“You’re getting the hang of it!”

“I’m trying,” Scootaloo said, “I just don’t get how you’re supposed to walk in these things.”

“It’s not a walk, Scootaloo,” Fluttershy said, “it’s a stroll. There’s no rush, we can take all the time we need.”

She slowed down demonstratively, although not so much to prove her point, but more to keep tabs on Scootaloo’s exceedingly adorable little waddle. Scootaloo had, in fact, improved her walking to the point where she could move almost normally, except she had to keep her hind legs a bit further apart. And it didn’t work very well when she was distracted.

“Wow!” Scootaloo exclaimed, stumbling sideways to a crinkling halt, “Look, Fluttershy, this one’s even bigger than the others!”

Indeed, beyond the countless arches and pinnacles decorating the houses, a massive airship sporting multiple balloons and propellers rumbled past.

“And it looks like it’s also headed in the same direction,” Fluttershy said, “We should go further up. Maybe we’ll find out where they are going.”

Fluttershy and Scootaloo deduced they had been walking uphill all the time, because they could look down on the arrival buildings. From the distance, they couldn’t tell which one was the terminal they’d landed in, but the sprawling structures weren’t the only points of crossing. There was an entire level of checkpoints and traffic above, among which airborne vehicles of various sizes and the fabled airships cast large shadows on the cargo roads, warehouses and factory chimneys.

It was debatable whether the area got more civilized the further uphill they got, but it certainly became more pompous. Obvious residences of increasing luxury seemed to outdo each other in painfully ancient classical ornamentals, countless decorative towers and pillars darkening the path. There even had been a strikingly eccentric garden full of buttresses.

The road snaked off to the side, but at the top of the hill stood a ridiculous house. It was the same building twice. A copy of the squat house stood on top of itself. The bottom door was open, though, and two ponies came out leisurely.

“There’s a sign,” Fluttershy said, “Skyview sights trail, former magistrate building. It seems to be open to visitors.”

The entrance to the small house opened up to an impossibly even smaller courtyard. There were tiny doors and empty storage alcoves all around, and a set of very narrow stairs leading to the second floor of the first building. Scootaloo went first, Fluttershy made sure she didn’t fall.

They entered a musty old room with old documents and tomes falling out of ancient cabinets. There was a grey old mare sitting at a desk, writing.

“Hello,” Fluttershy said, “what are you doing here?”

“What does it look like?” the mare grumped, “I’m working.”

“You’re working in a tourist attraction?” Fluttershy said.

“No, I’m working in the least attractive place for tourists,” the mare said, “which brings me to the question of why you’re here. You’re the second visitors on the same day.”

“Why are you here where ponies come in and disturb you?” Fluttershy said.

“I’m usually alone,” the mare said, “and besides, the place does have its upsides. I get to yell at ponies not to do things. Hey! Don’t touch that!”

Scootaloo quickly withdrew her hoof from the stack of papers with fancy hoofwriting.

“We’re trying to learn about the history of this place,” Fluttershy said, “why are there two houses stacked on top of each other?”

“Oh, there’s many stories about that,” the mare said, “Some say the last family in the monarchy bore a brilliant architect who would have changed the world had they not fallen out of grace. I say that’s a load of hooey. Somepony was trying to dump grant money way after the fact. It’s no secret that corruption was more a la mode than these days. Hey! Don’t eat that!”

Scootaloo promptly disengaged from the single potted plant.

“Look,” the old mare sighed, “why don’t you take your foal and go upstairs to enjoy the view. It’s the best thing about this joint.”

“We will,” Fluttershy said, “thank you very much.”

“Yeah, yeah,” came the reply.

A second set of stairs was inside the room. Scootaloo went first again, cheerfully climbing the creaking wooden steps.

“What’s a magistrate?” Scootaloo said.

“The magistrate is an important center of organization in every local community,” Fluttershy said, “it’s where ponies go to make important communal decisions and steer the future of their settlement.”

“It’s where ponies go to complain,” the old mare shouted after them, “remember, every great thing in history happened because somepony complained.”

“Um, yes,” Fluttershy said, “the magistrate is also responsible for keeping city services up and running.”

“So,” Scootaloo said, “the town hall is like Ponyville’s magistrate? If Ponyville were the district of a city?”

“That’s exactly right, Scoots,” Fluttershy said, “good work.”

Scootaloo practically flew up the stairs, beaming, even though it took her a while to consciously realize she had just been praised.

They found themselves in a highly bizarre simulacrum of the courtyard below them. It looked almost the same, save for the cobblecloud in place of the cobblestone. The final set of stairs led them to the office room again, except there was nopony here. The wide balcony was pretty attractive though, as evidenced by the many hoofsteps in the dust.

Fluttershy and Scootaloo delighted on the magnificent view. The lower city sprawled before them, a boundless variety of pony made constructions spilling almost naturally across the vast expanse, flowing around and over the cloudscape, and gushing against, sometimes even far into, the open sky.

“Look, Fluttershy,” Scootaloo pointed out excitedly, “that must be where the airships go.”

They had moved considerably closer to the center, and were decently far along on the ascent toward the central cloud pillar. On the far side of the slope, they could finally see it.

Surrounded by several immaculate arcades and carved straight into the city, there lay an enormous harbor. Countless tiny skyships scrambled to navigate between and around several behemoth air vehicles that were moored to the great quays. The dock workers and sailors looked almost like legions of little ants, diligently servicing and supplying the incoming commerce.

“It looks quite monumental,” Fluttershy said, “we should try to see if we can’t pay it a visit. I don’t think I’ve seen a facility of this size before.”

More close by, the street seemed to be shortly leading into a fairly large plaza. It was actually really pretty and accordingly busy with activity, ponies obviously enjoying leisure and luxury. A decent next stop.

Scootaloo got to check out one of the ornamental decorations up close. Right next to the balcony, on the wall, there was one of those fake turrets. The facade was excessively lavish with superfluous carvings, and the fake windows were beset with common crystals in the stead of glass. It was crowned by an impressively rendered statue of a raven.

The point of contact between the two walls formed a dark little alcove which was noticeably less weathered than the rest. In fact, ponies had found use for the guarded spot. There were small rocks lying about, used to carve countless names and cutie marks all over the stone. So many friends had come here together, and immortalized their memory in this timeless little spot.

Scootaloo reached over and picked up one of the rocks. It was so awesome to be part of this amazing expression of friendship. And who better to remember than her amazing friend Fluttershy? She excitedly carved their initials into the wall.

“What are you doing, Scootaloo?” Fluttershy said.

Scootaloo boldly presented her work. “Look,” she said, “I carved our names onto the wall of friendship.” The wall now proudly bore the letters S C T + F S.

Fluttershy’s eyes grew huge, and she immediately burst out laughing.

“Oh, Scoots,” she giggled, “that’s very nice of you, but I don’t think the wall is the kind of friendship you were thinking of.”

What was that supposed to mean? Scootaloo turned back and inspected the wall.

Her heart skipped a beat when she realized.

The pairs of names weren’t inscribed plainly, but there were little happy squiggles and heart symbols everywhere. Some entries were even adorned with dates of engagement … or marriage.

This wasn’t a wall of friendship.

This was a wall of love.

“I, uh … I … uh … ” Scootaloo stuttered.

“It’s fine,” Fluttershy mused, “I’m happy to be on that wall with you. I accept it as a sign of our strong friendship.” She smirked. “And I do think you’re a pretty cute little filly, Scoots.”

With that, Fluttershy leaned in and planted a gentle kiss on Scootaloo’s cheek.

Scootaloo immediately thawed from the unbelievable warmth of the soft contact. However uncool her mistake had made her look in Fluttershy’s eyes, that little kiss had been totally worth it. Her cheeks tingled pleasantly. Besides, she still had enough coolness to spare.

Fluttershy was bemused by her cute little filly, dreamily toddling on with a goofy grin plastered on her face.

They descended back down the building and emerged onto the street. Despite the street’s familiarity, they had only walked where their hooves had taken them, and it turned out difficult to figure out which of the meandering pathways would take them to the plaza.

Scootaloo was no help in trying to find out, her face still glued to her hooves, her head full of chivalry and adventure. Something caught her eye, though. On the ground, glinting brightly, lay a coin.

“Hey, I found a bit,” she announced and bowed down in an attempt to pick it up.

She jumped back up straight, however, when she felt the motion causing her skirt to ride up and, quite critically, expose her pants’ seat, the volume of which to conceal was quite a critical objective to her.

But hey, it was a coin.

Scootaloo bent down and picked it up as quickly as she could.

There was nopony around whom the bit could have conceivably belonged to, but there was a mare on the other side of the road. Scootaloo approached her.

“Excuse me,” she said, “did you lose this coin?”

“No, I did not,” the mare said, “but it’s very considerate of you to ask. I believe you have earned to keep it. The canoness approves.”

“Neat!” Scootaloo said and took the coin for herself.

“Say thank you, Scoots,” Fluttershy reminded her.

“Thank you,” Scootaloo said, but was preoccupied with putting the coin into her jacket’s pocket and closing the zipper. The two mares smiled warmly.

“Um, do you know how to get to the plaza?” Fluttershy said.

“Oh, I thought you guys were on the trail,” the mare said, “since I saw you come out of the old junk heap.”

“The trail?” Fluttershy said.

“Yeah, did you see the sign?” the mare said, “Skyview sights trail. They’re on every street sign and are supposed to guide the tourists through the city.”

“Oh,” Fluttershy said, “I hadn’t been able to make heads nor tails from the street signs. They’re pointing in every direction.” Literally, in fact. It was like the face of a clock.

“Yeah, well, the trail’s signs stand out,” the mare said, “and they’re connected, so you’re going to stay on track just by following them. And you should follow them, too, by the way. There’s some pretty cool sights still ahead.”

“We will,” Fluttershy said, “thank you.”

“Thank you,” Scootaloo echoed absentmindedly, still marvelling at her pocket. The mares giggled adoringly.

The signs led to the plaza before long. Fluttershy and Scootaloo must have come in through a side entrance, because they found themselves facing a huge fountain. Water jets rose fantastically into the air, willing glittering rainbows into existence that gleamed beautifully against the sunlit clouds in the sky, before passing as refreshing mist onto the faces of the admiring onlookers. The most enthusiastic of which were obviously many overjoyed fillies and colts running around with beads of water in their manes.

Populating the remainder of the plaza was a no less mystifying mix of pedestrians. Tourists and locals melded into a colorful audience where fancy costumes and jewelry were increasingly difficult to tell apart from exotic travel gear and trinkets. The plenty of reclining space was well occupied by ponies talking in countless languages with countless globetrotters. Most obvious was a pair of young dragons, browsing through the stalls of the small day market.

“Ahh,” Fluttershy sighed, sitting down on a bench, “I really needed to rest my hooves for a minute. We’ve been either flying or walking all day, after all.”

Scootaloo climbed onto the bench too and plopped down onto the seat. “Wow, what a cool bench,” she said, “it’s really comfy.”

“Um, it’s just a wooden bench,” Fluttershy giggled, “but I’m glad you’re being comfy.”

The realization of exactly why she was sitting so comfortably hit Scootaloo, and Fluttershy couldn’t resist, and gave her a hug to ease her confused embarrassment. They sat still together for a few relaxing moments.

A brief commotion came from the nearby stands as two ponies kept arguing increasingly louder. It was apparently a haggle, going on about the price of an item, and the two parties seemed unable to come to an agreement, as the disparities between their offers grew along with the volumes of their voices. They seemed about ready to jump at each other’s throats when one of them suddenly accepted and they amicably shook hooves before parting. Two police deputies stood nearby, barely paying attention as they ate their ice creams.

“Are you hungry, Scootaloo?” Fluttershy said, “We haven’t had anything to eat in a while, and a little snack would sound about right just now. There seems to be enough food vendors here. How about a light sandwich or a little salad?”

“Let’s go to the deep fry stand!” Scootaloo said. She eyed the popular attraction with such intensity, Fluttershy just couldn’t say no.

Customers stood all around the greasy stand, and the vendor pony served them all simultaneously. He seemed incredibly skilled, distributing fat-dripping goods with his horn many times faster than it would be possible with hooves, the crowd cheering him on as he put on a show.

Scootaloo and Fluttershy had some fried elderberries. The fruit content existed in name only though - it was basically a small vine with copious amounts of batter on it, smeared with mounds of melting butter and heavily dunked into powdered sugar. Scootaloo devoured hers in sweet, sweet sensory bliss.

Fluttershy insisted on having a cup of lemon water together to counteract the outrageous unhealthiness, and then she let Scootaloo run off to the fountain to play.

Running around the fountain was wholesome fun - the water so pretty from every side. You could try to follow the random directions of the sprays in order to keep the rainbow visible for as long as possible, or you could just move slowly, and follow the path of the sun’s glints in the water. The cobblestone was also wet enough to make exciting slides. No wonder so many ponies were squealing and bouncing around joyously.

Except one, a little filly with a comically oversized sun hat, leaning over the rim of the basin with her forehooves in the water. She looked funny, because her hat had the same peachy pink color as her coat.

In the water, she had a colorful little ball. She pushed the ball under the water, and when she released, the ball would bounce back and spring up into the air. That was all she did. That was her game. Unbelievable. It was the kind of silly thing that toddlers would enjoy.

“Hey there,” the filly said, “do you wanna play too?”

“Um,” Scootaloo said. She walked to the basin.

“Look,” the filly said, “I gotta push the ball down and make it fly over to you.” She submerged the ball quite skillfully and made it come out at an angle, and it bounced over to Scootaloo and floated on the waves.

The air in the ball caused surprisingly much resistance when Scootaloo pushed it under. She carefully held it in place and angled her hooves appropriately, and then she released for the launch. The ball bounced high in the air and landed perfectly in front of the filly.

“Wow!” she said, “You’re really good at this.”

Scootaloo gasped. “That is so cool!” she said, “Can I go again, please?”

“It’s my turn, silly,” the filly giggled.

She overplayed the ball a bit, but Scootaloo blocked it with her hoof. Then Scootaloo took another shot and again scored with impressive accuracy.

“This is the coolest game I’ve ever played!” Scootaloo exclaimed, and she couldn’t help but laugh from the sheer joy, and that made the filly laugh too, and then they laughed together.

“I’m Magnolia,” she said, “what’s your name?”

“I’m Scootaloo.”

“Nice meeting you, Scootaloo,” Magnolia said.

“Likewise,” Scootaloo said.

They splashed around with the ball some more. Magnolia’s accuracy was actually remarkable too, and they soon moved a step apart to even further increase the level of skill in play.

“You have a cool hat, Magnolia,” Scootaloo said, “but it’s not very sunny, is it?” There was plenty of sun, but the skies were streaked with wisps of humidity.

“Thanks,” Magnolia said, “I like wearing it because my mommy always wears one too. Does your mommy wear a cool jacket like yours as well?”

“Umm,” Scootaloo said. There was that question again that she couldn’t answer. Fluttershy was still close by, relaxing on the bench.

“Wow!” Magnolia said, tracing Scootaloo’s gaze, “Your mommy’s jacket is almost more cooler than yours!”

“Yeah,” Scootaloo said. She didn’t feel like correcting Magnolia right now. Scootaloo always found herself thinking pleasant thoughts when she thought of Fluttershy.

Magnolia really was bringing the heat now. Ball bounces became faster and higher, and both players were soon regularly trying to catch it out of the air before it hit the water. Magnolia delivered a shot that arced high, and Scootaloo tried to catch it, but bumped the ball further into the fountain with her hoof instead.

Scootaloo leaned over the rim as far as she could and just about managed to retrieve the ball with her hooftip.

That’s when she realized.

She had done that mistake before, bending over too far. The motion had made her skirt ride up high, and now she stood there with her butt plainly sticking out for everypony to see. Naturally, her new friend had noticed something looking peculiar, and was therefore staring straight at her flank. She didn’t dare move.

Magnolia beheld the outline of the thick baby diaper, visible through Scootaloo’s pantyhose, for a moment.

Then she turned back and happily splashed the water. “Come on, give me the ball,” she said.

Scootaloo gave a silly shot that left the ball skipping over the water.

“Wow, that was really neat,” Magnolia giggled, “let me try.” She also sent the ball skipping, and Scootaloo giggled.

Laughing was suddenly so easy. It was because Magnolia was such a cool friend. Scootaloo really enjoyed playing with her. It also felt kind of cool that somepony knew what she was wearing. Maybe there really wasn’t that much to it, after all.

They had opened a whole new world of trick shots with the ball. Fancy techniques were displayed as they made the ball spin or tried to hit one of the jets of water. So impressive were Scootaloo and Magnolia that other ponies stopped to watch, and sometimes join them in play, before running off again. The fun couldn’t have lasted long enough.

“Ready to go, Scootaloo,” Fluttershy eventually showed up, “hello, little filly.”

“Hello,” Magnolia said, “great, we can go back to my mommy together.”

“Okay,” Scootaloo said, “Um, thanks for playing with me, Magnolia.”

“Also thanks for playing with me, Scootaloo,” Magnolia said.

Magnolia led Fluttershy and Scootaloo on, and together they crossed to the far side of the plaza, where her mother was waiting. The ridiculous fear of sunlight seemed to be running in the family. She wore a bandana underneath her sun hat, and even a light cloak over her wings.

“Have you made new friends?” she greeted them. “You’re tourists, right?”

“Yes,” Fluttershy said, “we’re trying to finish the sights trail.”

“Ah, the old trail,” Magnolia’s mom laughed, “it leads through this square now, right? Explains all the fresh blood showing up lately. Well, can’t get too lively in my book. I love trading for exotic junk, it’s a weakness of mine. Anyway, you should finish the trail, it’s not too long from now. Magnolia, sweetie, go pack away your toy so we can be on our way.”

“Oh, yeah,” Magnolia said, “come on, Scootaloo, I can show you my stroller.”

“You have a stroller?” Scootaloo said.

Indeed, closeby stood a stroller, and it looked quite fancy to boot. It was one of the sitting types for larger fillies and colts, was relatively heavy and sturdy and even had rubber wheels. Magnolia stashed her ball in one of the many bags and then threw herself into the seat, crossing her forehooves behind her head.

“I have the coolest stroller in town,” she said proudly.

Scootaloo was in awe. It looked amazing.

“Don’t you have a stroller?” Magnolia’s mom said.

“Um, no,” Fluttershy said, “we didn’t think of it.”

“Well, seeing how you’re with your little squirt,” Magnolia’s mom laughed, “You really should consider it. There’s even a decent stroller joint closeby. Place is a total tourist rip off, but their strollers are really good. Trust me, you’ll be most grateful for it, once the little ones are all tuckered out. Been there, done that.”

“That sounds like good advice,” Fluttershy said, “I think it would be wise to take. What do you think, Scootaloo? Do you want to have a nice stroller to ride in?”

Everypony was looking at Scootaloo.

Her own stroller.

“Yeah!” she beamed