Why did this have to happen?
Just because a few colts had decided to be jerks, Rainbow was going to risk the entirety of her honor! And nopony knew how much Rainbow Dash valued her honor more than me.
If things weren't bad enough, I was stuck with waving the starting flag, so I had to watch it all unfold. And so many eyes trained on me as it starts...
The racers took off.
I experienced amazement, for one glorious second. Oh, how they flew! In the short time I was able to watch, the three competitors - including Rainbow - had launched themselves forward. In all my life, I had never seen a pegasus fly with such speed and such grace at one. I had never met a pegasus like Rainbow.
But it was all soon over.
One of the other racers - the one who had made fun of me - nicked me with the tip of his wing. He probably didn't mean to - maybe he did - but as soon as I was hit, the world began to spin.
Of course the world had stayed perfectly put - it was me who was spinning. My wavy pink mane swung round as I twirled in place, yet I was slowly veering off to the edge of the cloud I was stationed on.
One hoof dropped off the edge, and my entire body soon followed.
I felt myself plummeting through the air, still spinning. I fluttered my cream-colored wings, but it did nothing to help. I never could fly right.
I'm going to die. I thought for a fraction of a second.
Yet then I was caught.
At first I though it was clouds tickling my wings and back, but I was far too close to the ground now.
I slowly opened my turquoise eyes to find myself staring up at the sky.
I moved my head to the left, and was met with the face of a butterfly.
A butterfly! Those were the creatures that had broken my fall. Beautiful pink butterflies, slowly lowering me to the ground.
Then there came a roar.
The butterflies zipped off faster than I could think, and I was left stranded on the ground, wriggling to get off my back.
I heard something come crashing through the forest to my left, and I soon saw the source.
A huge, monstrous creature - four times as big as a pony - stood before me. It seemed to be a beast of some sort, yet it was constructed of wood and tree branches. Its eyes glowed an unequestrian green.
A timberwolf. I'd heard of them in stories, but I never thought I'd see one face-to-face!
I had scrambled to my feet and I began to back away. I felt myself becoming dizzy. My vision blurred and became static, and my hearing dulled, as if it was under water. I stumbled on my feet as the monster crept nearer. I was about to faint.
"Please..." I squeaked.
The Wolf cocked its head. Had it... understood?
"D-Did you..." I began, my senses returning to normal, and curiosity replacing my fear.
The Timberwolf crouched into what I could only interpret as a bow. And then it spoke.
"Apologies."
The dizziness returned again. The Wolf just spoke!
"Wh-wha..." I began to stumble, but the wolf crept nearer, still bowing, and placed his enormous paw in the space between my front hooves.
At that exact moment, something happened.
A cutie mark had appeared on my flank - but not an ordinary equestrian cutie mark.
It was a mark of two tree branches, intertwined in a circle around a silhouette of a wolf. It would have been normal, if not for the images where the wolf's eyes should have been.
Two green dots on the wolf's face, as if on a Timberwolf. Two green dots, gleaming - glowing, right on my flank.
The Wolf then looked at me, its glowing green eyes gazing into my aquamarine ones, then spoke with a voice deep with the souls of all the trees of the forests:
"You are the Chosen One, my Queen."