Rainbow Dash was soaring near her top speed, the finish line was in her sight. She chanced a glance over her shoulder to see if anypony had even come close to keeping up with her. To her surprise, the dark blue male Pegasus that hadn't said a word at the start of the race, was hot on her hooves, and not about to give up without a fight. Rainbow Dash pushed herself to the limit and put everything she had into a final push. She shot across the finish line with the blue stallion right behind her.
“Wow, you nearly had me there!” Rainbow Dash walked over to shake hooves with the stallion that could keep up with her.
He grunted, and walked away, obviously angered at his lost.
“Well excuse me. You should expect to lose with that kinda attitude!”
Fluttershy met Rainbow Dash at the finish line to congratulate her. “Rainbow Dash you were awesome.”
Rainbow Dash forgot about the sore loser upon hearing praise. “I know, right? I was going so fast, I'm surprised Mr. Grumpy over there could keep up.”
Fluttershy looked at the now flying away second place Pegasus. “Oh, shouldn't he stay for his second place medal? He did so well.”
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Let him go, there's no helping a sore loser.”
Rainbow Dash stood through the ceremony impatiently awaiting her third first place ribbon in the tournament she had been participating in for a month now. Only the top three racers from each race got to compete in the next race in the series. Rainbow Dash was on her way to a flawless victory. She smiled proudly as they pinned the ribbon on her and the crowd cheered.
Being the semi-finals, all of her friends had decided to attend. She flew down to meet them before they left back to Ponyville. “Hey guys! What did you think? Was I awesome, or was I awesome?”
There was a general murmur of agreement accompanied by the shaking of several heads. Pinkie Pie couldn't help but to express herself. “OH WOW! YOU WERE GREAT! At first, you kinda fell behind cause that one meany knocked you to the side. But you got up so quick. Then, right there at the end, that blue guy was about to catch you and you were like NOPE! And just sailed straight through the finish line like it was nothing!”
Rarity nodded. “Indeed, you did give us a show Rainbow Dash, but that stallion that got second came dangerously close to catching you there in the end. You might have to look out for him in the next race.”
Rainbow Dash laughed. “What? HIM?! Nah, I beat him no sweat. I've never even seen him before, and I know like, all the major racers.”
Twilight shook her head and levitated some paper from her saddlebags. “Actually Rainbow, it says here that he's been absolutely dominating his races like you. This is the only of his three races that he hasn't got first in.”
“You mean like me? Except I did get first in this race?”
Twilight rolled her eyes at Rainbow Dash. “I'm just trying to say if you've never heard of him, why is he so good?”
“I don't know, maybe he is from some far off town I've never heard of or something. Where did he go to flight school anyways?”
Twilight looked down at her papers. They contained all the bios on each of the racers. “Well you won't believe this, but he went to Clousdale with you. As a matter of fact both of your pages specifically mention that both of you went at the same time, since both of you are doing so well. They are calling you guys school rivals.”
“What? Let me see that!” Rainbow Dash snatched the papers from the air and began reading over them. Twilight wasn't lying. She read through and stopped and starred when she saw the stallions name. Her face got a confused look on it, then it got slightly angry.
Twilight looked concerned. “What's wrong Dash?”
Rainbow Dash tossed Twilight's papers off to the side, scattering them before they fell through the clouds they were standing on. “I need to go talk to someone.”
Twilight watched as the last of her paper sank into the clouds. “Hey, I had to pay for those!”
Rainbow Dash ignored her and went rocketing off in the direction of the second place winner of the semi-finals of Equestrian Grand Race.
She quickly caught up with him. He wasn't going nearly as fast as he was in the race, then again, who would? He looked upset and was actually flying exceedingly slow. As Rainbow Dash caught up she yelled ahead to catch his attention. “Hey! Streaky! I wanna talk to ya!”
He turned his head to see her following him and grimaced a little. He looked around and spied a nearby cloud and landed on it. Rainbow Dash landed seconds after. “Hey Streaky, I didn't recognize you in the race but my...”
He cut her off. “I told you in flight school not to call me that. My name is Fast Streak.”
“Yeah, I remember you wanting me to call you that now. Okay anyway, I wanted to catch up, see how you've been.”
He eyed her coldly. “Listen Dash, I don't care about catching up. Flight school was an unpleasant time, and you are a big reminder of how much I hated it.”
“Yeah, those bullies gave you about as rough a time as they did me most days. That's kinda why I'm here though Strea... I mean Fast Streak. You seem to have gotten a lot faster since flight school, I mean A LOT faster.”
Streaky shifted his weight to his left hooves and glanced off to his left. “Yeah, I've been training real hard, working my way towards this.”
Rainbow Dash glanced at his cutie mark. It was the all too common storm cloud with a lightning bolt. “I see you found your place as a weather pony. So, what are you doing working so hard for this tournament?”
He looked her in the eyes intensely. “I'm doing this to prove to myself that I can, to prove to all those bullies back in flight school that I could be fast too. And in three days when I take first place, they will all see.”
Rainbow Dash eyed him. “So what kinda training have you been doing that has given you such dramatic results? I mean, no offense, but you were one of the slowest in flight school, and now...”
He glared at her. “You're just like them, you may not have called me names, but you still thought the same things. 'Look at Slow Streak, he's so slow a snail could beat him!' Well at the finals I'll show you too, you don't stand a chance!” He leapt up and hovered in the air. “See you at the finish line!” At that, he flew off in a burst of speed, his anger fueling his adrenalin.
Rainbow Dash stared at him as he faded into the distance, wondering what old Streaky could be up to. She knew he was smart, but he was never fast. So what could he possibly be doing to give him all his new found speed. She thought about this all the way home.
When she got there, Fluttershy was waiting just inside the door. “Oh hey Dash, I uh, when you flew off everyone got worried about you, so they asked if I could wait up for you and make sure you were OK.”
Rainbow Dash smiled a little. “Yeah I'm fine Fluttershy, don't worry.”
“Oh... Then why did you fly off in such a hurry?”
“That racer that got second was Streaky.”
Fluttershy cocked her head in confusion. “Streaky? But, he was the only pony I ever thought I had a chance to out fly. The poor guy was nearly as slow as me, and about as coordinated as you were.”
Rainbow Dash gave Fluttershy an annoyed stare. She smiled sheepishly. “Well what I meant was...”
Rainbow Dash held up her hoof. “I know, I was bad back then. They didn't call me Rainbow Crash for nothing. Anyway, I never thought I would see Streaky go even half as fast as he did today. It just doesn't make sense.”
“What are you thinking, Rainbow Dash?”
“I don't wanna call him a cheater, but something doesn't feel right here.”
“How do you cheat at a race?”
“You use magic. It's about the only thing against the rules past purposely injuring another racer.”
“So you think he has a Unicorn helping him?”
“Maybe, but how to prove it?”
“Maybe Twilight can help, she knows a lot about magic.”
Rainbow Dash smiled. “Yeah! That's good thinking Fluttershy! I'll use magic to fight magic. If he is cheating, Twilight will bust him for sure.” Rainbow Dash gave Fluttershy a brief hug. “Well I'm gonna go to bed Fluttershy, I'll go talk to Twilight in the morning. Night!”
“Good night Dash.”