Fluttershy convinced Rainbow Dash to take half a day off to accompany her when shopping. The stores where eager to take advantage of the tourist-boost that the Pigeon Run generated, and as such there where a lot of interesting offers on display. The usual quiet dignity that imbued the commercial district of Cloudsdale where rapidly eroding away. There where sales on top of sales and endless advertisements. Some owners had taken to shouting from their clouds like in an old bazaar. Need to relax before the race? Fastwings massage parlour is what you need, ask for the Royal Treatment... Apples on a stick! Apples on two sticks, perfect for sharing! candied apples! Applesauce! Flim & Flam-certified Apple Cider, only the finest apples, may not be completely vegetarian... Could I interest you lovely mares in our latest invention, our newly patented Razorblade Blender, it slices, it dices... Will it Blend? There is only one way to find out... Thankfully, they made their way past Main Street down to Bernoulli Avenue. This was the site of the more upscale shops, who didn't feel the need to resort to fierce advertising (and thus didn't have nearly as many customers.
The fashion of the Pegasuses was slightly more utilitarian than that of the Unicorns. You can't exactly afford extravagance when you are designing clothes for a species with wings, after all. There where one exception to this rule, however, the hats. Thanks to the lightness of cloud-fabric, volume was not a problem, as long as the hats where reasonably aerodynamic. As such, the Cloudsdale hat-makers where probably the only ones who used a wind-tunnel as part of their equipment...
What do you think about this hat? , Fluttershy said, as she tried out a rather futuristic-looking hat with a purple moon-shaped brim in one of the more fashionable boutiques. I... don't think that's your color , Rainbow dash remarked.
oh its not for me , Fluttershy said, its for Rarity, wouldn't it be nice if we could find some nice gifts for our friend while we are here? Cloudsdale is called the fashion capital of the sky after all... That's because it is the only place around here where you can get clothes at this altitude, at least until they invent clouds that can rain socks and ugly hats. Fluttershy gave 'Dash a look filled with doubt.
you don't like it? , she asked.
I like it fine... Rainbow Dash said, just not as a...hat Oh, okay, how about we find Rarity a nice scarf instead?
They went walking down the streets, idly looking trough shop windows for anything that could pique their interest. As they where looking trough the window of a shop that had a large collection of knitted scarves, Fluttershy turned to Rainbow Dash.
You said that purple was not my color , Fluttershy remarked, but what do you think is my color? Uhm, green maybe? Or blue. I don't know , rainbow Dash said Say, what do you think is my color? Fluttershy examined her friend for a while. Blue coat, purple eyes, multicolored highlights in her mane... All of them she concluded.
As they continued along the street, they talked about scarves, then about what, if anything, to wear for the race and finally they started discussing training techniques. Naturally, they had very different ideas, Rainbow Dash's plan for her training was a strict regime involving the gym, endurance training, aerobics and Poni-Chi and Fluttershys plan for training involved... birdwatching.
We're supposed to train, not have a picnic! , Rainbow Dash said, How do you ever expect to be good just by hiking trough the cloud forest? But I heard they have several species of rare birds I want for my life-list , Fluttershy said, and besides, I'm just an amateur, you're the athlete. We'll see each other later then she said as Fluttershy flied back to the house to pick up her binoculars.
On her way to the gym, Rainbow Dash bumped into Tam-a-line. In her eyes, Rainbdow Dash could see the same slight insomnia that was still haunting her. hello! , Tam-a-line said, some party last night, huh? Oh yes , Rainbow Dash said, so what are you up to? There was a slight hesitation.
Is something the matter? , Rainbow Dash asked.
I need a place to crash tonight, alright? , Tam-a-line said, would you help a girl out?"
Sure, but we're going home after the race , Rainbow Dash said.
Oh, that's no problem, at worst I'll only stay for a few days. , Tam-a-line said.
We're down at the Cumulonimbus Docks, Fluttershy is staying with me for the race, but I am sure we got a room you could crash in, if it's just for a few days. Thanks, you're the best!
The ecology of the sky-forests surrounding Cloudsdale deserve a book in and of itself, and in fact, there are several already. The definitive guide was An Educated Pony's Guide to The Airbourne Forests , by Vanilla Wand. It caused quite a bit of controversy among intellectuals due to its highly contested Sequential Formation Theory. The book is highly antiquated by this point, but most of his physical descriptions and analysis have stood the test of time.
To quote:
...Each species of the flora of the cloud have familial relation to one that rest as ground level. It is therefore not preposterous to assume that the clouds where colonized by a sequential process, whereby low-flying clouds would be infected by air-borne spores and form proto-forests at near-ground levels.
These would then bloom into mushrooms and in turn affect the clouds above them, each time displaying a drift in inheritance factors. Over time the lower cloud forests simply withered and died, leaving only those at high altitudes consisting of the most hardy of mushrooms. The few plants that can be found at this attitude where probably planted by birds resting on the cloud or else by wind. Now, some of my critics...
He goes on to respond to criticisms of his idea with thinly veiled insults and threats, all aimed at ponies who are long gone and mostly forgotten by now. It isn't until about page 147 of his book that he gives a good in-depth description of the Cloud Forest:
The South-western Cloud Forest is a solid collection of Cirrus-clouds. The cloud-type is particle-heavy and semi-temperate, but with a higher degree of humus-particles than normal. Its shape and consistency however, is largely formed by an abundance of mycelia going trough the clouds, giving it its characteristic ridge-shape.
Because of the peculiar conditions in place, the fruiting bodies can grow to massive size. The spores create a micro-weather around the mushrooms that results in complex system of fractal-shaped clouds surrounding the top of the sporing body. The cloud complexes almost warrant more study than the mushrooms themselves..
...and that is really just the tip of the thundercloud, the Cloud Forest is simply like nothing you can find anywhere else.
If you had extremely good eye-sight you could probably see a small, yellow and pink smudge somewhere in the fog at the base of the Cloud Forest. Fluttershy had found a pretty good spot, far enough in not to startle the birds, but still close enough to the edge that most of the sky was available to her.
She called out a careful pish-pish-pish and waited patiently. The sky remained bright blue, uncolored by any birds, but she didn't mind. The birds will come eventually , she thought to herself, and sure enough, after some time, there was a bit of a stir.
Flutteshy prepared her binoculars as a large magpie flew up form inside the fog. She had already seen magpies several times though and she was hoping for something rarer. She closed her eyes for a moment to focus on the atmospheric sounds. The wind was blowing, but it was carrying with it a small bird cry.
green-eggs-and-ham, green-eggs-and-ham , it said.
Oh, what could it be? Fluttershy didn't have a mental archive, she stored all important knowledge under rocks in a peaceful grove inside of her mind. She tipped back the stone containing the memories of all bird cries she's ever heard and let them echo across the forest in her head. It had the same bubbly intonation as an Aracuan bird, but lacked the fast, goofy quality. It had the same rhythm as that of a Panchito pisiformis, but the wrong tone, and what was with the slight buzz at the end?
She opened her eyes again and watched the sky.
There was a small splash of color clashing against the sky, a yellow and black smudge. Fluttershy tried to make herself invisible as the smudge turned into the contours of a bird. It had a yellow belly and black wings, and when it drifted closer to Fluttershys hiding place, she could see it had a somewhat disgruntled expression on its face. It lapped water out of the spring as Fluttershy worked on identifying the bird. It was a distinctive enough bird, so identification was easy, she read its entry in the The Birds of Equestria - a field guide :
Tunderbird (Alcedo luminarium); 28 to 35 cm, 140 to 170 grams. Common in the Storm Mountains of Eastern Equestria, rare elsewhere. Body stocky, head large with conspicuous ragged double-pointed crest that covers the entire pileum from the base of the bill to the nape. A nearly complete yellow collar across the hindneck contrasts with the uniformly black dorsum. Creates thunderstorms, and is generally accompanied by heavy rainfall. Oh dear... , Fluttershy said to herself.