it. See you around,” White Lightning turned around and Sprinkle Medley flicked her tail against her flank. “Heyo. Save that for when we’re alone, not in public.”

“Fine by me,” Sprinkle Medley winked and flew off to get back to work as White Lightning trotted off towards the coliseum in the distance.

White Lightning dodged a pony as she stared with wide eyes, looking around her at the crowd. It seemed like everypony and their mom was out today.

“Hey uh is there where I can get seats?” White Lightning asked a stallion or tried at least as he ignored her. “Rude much?”

White Lightning hated huge crowds. Most pegasi hated being crowded and shoved in tightly packed spaces of tiny rooms. She flicked her tail and fluttered her wings in agitation as she forced herself to breath.

“Hey,” White Lightning muttered to herself as she watched a stallion trotting past to another booth with a stallion behind it. “Finally, another freaking booth opened to get my seat.”

She left the spot in line and trotted over with a smile.

“Hi there. One ticket please. Decided to get mine early,” White Lightning rested a hoof on the desk and the stallion nodded.

“Here you go. Just fill all this out,” the stallion pushed a clipboard over to her. “And you’re ready to go.”

“Okay?” White Lightning started to fill out the paper. “Is this a new thing for getting tickets?”

“Oh no, this isn’t for tickets. This is for registering to compete. Our sign is broken so we don’t have it up this year,” Lucky Charms waved a hoof and White Lightning froze. “Something wrong?”

“Eh what the hell? What could go wrong? Sign me up.”