Bladed Wings: Episode 2, The Race
Seven ponies stood in a field: a stallion, who had a mare with her hooves wrapped around him, and five other mares, one with a rope fashioned into a lasso which held the stallion in the middle, under-hoof. The stallion was a pegasus; his coat a solid sky blue, his mane pointed back in alternating colours of dark gold and baby blue, and his tail of the same thread. Adorning his hooves were golden, metal pieces which complemented a pair of golden blades on his wings. On his flank he had the mark of a single, fluffy cloud. Fittingly, his name was Cloud. He looked forward toward a pegasus who, too, had a coat of blue, but a mane featuring a rainbow pattern. Her flank was adorned with cutie mark consisting of a cloud with a red, yellow and blue coloured lightning bolt jutting from its bottom. His green eyes slowly took on a look of confusion as he looked into the pink eyes of Rainbow Dash.
“I hardly call that a fight,” He said, having just prior committed himself to battling Rainbow Dash, who had just revealed the battle to be instead a race. “but I can see how it can be interpreted as one.” He sighed loudly, as he had been caught by his own word.
The mare who had her hooves around Cloud let go. She was a unicorn with a pure white coat and royal purple hair - fashionably curled at that. Her cutie mark consisted of three light blue diamonds. “You can do it Cloud!” she cheered before stopping to think. “Wait, Rainbow Dash is my friend!” she mulled. “Rainbow Dash! I, Rarity, ask that you win so as I can visit my dear Cloudy-woudy, its no good for him to travel away!” Rarity spouted self gratifyingly.
Cloud stared with his mouth agape in light of what Rarity had just said. If he had any reason to leave Ponyville, it had just made itself apparent. ‘Now I have no choice but to win.’ he thought to himself. Otherwise, he feared what that white unicorn may try to bring upon him next, his worst was being her dress-up model involving elaborate garbs. Worse yet, she would be his neighbor! His mind wandered to thoughts of escape. Not something he could easily do, mainly because the orange earth pony named Applejack held him with the aforementioned lasso. Instead he decided that maybe for once he could take his time and have a little fun. Besides, maybe if he actually goes through with this, they might let him leave.
Another pony, who was hopping around in a circle around the group, squealed with glee about the upcoming race. “A race! I love races! They sure aren't parties, but they are so EXCITING!” Her coat was bright pink, her mane and tail resembled that of chewed bubble gum. Her cutie mark was that of three balloons, due to her love of parties and making people smile. She put her fore-hooves out at her side and started to run around on her hinds. “First there is always somepony who takes a large lead,” she said in excitement, “but somepony always takes away that lead! and they keep swapping until-” at that moment she tripped and sprawled on the ground dramatically. Making explosion and screen sounds, she concluded, “There's a crash!” The crazy mare started laughing.
Cloud could not muster words, the display was more than he would have ever expected from anypony. His only thought was ‘what do you have to feed a pony to make them.... that?’ The pony he was referring to held a name called Pinkie Pie. A pony from what Cloud could gather, was always on full overdrive. He had to admit though that her antics did kind of make him want to partake in the upcoming race more than previously... besides the crash that was.
When Pinkie had made her over dramatic fall, a pegasus with a light pink mane and yellow fur jumped in alarm. “oh..... no!” She said, trembling a little. “That seems awful, what if they got hurt?” Fluttershy asked. She had gotten over the initial startling factor of Pinkies performance, but she now could only think of either Cloud or Rainbow Dash crashing. “What if they both crashed?!? It would be so scary to watch.”
The final pony walked up to Fluttershy, and tried to settle her down. “Oh Fluttershy, you have seen Rainbow in lots of races, how many has she ever crashed in?” The purple unicorn named Twilight asked.
“Shes... crashed a lot... actually” Fluttershy muttered, Twilight flinched, having only furthered Fluttershy's doubt.
“Either way, I do not see the harm in a little race. So long as both want to be in it.”Twilight said, smiling sweetly at Cloud. She felt a little bad about letting Cloud continue with this race. Rainbow Dash was the fastest flier in all of equestria... at least that's what she always said about herself. If Rainbow won, Cloud would be obligated to stay around, and twilight could teach him all about the magic of friendship. Celestia would be proud of her! She rubbed her hooves together as she thought over all the possible letters she would be sending Celestia over this.
Cloud, for the first time, smiled cockily. “All that needs to be set then is a time and a place.” He said as he brought one of his aeroblades, a golden sharpened edge fastened to his wing, down on the rope Applejack had previously ensnared him with.
Rainbow Dash’s pose became one of confidence. “Well, seeing as I spent all that time you have been resting and getting some tender loving care from Fluttershy, I have been setting up this daredevil of a course.” she commented proudly. “I think you should have.... say.... a day to get back into flight shape, unless you want to just pronounce me your aerial superior right now.”
Cloud open his wings and stretched them out to show their oddly above average length. “I will have to disagree. We fly tomorrow, unless you need to recuperate from setting up whatever is in store.” Everypony gasped at what Cloud had said. He had been bedridden for over a week! On the other hand, Rainbow has been keeping in shape and building muscle by setting it all up. What chance did he have?
This did not sit well with Rainbow. All optimism the cocky mare had was flushed, and instead is replaced with confusion. “Well then! Fine, let’s meet at the Ghastly Gorge!” She said before jumping into the air and hovering in front of Cloud. “Sunrise. Do not be late..... any of you!” she said before flying off in a rainbow blur. With that, they all went their separate ways, except Cloud and Twilight, who remained in the field.
Twilight looked over at Cloud, displeased. “Only a day to train? This is beyond reckless! You have until the morning tomorrow. ”
“I have it under control.” Cloud said.
“What about a place to stay!?” she snipped.
“Don't need one.” he replied “Never did, never will.“
Twilight put her hoof to her forehead. “Ugh, do you want to end up bedridden again?” That’s when something hit her. “Wait... you don’t mean to lose? Do you actually want to end up living here?”
Cloud scoffed. “Not a chance. I would go insane if i had to live in one place. And with you, trying to make me your friend.” He looked toward the sky before giving his wings a mighty flap, lifting him up. “I may have been down for a while, but that does not mean I am not still primed.” With that, he left twilight alone in the now-barren field.
⁂⁂⁂
The day had come, and passed, it was now the morning of the race. Cloud flew in, lead over by Rainbow Dash. Cloud surveyed the area. The gorge was a narrow crevice in the rock face. Flying it would be treacherous, which got Cloud to thinking... ‘maybe this would be a fight after all!’ As Cloud looked it over, he saw a strange glint and flew in. Large rings were set into the crevice side, kind of like flight training hoops, except slightly smaller. “Ah, I see! A race not just about speed. Very interesting.” He said to himself as he flew over to where Rainbow Dash had now been waiting with Twilight. “So its just us here then?” Cloud asked.
Twilight pointed over to a tower nearby overlooking the canyon. “Everyone is seated over there where they can have a good view. Its not as fun just waiting at the finish line.” She then cleared her throat. “Now Dash asked me to monitor this event. So I shall be going over the first event and its rules.”
“Wait!?” Cloud yelped, “first.... event? You mean there will be more than one?”
Rainbow Dash turned to Cloud, a fire set in her eyes. “Why? Can't handle multiple events?” She stood up tall and puffed out her chest. “I will have you know, I could do more events than anypony ever could!”
Cloud looked around Rainbow, who had jumped between him and Twilight. “Alright, so how many events are we talking about?”
Twilight nodded to cloud, to acknowledge his question. “There will be a total of five events focusing on different key attributes that top notch pegasi must exhibit...”
“Which I possess all of!” Dash said, cutting in.
Twilight shot Rainbow Dash a dirty glare and continued “... such as precision, power, control, acceleration, and speed. The first event focuses on precision.” Her horn glowed purple and a map appeared on the ground in front of them. “The challenge consists of flying through rings which have been tailored to be slightly too small for the average wingspan of pegasi.” She put her hoof down on the map. “This will be the start point of the race,” she scrolled her hoof over a long section of the map, “and this shall be the finish. In all the length will be one kilometer” Twilight's horn glowed again, a drawing of a small section of the course appeared beside the map. “Now as you can see from this, both racers will be making use of the same hoops. So the rules will be as follows; The leader of the race MUST fly through the rings. The person tailing does not. This is to allow for passing. You may not pass the leader over a ring they have yet to enter. If they have entered the ring, you may pass over, in becoming the leader, having taken the lead, you would then have to fly though the rings.”
Cloud nodded as they went over the rules. “Seems fair so far, and what about penalties?” He asked, knowing they were next.
“Penalties are given for the following; failure to pass through a ring, touching the ring itself, and touching the lead racer. Each will be given a time penalty allowing the other racer to get ahead.” Twilight looked at the two. “There will also be a penalty for a false start. That is all, so make your way over to the start and wait for the signal, which will be this banner dropping.” She said before making her way to the stands.
Rainbow Dash and Cloud flew over to where a long checkered banner hung. Two platforms stood side by side for both to take their starting stance upon. Rainbow Dash and Cloud took their positions, both focusing ahead. “I hope you are ready to taste tail!” Rainbow Dash said cockily to Cloud, swishing her tail as she said it.
Just as she finished, the starting banner started to glow purple, signifying the start of the race was just about to begin. Rainbow Dash jumped forward, to which a loud voice boomed from the stands “FALSE START!” A purple light engulfed Rainbow Dash, freezing her movement as if she had been frozen in time.
The banner dropped, but Cloud kept on his mark, keeping his eye on Rainbow Dash.
‘What is Cloud doing?’ Twilight thought, as she watched from the stands. ‘Now that would have been the best time for him to have taken his lead!’
Just as the magic around Rainbow started to fade, Cloud jumped. Taking the lead in the race he flew through the first hoop, but thanks to Cloud’s wait Dash was not far behind. Although the penalty only causes a 100 millisecond delay it would have still given Cloud a large starting lead.
As Cloud came up to the second ring he measured it as best he could by eye, adjusting his wingspan just enough that there was no room between them and the inner area of the ring. Unfortunately for Cloud he had a largely above average wingspan making these rings quite cramped for him. Even so he flew though. The first section was easy, straight with not much of a curve. Cloud kept his lead throughout this area,l which consisted of 10 more rings. Rainbow Dash found herself flying through the rings behind Cloud, thanks to how straight it was, there was no benefit to flying outside.
Upon reaching the last ring Cloud found that without warning there was a steep drop through a ring which he would have to pass vertically. He directed his wing downward, and rather than risk his wings pulling him off course he folded them tight, allowing him to drop like a stone through the hoop. Upon passing through he opened his wings again and curved his trajectory toward the next ring. The next ring was back on the same level that the rings were originally, so he timed his curve though the bottom ring to allow him to continue to the higher one, but was met by rainbow dash flying next to him when he passed through. She had foregone the drop and flew right to the next hoop to catch up, but still remained behind even though they were neck and neck, she had not officially passed him. ‘Clever.’ Cloud thought
The next hoop would take cloud toward a sharp right turn, which in turn made his path right through Rainbow Dash, but he could not cut across without taking on a penalty, and if she went through the next hoop she would then be considered in the lead. Cloud dropped his altitude, closed this right wing slightly and gave his left a strong flap before curving both wings around his body in a spiral. Rolling himself under Rainbow Dash without losing momentum. He expanded his wings to full extent as they reached the ring, Cloud made it through the ring. Clink! He looked back in horror, to see a notch was left in the ring on the left side, his maneuver, while impressive forced him to curve inward. His body was engulfed in purple magic.
⁂⁂⁂
Cloud sat looking down with a disappointed look on his face. Rainbow dash towered over him triumphantly. “Not everypony can have as much agility as I do!” she said digging her hooves in the ground in a show of victory.
Cloud squint his eyes. When twilight trotted her way over to the two cloud asked dryly “What is the next event?” Although he did not mean it, his voice snapped at her.
Twilight flinched at her reception. “Strength!” She replied. Pinkie and Rarity walked up beside Twilight, obviously wanting it to look well timed. “This event focuses on not only strength but speed while carrying excessive weight, being Pinkie Pie and Rarity”
Rarity stamped her hoof in protest. “I do not have any excessive weight! I will have you know I keep my figure lean and shapely” She turned her head up and away in displeasure.
Pinkie hopped around in excitement before snorting out a laugh. “We are going to ride you all the way there!” Pinkie hopped on over to Rainbow Dash and put a harness on her.
“What is this for?” She asked, “I thought we were just going to... put them on our backs.” Dash said in a confused tone.
Twilight nodded. “I thought that a harness with a net attached that a pony could ride in would cause less complications while flying. This way nopony blocks wing movement, do you not agree with that?”
“I guess,” Rainbow said in disappointment. “I thought it would be cooler if they hung on from out back, like a action packed book of Daring Doo”
Rarity thought over this for a second before jumping over onto Cloud’s back. “No way am i getting in a net!” She said as she primped her mane. “Crosshatched fur is sooo last century.” Cloud sighed, he feared that this would be his life going on if he lost this race. “Besides, I want my hero to look as heroic as possible, and that harness is just so, ech, industrial” Rarity continued before embracing Cloud tightly.
‘She is going to kill me i know it’ Cloud thought, as Rarity's act of endearment squeezed the wind out of him.
Twilight smiled pleasantly. ‘It is so nice to see Cloud warming up to everyone!’ She thought before continuing with her role. “This race will span ten kilometers, this will be to show that not only are you a strong flier, but you also have the endurance to continue using that strength.”
Cloud nodded, and like before asked about any penalties. Twilight nodded “The penalties are as follows; If you drop your ward, do not worry i will use my magic to stop their descent, but you must pick them up again, which will take time in itself. No attacking the other racers, that will result in disqualification. Finally, the race must take place in the gorge, not over. Is this all understood?” Twilight asked the two.
Cloud and Rainbow Dash nodded. Twilight informed them that they had ten minutes to prepare before making it to the new start line.