//------------------------------//
// Nightly Storm: Wonderbolt Race! 
// Story: My Little Pony: Onverse 
// by Goat Carnival 
//------------------------------//

"Pleeeeeeeeeease daaaaaaaaaad!!!!!!" Nightly cried in her regular Manipulating my Dad to Get me Something I Want voice. It didn't always work, but she had this feeling that this specific request would get Mountain Mist to agree with her.
At school, Nightly had found a poster on the wall in gym advertising the annual Foal's Flight Race held on the Wonderbolt's Derby track. It was for pegasus foals ages ten to thirteen, and she was finally old enough to join. She was already the fastest flier in her weekend flight classes, so what the heck, right?
"A race, huh?" Mountain Mist commented with a chuckle. "You sure you're up to the challenge?"
"Of course I am!" Nightly answered with a prideful gusto in her voice. She excitedly flew up and over her dad's head, landing at his side and head butting him in the ribs playfully. He responded to this action by pulling her close and messing up her mane with his hoof. Nightly knew that when her dad phrased his answers as a call to a challenge, it always meant yes. She was finally going to enter her first public race, with a real prize and everything!
The two of them stopped playing once they heard a latch close in the other room.
"I'm home!" a young colt's voice called. It was Nightly's older brother, Cumulus Chariot.
"Cloudy!" Nightly called, using her affectionate nickname she often used for her brother. "Do you want to compete in the Foal's Flight Race with me?"
She excitedly shoved the poster in Cumulus's face. He looked at the poster with a confused expression.
"A race?" He raised an eyebrow, skeptically. "You know I'm not exactly the best when it comes to races, right?"
"Well, even the best Wonderbolts started somewhere!" Nightly said. She then smirked for a brief second and immediately pouted over-dramatically. "And I wouldn't be able to live with myself if my big brother wasn't with me in my first race! I might DIE of sadness! Pleeeeeeease join me Cloudy!"
"I didn't even say 'no' yet, Stormy," Cumulus said with a sigh.
"But what's your answer?" Nightly whined again.
Cumulus looked at his sister eye-to-eye. She knew that Cumulus was vulnerable to her pouty face, and so she puckered her lower lip and lowered her eyebrows in an attempt to persuade him more. Cumulus closed his eyes and sighed as their dad walked through the doorway to join them. "Alright, Sis."
Nightly squealed with excitement and wrapped her forelegs around her brother. "This'll be so much fun! Just imagine the first place trophy with my name on it over the mantle! And Cumulus's participation trophy!"
"'Participation trophy?!'" Cumulus scoffed, pulling away from his sister's embrace. "I'm going to at least make the top five! I think they get like, a cool medal or something..."
Nightly laughed and playfully pushed down on her brother's head. "It's cool that you're at least this confident, bro!" She started cantering into a small liftoff to the second floor of their house. "See you in the morning! The sign-ups are this Saturday and the race is a week after that!"
She closed the door to her room and flopped on her bed. She looked over at the signed poster of Rainbow Dash that hung on her wall in a sleek black frame. In just a week (and four days) she would finally be racing on the track flown on by the most incredible flight team in Equestria- nay(neigh) -the world! She quickly saluted the poster and settled under the covers, too thrilled to fall asleep.





Finally, the big day arrived! Nightly, Cumulus, and Mountain Mist all walked up to the stadium entrance, Nightly being unable to stay still out of pure excitement.
"I can't believe it, the actual Wonderbolt's Derby track! I wonder if there'll be any Wonderbolts here. Do you think Soarin will be here? Or maybe Vapor Trail and Sky Stinger? OR!! What if it's Rainbow Dash?!"
"I doubt there'll be any Wonderbolts here," Cumulus said. "I think that's only for the Young Flier's Competition, which, ironically, we're too young for."
Nightly frowned, but only for a second as they were just about to enter the stadium. Her perky attitude bounced right back as she found herself on the cloud-lined stadium floor. There were 24 other foals around her, not counting her brother, and just about 200 ponies in the stands with almost 35 other ponies still on the stadium floor. Obviously not as many spectators as an official Wonderbolts event, but definitely more than your average foal race.
Over the speakers, the hit rock single "Taught to Fly" by the new band Anomaly Chasers appropriately played on a loop. Mountain Mist walked his foals over to the sign-in table, where the ponies sitting there gave him two large stickers, one labeled "H" and the other labeled "I." He hoofed them to his children, gave them a reassuring hug, and flew off into the stands.
"I guess these are our positions at the starting line?" Cumulus observed, putting the "I" sticker on his chest. Nightly decided to mess around and put the "H" sticker just under her left eye. 
"RACERS, TO YOUR POSITIONS!" A voice called over the intercom, cutting through the chorus of Taught to Fly, much to everypony's disappointment. Nightly and Cumulus trotted up to their places at the start line, right next to each other.
Nightly looked over and smiled at her brother. She held up a hoof as the countdown to start began. "Good luck!" she said, excitedly.
Cumulus smiled back and held his hoof up as well, hitting it against his sister's to perform a hoof bump. "You too, sis!"
"THREE!" The countdown began as sweat started to stream down Nightly's brow. The heat and moisture caused the sticker to fall off her face. Not like she needed it for the rest of the race, anyhow.
"TWO!!" All of the racers' wings shot up, ready to take flight. Nightly smiled and raised her wings, feeling like she had reached the height of her confidence in herself.
"ONE! GO!!!"
All the young pegasi took off.





Nightly zoomed around the track, overtaking five of the ponies in front of her. She was now in third place. She just had two more ponies to pass, and then she had to stay in that position till the end of the final lap. She beat her wings harder and harder, sweat flying off her. She crossed the lap line. That makes four, now only two laps left.
She kept her wing beat rate at an increasing pace, finally managing to overtake second place. Now she just had to take over first.
Nightly looked to her left across the track. In eleventh place stayed Cumulus, trying his darnedest to overtake at least one pony. At least all the others behind him didn't seem to be fast enough to claim his place either.
She opened her mouth in a wide grin as she passed the line again. She was in the last lap now. Her wingbeats started to stagger, but her pace remained consistent enough to pass the colt in front of her. She was finally in the lead, and only a few paces away from the finish line. She moved into the last stretch, passing the finish line with a flash of light.
"THE FIRST PLACE WINNER; NIGHTLY STORM!" The announcer presented the rank over the speaker system. Thunderous stomping and cheers erupted from the audience.
The rest of the racers passed the line after her as she sat off to the side, panting with uneven breaths. Through the cheers in the stands, Mountain Mist flew down and called to his daughter. Her head shot up expectantly and she rushed over into her father's embrace.
"I'm so proud of you, Stormy!" Mountain Mist exclaimed, hugging his daughter as tight as he could. Cumulus trotted over to join them. Mountain Mist looked up and pulled his son in as well, hugging them both to the point of nearly suffocating them. "You both looked incredible out there. I really am proud of you two!"
Pulling away from the hug, Cumulus and Mountain Mist both smiled at her, and then suddenly gasped. 
"Nightly!" Cumulus started, excitedly. "You got your cutie mark!"
"I WHAT?!" Nightly turned her head to look at her flank. There, on a previously blank canvas, sat the image of a  gray cloud and blue lightning bolt in front of a crescent moon. "No way! I won AND got my cutie mark?! BEFORE MY OLDER BROTHER?!! Is this a dream?"
The race officials trotted over to the family happily. "Congratulations, miss Storm." One of them held out his hoof to shake her's. He then turned to Mountain Mist. "You must be very proud, sir."
Mountain Mist nodded with a wide smile on his face. Once the last racer passed the line, the cheering in the audience got louder as the announcer came back over the speakers.
"PLEASE STOMP FOR ALL THE TALENTED YOUNG FLIERS WHO PARTICIPATED TODAY!" She stopped to allow the audience time to cheer. "AND NOW, FILLIES AND GENTLECOLTS! PLEASE WELCOME, TO PRESENT THE AWARDS; FORMER WONDERBOLT, SPITFIRE!"
Cheering suddenly erupted from even the racers as a yellow-orange pegasus flew over the stadium wearing a brown aviator's jacket, waving to the audience as she landed on three organic legs and one prosthetic to replace her right hind-leg.
Excitedly, Nightly shoved her brother back and forth as he held a shocked gaze on his face. "Can you believe it?! SPITFIRE! GIVING ME A TROPHY!!" She then smirked at him teasingly. "And you said there wouldn't be any Wonderbolts here!"
Cumulus snapped out of his shock. He looked at his sister and scoffed "She's retired, that doesn't count!" he commented, defensively.
Nightly joined the second and third finishers on a podium in the middle of the stadium, where Spitfire was waiting for them. She hoofed the third and second placers their trophies, congratulating them on making it to the top three. She then turned to Nightly, who was grinning ear to ear with excitement.
"Congratulations, kid," Spitfire said with a prideful smile on her face. "I haven't seen flying like that since Rainbow Dash first joined the Wonderbolts."
Nightly kept smiling, unable to speak as the former leader of the Wonderbolts patted her shoulder.
"You'd make a great Wonderbolt one day," Spitfire added as she hoofed Nightly the first place trophy. She then put her foreleg around her, signaling to the camera crew standing on the clouds in front of the podium. They took a bunch of pictures of the winners. With every picture, the smile on Nightly's face was always genuine. She had won her first public race! She earned the respect of a famous former Wonderbolt. She earned the recognition of the citizens of Canterlot. Nightly Storm had made her first step on the path to being a famous flier.





On the way out of the stadium, Nightly and her family were stopped by the reporters from the award ceremony. "Excuse me!" one of them called. Mountain Mist turned around and looked at the mare that had called to them. "Would you three mind if we got one quick family shot for Monday's paper?"
Mountain Mist shared a glance with his children and looked back at the reporters. He shrugged and shook his head no, positioning his children into a good pose. He put his forelegs around his kids and Nightly held her trophy so that it was in the shot. The photographers took a few pictures and thanked the family.
Mountain Mist wrapped his wing around his daughter and nuzzled her happily. "You did wonderfully today, honey."
"Thanks dad. I just wish I could've talked to Spitfire when I had the chance." She looked back at the trophy that was resting under her wing, and then over to her cutie mark. "But I had a lot of fun today."