//------------------------------//
// Rematch 
// Story: The Forgotten King 
// by Ghost Writer 
//------------------------------//


When Eclipse got in the room he noticed that there was only one bed. "Hey Rainbow!" he said as Rainbow came in the room, "there's only one bed, do you want me to sleep on the couch or something?"
"Uhh, it's your choice, sleep where you want." she said.
"Hmmm, I think I'll share the bed with you." he said with a light hearted grin on his face.
"Oh, ok, that's cool." stammered Rainbow, quickly turning to look out the window so that Eclipse couldn't see that she was blushing.
Eclipse laughed on the inside at Rainbows embarrassment. Then he walked to the large window to look outside. The window had a large glass door that could be pushed open to go to the balcony. Eclipse pushed the door open and walked to the balcony. There was a slight breeze and the air was warm. He looked over the balcony and saw a dizzying drop down the side of the mountain the castle was perched on.
He stepped back from the balcony and went back into the room.
"So what are you planning on doing today?" Eclipse asked Rainbow.
"I don't know, I don't think anypony here would be interested in racing me. I'll probably just do what the others do." she said.
"A race you say? I wouldn't mind a race." said Eclipse
"Now?"
"Now."
"Where to?"
"Hmm, let's say to the train station and back to the castle? That's a moderately long race."
"You're on!" said Rainbow.
"Alright, where should we start? The balcony?" asked Eclipse.
"Fine by me." replied Rainbow.
The two stepped out onto the balcony and folded out their wings.
"Ready?" asked Eclipse.
"Ready!" said Rainbow.
Eclipse counted down, "Three, two, one, go!" and they bolted off towards the outskirts of Canterlot. They started at a speed that was too much to keep up for the distance and slowed a bit. They couldn’t possibly manage to keep up top speed for the entire race.
They flew over the city at a great speed. Rainbow was in the lead but Eclipse was trailing directly behind her. He looked down and saw that many of the ponies were looking up as they flew by. Most of the ponies that looked up had a shocked or awed look on their face. They probably weren’t accustomed to ponies racing over their city. And the “fancy” pegasi probably didn’t even fly fast, much less race.
Now seemed like it would be a good time to use his endurance to his advantage. He put a bit more effort into his wing strokes and started to gain on Rainbow. She was incredibly fast and her small size was a huge advantage. But Eclipse was bigger and stronger and didn't tire quite as fast. He planned to pick up the pace to a speed that she could still keep up behind him, but would tire herself out trying it.	
He passed Rainbow and she gave it a little more effort and managed to stay right behind him. He put a bit more effort into his strokes now, he wanted to try and gain some distance on Rainbow slowly so that even if she was faster in the last leg of the race she wouldn’t be able to catch up. Rainbow was determined to win though, she stayed right behind him and even passed him up slowly after a minute or so. He gave up on getting some extra distance on Rainbow and pulled back, staying just a bit back and making sure not to overexert himself. He wouldn’t be able to beat Rainbow on the last stretch if he tired himself out. He saw that Rainbow was starting to slow down just the faintest bit. She must have been getting tired from keeping up the speed. She didn’t quite have the endurance Eclipse did.
They were now half way to the train station. Eclipse could see the smoke from the train off in the distance. He eased off a bit and stayed behind Rainbow. If he wanted to win he would have to save his energy for the last bit.
He stayed behind her until they passed the train station. Rainbow looked back and said "Something wrong? Or can you just not keep up?” She had a huge smile on her face right up until the moment Eclipse burst out in speed and flew past her. She was so shocked that for a moment she just glided with an awestruck look on her face. Then she snapped out of it and gave it all she had and was up behind Eclipse again soon.
He had gained a hundred meters or so on her and was keeping up good speed. His breathing was heavy and he was sweating with the exertion of keeping up such a speed.
The castle came back into view and Eclipse was struggling to keep his pace up. It felt like his wings would give out, but Rainbow Dash was only about fifty meters behind him and he didn't wanna give her any chances.
Eclipse kept the lead until he could almost see their balcony. Then he heard wings beating behind him and noticed that Rainbow had been slowly catching up to him. He felt like he couldn't do it but he started to accelerate and reach top speed again. Now he was sure he would win, there was no way Rainbow would be able to keep up with him now.
However, he was wrong. Rainbow also accelerated to top speed and was quickly gaining on him. But she wasn't sure if she could catch him before he made it to the balcony. This was where her size came in handy. She could fly VERY, VERY fast because of it. But she didn't have the kind of endurance Eclipse did so she waited until the last bit to really go. It was similar to what Eclipse did but he started flying fast a lot earlier.
She put everything she had into it and her eyes watered. She was going so fast that an air cone had formed in front of her and it seemed to be at a critical point. She pushed past her limit and overcame the air cone. There was a massive burst of color and a loud bang.
The bang had caught Eclipse by surprise and he faltered just long enough for Rainbow to shoot past him and come to a skidding stop on the balcony in front of them.
Eclipse glided down to the balcony. He was stunned by what had happened. "What was that?!" he exclaimed.
"That was a sonic rainboom." she replied with a proud look on her face.
"A what?" he asked.
"A sonic rainboom." she repeated. "It happens when you just that fast."
Eclipse waved a hoof in the air. "You can't expect me to compete with that kind of thing! You win, I can't beat that."
"Aww yea! I won! AGAIN! Cause I'm the fastest flyer EVER!" she yelled as she jumped up and down.
"Ahem, if that rainboom hadn't caught me unaware I would have won." said Eclipse nonchalantly.
"I don't think so." said Rainbow.
"Oh I do." said Eclipse. "But maybe we should go take a bath or something after that. I'm tired and covered in sweat. All I want to do now is get clean and get some sleep."
"Sleep?" questioned Rainbow, "It's not even half way through the day yet!"
"I sleep during the day, remember? I'll sleep normally again when Celestia gets rid of Atrox."
"O yea, well let's go ask Celestia where we can get cleaned up." said Rainbow.
"I agree." said Eclipse.
They opened the bedroom door and stepped into the hallway. A nearby servant shook her head and went along down the hallway.
"Jeez, what's her problem?" asked Eclipse. He looked over and saw that Rainbow's face was red.
"Umm Eclipse...We are covered in sweat, breathing heavily, and we just stepped out of a bedroom." she said.
Understanding dawned on Eclipse and he turned and shouted down the hallway, "Hey! No! You have the wrong idea! We were racing!" but the servant had gone down the hallway and Eclipse wasn't sure is she had heard what he said. "Wow. That is one awkward misunderstanding."
Rainbow merely nodded and trotted down the hallway to find Celestia. Eclipse followed close behind.
After a minute or two of wandering they recognized where they were and headed for Celestia's bedroom. They passed Twilight on the way there and greeted her. She gave them a suspicious look and walked off. The two of them continued on to Celestia’s room.
Eventually they arrived at Celestia's bedroom and Eclipse knocked on the door.
"Hey, Celestia. Where do you get washed up here? Rainbow and I worked up a sweat racing and we want to get cleaned off." he said.
For a moment there was no answer, then Celestia opened the door and said "You didn't have to come all the way here to ask that, the servants would have happily answered your question."
"We tried but the one servant we saw thought we did....ehh....something and left before we could ask her where we could wash up." said Eclipse.
"And what exactly were you two doing?" asked Celestia.
"We were racing." said Rainbow.
"Well there should be a door just down the hallway from where your rooms are. There is a bath, towels, and everything you'll need there." said Celestia.
"Alright, thanks." said Eclipse.
"Let's go." said Rainbow.
They turned around and headed back the way they came and eventually reached the hallway that contained their rooms. The two of them walked past the doors of their rooms and continued down the hall.
At the end was a wooden door that they assumed was the washroom. They opened it up and walked inside. When they did they were greeted by a wave of warm, humid air that spilled into the hall.
Inside was a room made of tile with a large tub in the center. There was a rack of fresh white towels along one wall and a few buckets of water.
Eclipse stepped inside, his hooves clacked on the floor when he walked up to the tub. It wasn't raised up from the floor, instead it was dug into the floor. Small curls of steam rose from the surface of the water which obviously meant it was heated. The water must have been heated by magic for it to always be the temperature it was.
Rainbow walked into the room and up to the bath shortly after Eclipse and looked into the water.
"Looks nice." she said.
"Yep." said Eclipse as he stuck a hoof in the water, "feels nice too. I don't know about you but I'm getting in."
He stepped into the bath and the warm water seemed to relax his entire body, he felt as if he could stay in the water forever. He waded and then swam to the middle of the huge tub and turned around. "The water’s fine." he said. "And it's surprisingly deep in the middle here."
Rainbow didn't have to be told twice. She hopped into the tub and let the water relax her.
Eclipse had his head half way underwater and was lazily blowing bubbles. He turned around and drifted in the water on his back.
"You can have the bed, I'll sleep here." he joked.
"I could stay here forever." said Rainbow. "The water feels amazing."
Eclipse passed the next hour floating around in the bath with Rainbow.
Eventually he started getting sleepy and stepped out of the tub.
“I think I’m going to bed.” He told Rainbow.
Rainbow was floating on her back and she looked up at him. “Going to bed?” she asked. “The day isn’t even half over yet.”
“I sleep during the day remember.” He replied.
“Because you don’t want to sleepwalk outside and get controlled?”
“Yep.”
“Celestia is gunna fix you then you won’t have to worry about that. Why not just stay up today and sleep tonight, I doubt anything bad will happen.”
“I would rather not risk it. What if I were to get completely controlled? Then I wouldn’t be able to stop myself and who knows what would happen.”
“Suit yourself, good luck having fun when everypony else is asleep thought.” said Rainbow as she went back to floating around in the water. 
Eclipse went over to the towel rack and took a towel to dry himself off with. After he dried himself he turned back to Rainbow and said “Alright, I’m going to bed now see ya later.”
Without looking back Rainbow put her hoof up to wave him off.
He left the washroom and went back to his room. He entered the room and sighed. He didn’t really want to sleep now, he wasn’t extremely tired or anything but he knew he had to sleep if he wanted to stay up the entire night. He hopped into the bed and closed his eyes. He let his mind wonder until he drifted into sleep.