Cloudsdale Reunion - Chapter 7

Cloudsdale Reunion

Chapter 7

Seminar

* * *

An hour later, at the ice cream shop just outside the mall,

Rainbow and the rest of the team sat down, all with their ice creams and coffee cups.

They were celebrating the victory over Class D earlier.

Fluttershy had joined them too, as she had nothing better to do,

and she had been one of their main supporters.

"That was awesome!" Rainbow said as they sat down.

"Yeah!" Thunderlane agreed, and raised his hoof for a hoofbump,

which Rainbow replied to by raising her own and bumping his.

Even Gilda looked happier than usual, as she and Tia argued about who had

the best ice cream.

"Obviously strawberry is the best." Tia said.

"Pff, classic vanilla beats every other flavor!" Gilda exclaimed in faked anger.

Everypony laughed.

Crescent had a thoughtful look on his face, and Fluttershy was the first to notice.

"What's on your mind?" she asked.

"Huh?" he said, snapping out of it. "Oh, I was just wondering if Dumb-Bells face still

hurts. I mean, that tackle I gave him near the end was a pretty rough one."

"Well, I walked past him on my way out from the stadium, his lip looked swollen..."

"Yeah, I'm not sure about the details, the tackle happened so fast, but...

I'm pretty sure I might have elbowed his face. I mean, it was a full-body mid-air

tackle, hard to keep track of what hits what." Crescent grinned.

Rainbow turned to Fluttershy. "Hey Flutters, you know the schedules better than me.

That history seminar, the Wonderbolt thing. That's tomorrow, right?

I'm sure that was."

"Yes, that seminar starts just after lunch, so we'll go there when we're done eating."

"Awesome. Speaking of that though, " Rainbow said, turning to the whole table,

"Who else here is going to that? Anypony?"

Gilda raised her talon. "I am. Don't know much 'bout the 'Bolts, but I'm curious.

Figured this would be a good chance to learn more."

Tia shook her head. "Not me. I'm not interested in history, I prefer current Bolts

over past ones. Not much interest in any other history stuff either actually.

I'm more of a futurist, I guess you could call it.. I prefer sci-fi over history.

You know, those space movies, robots, cyborgs, that stuff."

Crescent and Thunderlane nodded. "I'm going." they both said at the same time.

Crescent continued, "Unlike Tia, I'm a bit of a history buff, and I've heard that

the guy talking at the seminar is really good, he's supposed to know a lot of details most ponies
tend to forget or not know about. He's some kind of expert, I heard."

"Sounds good." Rainbow smiled.

"Who's doing the talking at the seminar?" Gilda asked.

"Never heard of him before, but it's a pegasus named Mist." Crescent replied.

"You said he was good, and now you say you never heard of him.

Make up your mind." Gilda teased.

"I said I heard he was, I never said I knew for sure. I heard ponies mention

him earlier, and they said he was an expert, so I just assumed he's good."

"Guess we'll find out once we get there tomorrow." Gilda said,

and returned her focus to the bowl of vanilla ice cream in front of her.

* * *

The next day came quickly. After the ice cream the previous day, everypony

had split up and gone home, or to their hotel rooms, since they were all tired

after the game. Now, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Gilda met up outside

the seminar hall, and Crescent showed up just a few seconds after them.

They all went inside and found seats near the front row, since they were

among the first to get there. As they sat down, a grey pegasus walked up to them.

He looked to be around the same age as them, despite having a white mane and tail.

His eyes were an icy blue.

"Excuse me." he said, turning to the girls, "Is this where the Wonderbolt seminar

is supposed to be? I have not learned my way around these buildings quite yet."

Rainbow nodded. "Yeah, this is it."

"Thanks. Oh, My name is Mist by the way, I am the one who will be speaking today.

Anyway, thanks again, I really got to go prepare my notes and all that."

The pegasus walked away backstage in a hurry.

"Well, that was... unique." Rainbow said. "Looked a bit young to be an expert though,

Don't you think? I mean, he looked like he was our age. Maybe just a year or two

more. How'd he have time to learn so much?"

Fluttershy raised a hoof. "Twilight Sparkle."

Rainbow raised an eyebrow. "Huh? What's Twi got to do with it?"

"No, I mean, maybe he's like her. You know, reading all the time,

memorizing everything."

"Good point."

As they talked, the room filled with ponies and a few griffins, and soon

it was nearly full. Mist walked out on the small stage, and began talking.

"Welcome to the Wonderbolt History seminar, in which I will talk a bit about the

'Bolts. I will include some less-known facts and trivia, and maybe a couple of my own

personal thoughts and theories too, if anypony is interested in that. And since most of

you do not know me, my name is Mist. I used to live here many years ago, but since

then, I have travelled all over Equestria, and while doing so, I spent a lot of my time

studying the Wonderbolts and their rich history. I have spoken to current bolts,

I have spoken to retired former bolts, I have spoken their friends and families,

I have been to the Academy many times, and other bolt-related locations too,

such as training areas, both new and old, and I have seen lots of their shows,

whenever I got a chance to do so. Over the years, I have become a self-taught

expert on the subject, and therefore, I was invited here today to tell you some

things you may or may not know about the bolts."

Everypony was silent as Mist spoke, listening to every word.

Fluttershy looked at Rainbow Dash, and even she was quiet, focused...

She was even taking notes. Fluttershy smiled to herself, thinking Rainbow

reminded her more of Twilight than herself at the moment.

Meanwhile, Mist kept talking.

"...so as most of you probably know, the Wonderbolts were formed just over a year

after Nightmare Moon was banished. It was during the one-year celebration of peace,

that a flight troupe held a aerial stunt show, and it became so popular that the

troupe was officially recognized. They then took the name "The Wonderbolts".

A less-known fact is that before that name, they had other ideas too, but Wonderbolts

was the one voted as the best choice. Other names included "Thunderbolts",

"Blue Thunders", and "Thunder-Wonders". Note how most suggestions were

thunder-themed, probably due to the thunder-trails they create when they fly.

And yes, that has been a thing they do since the start, it is not, like some ponies

believe, something new and modern the recent bolts invented.

The bolt-pattern on the suits is."

Mist made a short pause. "Excuse me, just need to wet my pipes, getting a dry throat

from all the talking..." He said as he opened a bottle of water and took a few sips.

"Now, where was I... Right. The suits. Older Bolt uniforms were... lets just say,

less practical and more intended for parades and such, not for the actual flying.

One of the earliest uniforms looked a bit like the stuff worn by marching bands.

Tall, big hats, flashy heavy jackets, polished boots... I actually had a chance to try

one on once. Or rather, a replica of course, but made with the same materials,

design, everything. The material was quite...anypony wanna guess?"

Rainbow raised her hoof.

"Yes, you, with the rainbow mane."

"Itchy." Rainbow replied, proud of herself for remembering.

Mist nodded. "Yes, that... is actually correct. How did you know?"

"Fashion designer friend back home in Ponyville. She once made some authentic

bolt outfits to help me study for a test to join the Reserves. She mentioned it was

really warm and itchy."

Mist nodded again. "I see. Well, the material choices was not the best.

Fabric did not breathe at all. Later uniforms were made in cotton fabrics,

to address that problem. And the current suits used by todays bolts is

made of spandex, making them one-size-fits-all, instead of having to custom make

suits for every single pony. Everypony still has their own private suit of course,

but now they can be factory-made in a single size instead of custom-fitted.

Plus it no longer matters if you lose or lay on a pound or two, suit still fits."

Rainbow whispered to Fluttershy, "Yeah, Soarin knows about that.

Him and his constant pie-eating." She grinned.

Fluttershy smiled and giggled silently. She had met Soarin' a couple

of times with Rainbow, so she knew what Rainbow meant. Soarin loved pie

almost as much as the Apple family, or Pinkie. Almost.

Time went by, with Mist talking about all sorts of historical things,

such as a few more notes on costumes, a few minutes on old training techniques,

and some details about some old maneuvers no longer used, mainly because

one of them had a 50 percent fail-rate even among the best bolts, and the other

caused one in three flyers to hurl if they repeated it more than twice,

which did not make a good impression on the audience.

"There was in fact one time before it was discontinued, the "Hyper-Roll" maneuver

was performed during some minor political event, some guests from neighbouring

lands where here to visit for some small discussions. Nothing major, luckily, because,

well... Historical documents are a bit vague on exactly what happened, but as far as I

understood from what I read, one of the flyers performed the spins, spun a few times

too many, got dizzy, nearly flew into a stone pillar, and then threw up on a foreign

delegates servant, and very closely almost on the delegate himself too.

We are seriously just talking less than an inch away."

Fluttershy raised her hoof.

"Yes, miss?" Mist said, pointing at her.

"I was, uhm.. just wondering.. How could you know so much?

I mean, intricate details nopony else knows, such as what you just said...

I'm sorry if I'm asking too much, I'm just curious..."

Mist scratched his neck with his hoof and gave an awkward smile.

"Well, actually, most of it, like I said, I pieced together from vague notes,

and the rest I just filled in with my personal theories and conclusions..

It is nothing confirmed, just plausible ideas of mine."

"Oh, I see.. That explains it.. It almost sounded as if you were actually there,

but that's not possible since it was over 500 years ago..." Fluttershy smiled.

"Yes. Exactly." Mist replied. "Anyway, back to the lecture. Does anypony here

remember the name of the first official choreographer for the bolts?"

Roughly half the room raised their hoofs (and talons).

Mist chose a pony at random, in the back.

"Yes, you, the green-maned one."

The stallion replied, with slight hesitation, "uhm.. Captain Easyglider?"

Mist smiled. "almost correct. It was Easyglider, yes. But she became the

choreographer before she became captain. She was commander Easyglider

at that time, and later promoted to captain, but remained the primary choreographer

for a few years as well. After that though, when she was promoted again and became

Commodore Admiral Easyglider, she had too much to do with that,

and resigned her post as choreographer to her daughter."

Even more time passed, and after the lecture had gone on for nearly two hours,

Mist had gotten to Colonel Purpledart, one of the Wonderbolt leaders during the

4th Celestial Era.

"...and a fun fact about Purpledart is that he was actually mostly known for his..."

But at that point, Mist was interrupted by a large pegasus bursting in through the door,

wearing a yellow hard-hat with a Weather Factory emblem on it.

"Everypony evacuate the building right now. Calm and orderly, please!

Relax, and walk out in a straight line, and report to my colleague outside the building.

We're having some trouble at the factory, and we're taking pre-emptive security

measures to ensure nopony gets hurt if something gets out of hoof."

Everypony in the room did as asked, and lined up and left the room, including

Rainbow, Fluttershy, Gilda and Crescent.

Outside, they were met by the weather factory pony they had met when they

first arrived, the one from the Public Relations Department.

Fluttershy gave her a curious, worried look. "Windy Wings, right? Uhm.. What's

going on? That other pony said you had trouble at the factory..."

Windy nodded. "Yeah. Cloud machine is malfunctioning, and well...

Best case scenario, we'll contain the problem. Worst case, Cloudsdale is gonna have

a real storm-of-the-century. We're talking class 8 storm clouds."

Rainbows ears suddenly perked. "Did you say class 8? That's monsoon clouds!"

"Yeah, that's why we're doing this pre-emptive evacuation. We're making sure

everypony in the whole city gets inside the various safe buildings.

This academy has not been cleared as class 8 safe, so we have to relocate

everypony from here to the nearest safe place. Which happens to be the town hall

down the street."

Windy raised her voice, making sure everypony in the area heard her clearly.

"Okay, listen up! I need everypony to follow me, we're going to the town hall.

We have a situation at the factory, and if things get out of control,

we'll have dangerously bad weather. Heavy rain, strong winds, louder-than-usual

thunder and huge lightning bolts. However, if anypony here is a ranking officer

in a weather squad, or a wonderbolt, I'll need you to report to headquarters.

We need every qualified hoof we can get to contain this before it gets too bad.

Everypony else, Town hall."

Rainbow looked at Fluttershy. "Looks like we're splitting up. I mean, I'm a weather

captain, and and reserve Wonderbolt. Plus, I'm one of the fastest flyers in Equestria.

I'll be needed for this."

Fluttershy smiled and nodded. "I know. I'll be safe, I have Gilda and Crescent.

They'll make sure I'm okay, I know it."

"Yeah, we will." Gilda nodded. "Dash, Make sure to fix this, 'K?"

"Don't worry. I'll handle whatever this is. I've been through worse." Rainbow smirked.

And with that, Rainbow flew off at top speed toward the Weather HQ, while the rest

followed Windy to the town hall to get to safety.